I am new to cake decorating. Just finished my 3rd wilton class in the first phase. I am having trouble getting good colors with the wilton icing. I tried to make red with no taste red and it came out just like my petal rose. Any suggestions?

Or how do you get a good red from Christmas red? It turns out hot pink the more you add to white icing. Thanks!

You didn't happen to mix the lids and colors up, did you? One of the ladies in my class did that. As for getting the colors. I find that when I want deeper colors, I mix in the paste coloring until it's maybe a shade or two lighter than I actually want and let them sit in a covered container overnight. The longer you let the colors "mesh" the darker they will be.

Debbi

I definitely recommend tinting the icing then letting them sit for while. I've made many a cake where I put the icing on immediately after tinting and it came out much darker than I wanted. This usually happens on baby shower cakes where I want a lighter/pastel shade and it comes out too dark. It happened with a 'knitted sweater and booties' cake that I made for a coworker's shower. I was going for light pink and by the time the color darkened (after I had already decorated the cake) it was almost hot pink.

It can be hard to get a darker red or black. I use wilton pastes but I find that it tends to cause the icing to separate a bit if I use a lot to get a darker color. Does anyone have any suggestions for different tinting agents?

If you want a really good red, use Americolor. Their coloring is the only one I will use now.... The red is really easy to get red and black is another color that is very hard to get... both are easily achieved with Americolor.... with Wilton, you have to use so much red your icing will have a bad taste ... also, another tip; mix your colors, let them sit overnight in a cover, airtight sealed bowl... they will darken overnight

I was wondering where you buy your americolor , I am in Canada and have never seen that brand. I use Wilton but as you have mentioned it is hard to get a nice true red.

kind of a simple trick: tint less icing. i used to have a tendency to too-generously portion out my frosting for tinting, and would end up having to use a tremendous amount of colour. if i'm just doing borders or roses, i try to limit my tinting to no more than 1 cup at a time, and usually half that for green when doing leaves and such (i use little bowls for portioning and mixing the colours).

and definitely let the icing sit: it really will darken and become more intense (be sure to stir before using to knock out air bubbles).

I am always reluctant to put my two cents in because I feel you all have so much more experience. But . . . if you use the Wilton NO Taste Red it does not change the flavor too much. And it takes quite a bit, maybe half a bottle or more depending on how much icing you are tinting.

Also you can get use the No Taste Red and get it almost as dark as you want then try using a little Cake Craft's Chinese Red to darken it to the red red everyone wants. Have not done this often enough to tell you it really works but it was recommended to me.

Americolor is awesome. I threw out all my wilton, and CK you can tell the differance and no bledding of color for me.

here is the link to americolor so you can see what they have


http://www.americolorcorp.com/

Can purchase at:

go about half way down, you are better buy the set of americolor it just takes a little.

http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/minicake.aspx?T=1&SubCatId=1053


sugarcraft.com

Thanks Leana I will check out that site.. I am really limited as to what I can find up here so if i can order it online it will be great.. Thanks again for the info.
Liz

Oh my gosh, I am looking at the site you listed for the americana colors and the Country Kitchen site. I want to order everything..LOL
I've never used luster dusts but they look wonderful and I'd love to try them..I can see this is gonna cost me.. Thanks Leana .

Start with using pink icing color. If you use Wilton's Rose icing color you can get a deep pink, then to that you can add your red red or no taste red. Red is hard to get because you have to go through all the pink shades to get there. If you start with a dark pink it takes less to get there.

Also as was suggested, make it the night before because colors do darken up the longer they sit.