I recently did a Canada Day cake (see avatar) and my icing turned out really red. I used Wilton No Taste Red...a whole 1oz jar. It still looked dark pink in the bowl and I was about to give up and just have a pink Canada flag instead, but when I started to put it on the cake, it looked very red and turned out really well.
I was told by my wilton instructor to
add a "shit load" of no taste red
then add "regular" red to finish it off.
I am making a spiderman cake. I was told to colour the one cup needed to basically use almost 3/4 of the bottle of no taste, leave it for at least 48 hours and then add the "spiderman red" to finish it off.
Americolor Super Red is the only way to go. Doesn't take much to go from white to deep red -- if you let it sit mixed overnight it gets really dark.
Lisanne
I use Americolor Super Red. After trying so many of the Wilton Red combinations and still ending up with a hot pink, no matter how many bottles of No Taste Red I would use, I finally tryed Americolor Super Red and couldn't believe how easy and quickly it turned Red. And I love the squeeze bottles-NO MESS!!!
Where can you find the AmeriColor? In all the stores I've been I have only seen the Wilton brands (or the little bottles that you get in the supermarket by McCorrmick). Do you have to order it online?
baker2699: I did the koolaid trick for my Nephews b-day. I just took a cup of regular BC and added a packet of cherry koolaide (regular) then added a little no-taste red. It was really dark red but did taste fruity (like a sweet tart). Kids loved it and it wasn't too bad with the regualr BC surrounding the red parts, but most the adults avoided it. 
Hi there, I start with a pink base and from there I add the red. I also let it sit overnight. I've done it with Wilton's and Americolor and both worked. And YES, as everybody has already said, Americolor takes less amount of gel than Wilton's. Good luck!
The Kool aid makes a tart icing. I didn't taste any fruit ... just tart. I don't think I'd do it that way again. The key to making a very red red is not to dye too much icing at once. Try to just dye as much as you will need... and remember what looks dark pink today will look red tomorrow.
As I said early this week......
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-36930.html
I got a really nice red by using the Spiderman red color that comes with the spiderman Wilton color kit. ( you know how they have the colors for certain character cakes?) I was very surprised how little I had to use to get it so red. The red/white/blue cake in my photos was done using this.
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