I have a problem with high intensity colored buttercream/ decorating icing!!!
I buy Wilton gel paste food colorings and it won't ever turn red. I bought red-red and Christmas red but my icing is still pink and it's only about three cups of icing with an entire bottle f color. What am I doing wrong?!???
It also happens with black but right now red is a huge problem and I need it asap!
Please help me cake experts
If you have a cake supply shop nearby, you might want to consider using Americolor Super Red (or Red-Red..can't remember what it's called exactly). That's all I use if I want to get a good red color because the Wilton stuff doesn't get red enough for me.
You may also want to let it sit for 30 minutes to see if the color deepens any. A lot of those deep colors get deeper as they sit.
Hope this helps.
agree with aggiechef, I don't use Wilton for red, it will never get real red. I bought 2 huge bottles of Americolor red and a little goes a long way to a true red
I know this is going to sound totally weird, but...
Start with pink BC. Yes pink, I know, my EXACT response to this comment originally was..."Pink is just light red, if you add red to white you get pink so then you have to add more red to get red? Isn't that the same as adding tons of red which I was trying to avoid in the first place"?
No.
Use pink coloring to get a good pink color.
Then when you add the red you won't need half as much.
Trust me.
I got this tip from a baker, who, when she told me I thought she was CRAZY! Turns out she's a GENIUS!!!
Meowmix...to get a true black, start with chocolate icing. You will only have to add a little bit of black color and it'll be very dark. Plus it will taste like chocolate and it won't turn teeth gray! I also use Americolor brand. It seems to have more pigment than Wilton.
I have also tried the powdered food colorings. They work pretty good, and I love that they are dry and don't dilute the consitency too much.
i also bought the powdered americolor red, used the entire jar and only have pink icing. i am very disappointed as i needed a red cake for sunday and only have a dark pink buttercream. i can't buy more powder as i had to buy online. my only hope is that the wilton will deepen it enough. and i doubt it since i used half a jar of the wilton red red and christmas along with the powder 
I use Bakery Crafts Squeeze gel color "super Red". it comes in a large bottle (I think 13 oz?). Works GREAT! I only need a few drops and it comes out red.
Note: the other day I thought I'd be "smart" and put in some wilton white-white in my glace and then add red. This did NOT work! I got a strange orange/pink color... eeewww...
HTH
TammyH
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