Okay cakers...I have a super simple question that I can only seem to find threads with no conclusive answer to.

I am making a gender surprise party cake. I need to make a pastel/baby pink vanilla cake. For those of you who have done this before:

Is it best to use red (very sparingly of course), or pink to achieve a pretty pastel pink in the batter?

If pink, what shade do you recommend to get to a baby pink in the batter.

Can you tell I've never colored batter accept RV???

I had a wedding cake this way. Bride wanted pink cake but didn't want flavored (cherry or strawberry). I used the cheapo liquid coloring (McCormicks ... in the grocery store .... little red pointy caps on them) just so I could count the drops of the red coloring going into each batch of batter so they would be uniform color.

Since this cheapo coloring isn't very strong, using red to create pink is pretty simple.

Sounds like a plan to me. Thanks Debi )

maybe try coloring the water that goes on the cake, then mix this with the rest of the ingredients.

I make the White Velvet cake all the time and tint it pink with Wilton's pink gel coloring. It comes out gorgeous!!