I'm new to this site and the warning in the upper left hand corner about the site being addictive is so true! I can't get enough. I'm a newbie, been decorating cakes for family and friends for a few years and it seems like my 'hobby' is taking over my life, but I love it. Anyway, I went to a wedding this weekend and, of course, I had to check out the cake as soon as I got there (I did not make the cake). I saw a little card next to the cake showing that the cake came from "THE" place to get wedding cakes in our area. I was anxious to taste it. It looked beautiful, three tiers, one square, one heart and one round. The cakes were iced in white with BRIGHT RED cornelli lace. My first thought was, wow...that's gonna taste like you know what. The worst part, however, turned out to be when the bride and groom cut the cake and the groom proceeded to really smash a piece, cornelli lace first, into the brides face. Her face was bright red from the dye. They laughed, posed for pictures, etc. and in the meantime this red dye is still on her face. By the time she got around to wiping her face with napkins, it was too late, her face was stained pink from the dye! She eventually went to the restroom and washed her face (and all her make up) with soap and water but when she came out, her face was still stained pink. They served the cake and sure enough, it tasted awful! All you could taste was that bitter red dye. So glad it wasn't mine; to think that she actually paid some big bucks for that cake is really sad.

How terrible! I personally hate the shoving of cake in each other's face tradition! I mean really, I could've eaten that!

I also hate the 'cake shoving'!

When my GD got married recently, I told her groom "See that chocolate groom's cake over there? If you shove the wedding cake in her face, I THROW the groom's cake at you!!!!" Needless to say, he very "gently" fed her her piece of cake looking at me the whole time.

I always new there was a "real reason" for having a groom's cake

I just wanted to say that just because the red was a bright red doesn't automatically mean that it's going to taste bad. I use deep reds all the time and they don't taste bad.

Oh, and I HATE the cake-shoving thing too. I feel bad for that poor bride who was stained pink! AND the cake tasted horrible?! Wow. I wonder if she'll complain to the cake company about it.

I have only ever used the Wilton red and and it seemed like you had to use so much to get a nice deep red and the more color you used, the more bitter the icing tasted. What brand of color do you use?

someone told me powdered color is the best to get intense red without compromising the taste, as a teeny weeny red powder goes a long way.

Does the powdered color work as well for buttercream, or fondant? I am sooo unsatisfied with red gel in my buttercream...looks like a kinda red hot pink, never seriously red.

Americolor super red is the GREATEST for no taste. It will stain like all dark colors though.

As far as the color I've never seen a prettier red, the longer it sits the darker it gets with less usage of color. Try it you'll LOVE it!!!! The CC family turned me on to Super Red and Super Black Americolor, I'll NEVER go back!!!!!!!!!!

Wilton does make a no taste red, but I switched to Americolor - love it!

Thanks! That's what I love about this site, you learn something new all the time. Thanks for sharing!