I am getting ready to attempt my first FBCT. It's for a cake that I'm doing for April 24th so I want to practice a few before hand. My question is about coloring. I am doing the Louisville Cardinals logo which contains quite a bit of black and red. I know that black and red taste very bad. I currently have in route to me a bottle of each from Americolor. Will these not be as bad as the Wilton ones? Or is there anything I can add to make it not taste as bad?

I prefer Americolor over Wilton, so you're on the right track with your icing. For black, I normally start with a chocolate icing. It then takes a much smaller amount of black to achieve the color I need. For red, I use the Super Red. I've not had a problem with a bitter taste. HTH

Cris

Americolors rock! You will like them. Nothing close to the Wilton stuff. I am starting to think someone has sabotaged the wilton line on purpose in the flavor department at least. The fondant is practically poinonous and the color jels make icing taste bitter and gross.

I have heard that if you add a little salt that it will help with the bitterness. The catch to it is to make your icing a day or two in advance, let it sit. You will see some pitting (comes from the salt not incorporating) and then stir it up again and then decorate as usual

I have never used americlors but I agree that for black you need to start with chocolate and use a no taste red. HTH

Thanks everyone! I did forget to mention that I was gonna use a chocolate BC to start with so I should be good.

So now......anyone got an awesome chocolate bc recipe? The one I have you just add melted chocolate chips and I don't care for it too much.

I just use cocoa powder about 8 tbsp for 2 lbs powder sugar and I subtract the same amount of sugar that i use in cocoa powder. That way it doesn't get to stiff.