Hey Tipsters,
What is the easiest way to get a deep/bright red and deep black color?
Thanks!
Depends on if youre talking about fondant or buttercream. I can get a good deep red in either one with a paste gel. You can also use powdered color to get a good red or black in buttercream. I have to admit that if I want a super dark black fondant, I buy satin ice. Good luck!!
butter cream or fondant?
I found to achieve red use a load of it ...and I used a bit of other shades to get there
for black fondant, start with making the mmf with some cocoa and then a crap load of black and it will get darker as it sits...hth
With Americolor brand soft gel pastes, Super Red and Super Black. Americolor seems to be more concentrated requiring much less color in order to acheive deep dark shades. No aftertaste either. If you can't find them at a local cake decorating store, you can find them at many places online. 
ok I had to use an entire bottle of super red and I still don't have red, and it was americolor....grrrrr...I also added christmas red this is horrible..................my elmo is not going to be the right color.....now what do I do??? I accidently made a double batch of bc and not thinking I started to color it red(duh) so not even a whole bottle was enough........is there a secret what to add to actuallt get red.........I tried this last week and no problem............makes me so %^$%^&&
it finally turned red...........that was a nail biter....hope it doesn't taste disgusting now ugh
If you're using gel colors to make red buttercream, you do have to let it sit awhile before the full color is achieved. What works for me is to make a batch of red buttercream using supermarket red liquid food color or red airbrush color in place of the liquid called for in the buttercream recipe. Takes very little gel color to get the red shade I want after that.... For black buttercream, start with chocolate icing and add black gel color.
For premade fondant, you either have to buy it colored or use a whole lot of coloring. With homemade fondant, you add the color during the mixing process.
HTH!
Don't forget color has to sit for a while before it truly comes to life. You can have a charcoal grey and if it sits for a few hours it will turn black, red for me seems to work the same way. I never expect to get red or black immediately. I let it sit and then if I need to adjust I can.
For black, I buy the wilton tubes because I don't use very much. If I need a lot I start with choc buttercream made with dutch processed cocoa which is darker than regular cocoa. For red, I would rather buy the little tubes but that would be a ton for an Elmo. Hope it comes together well.
If you're using gel colors to make red buttercream, you do have to let it sit awhile before the full color is achieved. What works for me is to make a batch of red buttercream using supermarket red liquid food color or red airbrush color in place of the liquid called for in the buttercream recipe. Takes very little gel color to get the red shade I want after that.... For black buttercream, start with chocolate icing and add black gel color.
For premade fondant, you either have to buy it colored or use a whole lot of coloring. With homemade fondant, you add the color during the mixing process.
HTH!
OR you use chefmaster and don't have to color a whole batch red/black, don't have to start with chocolate, and don't have to let it set to intensify. I color my purchased fondant (for accents) the same way with no problems. If I were covering a whole cake with black/red I would purchase it already colored.
I don't have problems making small amounts, with wilton colors and letting it sit to darken up. It just takes more color paste that you think.
I have yet to do a whole cake in really dark colored buttercream and will avoid it as long as I can, so the small amounts are as much of it as a I make.
With red you can start with pink and add red to it. And with black you can start with chocolate icing and add the black coloring to it.
I had some students that tried something at home and told me that they used the liquid food coloring (the bottle you buy in the grocery store by McCormic I think) in place of the water in the recipe. They got a really pretty red. So if you did need a large batch that would be an idea to try.
well it finally got red.........you can see in my pics, the elmo...thank so much...I was tired and accidently put the red in my double batch f bc ugh.....so then I really had a heck of a time getting red...........I don't know what I can do with all the red bc I have lol
One tip I use to get black is that I save all the little bits of icings that are leftovers in one bowl in the frig. When I need black, I mix that up and just add a little bit of black color to it. It doesn't take much of the color doing it this way, and I don't waste the little bits of the other colors either.
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