So I just made a 14" Martha Stewart "red" velvet cake. I've never made RV before in my life and followed the directions exactly. The recipe in her Wedding Cakes book says to use 3/4 teaspoon of gel paste coloring, so I used Wilton no taste red. It also called for 1/4 cup of dutch process cocoa. The recipe listed makes enough batter for a 14".

It was looking very neon red when the food coloring was added in to the wet ingredients, but as soon as I added the dry it turned brown.

When I turned it out of the pan it looked brown. It had an ever so slight red color to it, but I'm afraid it's going to look brown when cut and then people will think it's a chocolate cake. Honestly, the color almost reminded me of the scratch German chocolate cake I make.

Is this normal? Do you guys make this recipe and have it turn out more brown than red like this? I'm so upset because if I have to re-bake it's going to mean I have to buy more of everything. I have another layer to bake this evening but I don't want to add more red to that because it may turn out brighter than the other layer and look goofy.

Any advice you have would be helpful!

Thanks,
Annie