Hi Everyone. I just found this place a few days ago, and I'm sooo glad I found it. I am attempting to bake my own wedding cake this October. I've never done a tiered cake before, but I've watched enough cake baking tv shows that it should turn out perfectly, right?

Anyway, I am doing the first (of what I assume will be many) cake experiment this coming week. I really want to have a red cake, but I HATE red velvet. Honestly, I'm just not a big chocolate cake fan in general. Sacrilege, I know. So my first test is to make a Strawberry Cake. I will be using this recipe which calls for 10-15 drops of red food coloring to give it a pink color. I want the cake to be red, not pink. Can I just double the amount of food coloring? I know that too much food coloring, particularly red, can change the flavor. Also, is liquid food coloring better, or should I get the gel kind?

I am also not opposed to swapping strawberry for cherry. Do you think cherry might work better to get a red cake? Also, since the recipe I linked is based off of the WASC recipe, it should hold up fine to stacking, yes? I am not going to be doing any tier work yet, but right now I plan on doing 3 tiers: 10", 8", and 6". 

Thanks for taking the time to answer all of my questions!

ABump! I would also like to know if the liquid added would affect the recipe. I hope Rosie Levenbaum is reading. Thanks!

I'm not very fimilar with the WASC recipe but on some of your other questions...

Gel/paste food colouring is much more concentrated than liquid. You need less to get the same intense colour so it should impact the flavour/texture less.

I have a feeling cherries may make the cake a more "odd" colour than red - when the colour comes out of fresh cherries in my experience it makes things a more purpley colour than red. That may not happen in cake but just something to be aware of. Raspberry should work...

The three tiers you mentioned are they what you expect to make for your wedding? I assume you are just making one small cake for this trial. I have never stacked a cake but there are plenty of YouTube videos on how to put the supports in, etc

I'm not sure what cake flavour you're looking for, but I made a watermelon cake that turned out quite red.  The base was white cake mix, with watermelon jello powder added, with watermelon puree, as well as red food colouring.  You could use another jello flavour that's more of a red colour (raspberry? cherry?), then add food colouring to the mix to get it to the colour you want.  At least with the jello, the batter starts out reddish, which would cut down the amount of food colouring you'd need.

Just a thought.  :-)

AJennifer, thanks for the suggestions. Raspberry is my third fruit choice if either strawberry or cherry don't work. I made a cherry sorbet last summer that was very hot pink/magenta which was why I was thinking it might be better than strawberry. I can see how that color would end up purplish in a cake. Something to be mindful of for sure. And yes, I am planning to do a half or quarter batch of the cake this week. The full three tiers are for the actual wedding.

Kathleen, I am trying to avoid using jello because we have quite a few vegetarians on the guest list. One of the joys of living in SoCal. :-p I did read somewhere on this site about using a packet of koolaid instead of jello. That might be a decent route to go. I think the koolaid will go in on my second trial run if this one doesn't turn out well.