I am making a cake in the shape of texas with the colors of the flag - red, white and blue. The red is not red enough, and the blue is not blue enough... I tried making pink first, then adding red. Used a lot of no-taste red, and it's not helping. I also can't get the blue dark enough, I added a touch of black and it is taking away from the brightness so I'm afraid to add more. PLEASE HELP - I HAVE TO FINISH TONIGHT!

Here's the help for the red. I tried it and it does work. As for the blue, maybe someone else can chime in. HTH GL

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-357113-red.html+duff

I have found that if you start coloring your icing in small batches, you get darker colors. Start with 1/2-1 cup of icing, I am assuming buttercream. Add a little more icing and more color gradually. HTH

thanks for the advice. unfortunately i don't have enough eggs to make more buttercream so i'm not sure i can try either of the suggestions... maybe i'll take a little of the "red" i have now and add some yellow and orange. come to think of it, i don't think i have orange. isn't that made from red & yellow? ugh...i'm starting to freak out! seriously, if the colors are off, should i give her something off the price??

Oh this is easy. Red and blue are both colors that dry MUCH darker than the icing looks. To see what I mean, just take a bit of your red and blue and put them on a something white and let them sit an hour or so. Icing that has been colored with royal blue will look baby blue but turn royal once it crusts. The same is true for no taste red, the icing looks a dark pink but dries red. Now you do need to add lots and lots of color (especially the red) but these colors seem to reach a point where adding more color doesn't make a difference. When your cake dries overnight you will have the colors you want.

Definitely do not add black. You may have to toss the icing that you added the black to.

Hope this helps.