Trying to do Red Buttercream for Elmo - not working help any tips....
PLEASE

Red is such a funny color, it seemed like I could put a whole bottle of red coloring and it will still be sort of pinkish.

This is going to sound strange but I discovered when I want a nice dark red color in my icing I add just a drop or two of blue or black food coloring with the red.

The first time I tried it I thought for sure I was going to get purple but it came out a nice dark red and I didn't have to use as much red coloring. hth

I have to do the same by adding a bit of black to the red to get a true red. Someone eplained to me why and had to do with the white frosting base is why red wont come out true, where as adding a dark cancels out the white prism to make red come through, it was one those lectures you just go Uh huh, ok.

Use the Americolor red and let it sit for a few hours to let the color deepen.

What food colors are you using? I use Americolor and if I want red, I add red until I get it red and let it sit overnight. It will turn a dark red. Black and any dark color works the same way, let it sit overnight and the colors will deepen, that's for buttercream or fondant, both work the same.

In my photos, is a 2 tier red cake with red peonies. We're not talking apple red, we're talking almost burgundy. I got about 10 lbs of fondant and gumpaste colored that red. It was for a contest and I was trying to match colors. I went through about 8 oz. of Americolor super red to get that color but, believe me, it can be done.

you can also start with pink so you don't have to use so much red.

Any color will darken over time - let it sit til next day

Try using the Wilton Candy Colors Red, you will have better results using that instead of the gels, I have my students do this and it works everytime.

the cake shop I buy from sell little pots of red powder, they reckon you can't get a true red with the gel colour alone. apparently they add the powder to some water and boil it for a bit. Then they use BOTH the gel and the mixture they made out of powder. I've never bought any so can't give any more detail than that, but their reds are amazing, and taste good.

When I made an elmo cake 1 batch (1 lb) of bc required 1.5 jars of the wilton red red gel. I'm still trying to get the food coloring out of my tupperware, but Elmo was red!