I am making a 40th anniversary cake for my neighbors this weekend and since the color for a 40th is red we decided to put red roses on it. Well, they love chocolate and really want it frosted in chocolate buttercream and asked me if I thought it would look okay with the red roses. I am torn. I have been standing here for an hour staring at a piece of my red MMF holding it up to some brown trying to decide. At first I thought maybe it would look too dark but now I am thinking it may look nice and it would be different. So you know the red is a nice deep red color not a bright red like an elmo or firetruck red but more of a deep burgundy red like what real roses would be. Any opinions are appreciated!!!

Go for a color closer to bittersweet chocolate and make sure anything you do in chocolate( piping, painting, accents) matches in shade. I have seen some really fantastic designs that don't flow because the chocolate colors are all over the place. A lighter or darker piping and accents can really play up a cake but not if they don't match each other.

I would do those bright red roses and dust the roses super lightly-all over and then more heavily on the edges with the darker burgundy dust to really give them a natural depth.

there was an AWESOME cake that Wilton had in an old magazine I think 2004 or 2003? Well the cake was all chocolate with chocolate truffles everywhere. and they had put these dark red roses, real ones. but I think a deep red will look real nice. as long as the tones are the same, you can match whichever colors you want.

I think the brown with the red roses will be beautiful. Kind of gives a fall feel. And since fall is officially less than a week away the colors should go well together.

I think that would be a very classy combination. I had a 40th anniversary cake (Ruby Anniversary) this summer and they wanted white on white with a huge rd bow on top.

I almost went crazy trying to get that red fondant to 'tone down' and become a beautiful rich garnet color. There is a fine line between red and burgundy.
Can't wait to see the finished product!

I think it goes. Think of strawberries dipped in chocolate.

LOVE the color scheme of a pretty dark brown with red. Brown looks really nice with a lot of colors actually.

I think it will go great! I like the "chocolate covered strawberry" comment. Good Luck!

I think it will look fine. My personal preference is with a darker chocolate with the roses as well.

Here are some pics I found to help you visualize:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1293457
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=338933
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1394073
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1181897
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=23819
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=462433

Thanks so much to everyone for your opinions and advice. I am going for it and am actually now really excited about this cake!

I have a question related to this..
After looking at the photos posted by xstitcher to illustrate what this cake might look like, (all gorgeous cakes, I might add), I got to thinking I am doing something wrong. My chocolate buttercream (which OP said is what they wanted) is a much lighter color than the ones posted here. The taste of my CBC is very chocolatey, but the color is much lighter. I would be afraid to add more chocolate to it for fear of it being overpowering. Is chocolate BC really that dark?

Some of the cakes in the pictures are covered in chocolate fondant not buttercream. As far as the color of the buttercream I think it would depend on your cocoa. King Arthur flour sells a nice black cocoa powder that can be combined with a dutch cocoa powder to achieve the color brown you would like. Actually whenever I need large quantities of black icing, especially at Halloween I just use the black cocoa powder instead of black food coloring. You would only need a little added to your regular cocoa powder to get a deep brown shade. Hope that helps!

smf-tls... The King Arthur black cocoa powder, if used by itself would it make black buttercream?
I have a birthday cake to make for my stepdaughter and she wants black chocolate BC but I hate to use too much food coloring. Does it make a decent shade of black?

Yes, the black cocoa powder will make a pitch black chocolate buttercream. Each year we have a pumpkin decorating party for my daughter and I always do a couple of different kinds of cupcakes. Given its Halloween I always need black and this is my go to solution for getting a nice pitch black without all that coloring. In fact, I need to get my order in for another bag of it for this years party asap!

I agree with the others. I think the colors will go together beautifully. You could even add a touch of gold or silver trim to add to the elegance.

Where do you purchase it from? Obviously, it's a special order item.

Can the king arthur be purchased at grocery stores or only online? Thanks

I have only seen it and ordered it on-line.