I am confused sometimes with what food coloring to use. I see very dark colors used in cakes from Great Britain and wonder if their colors are different from those used here in the United States. I have used Wilton paste and Americolor and get fair results. Are there other color lines I need to explore to get better purples and red shades? I have heard of using powdered food coloring as a means to get deeper color but do not know about these products. Any help in this matter would be appreciated.

AIf you're wanting a super dark shade it takes a lot of gel color; using that much gel color jacks with the consistency of your icing. That's where the powder color helps.

Thank you Manndi!

What kind or brand of powdered food colors do you recommend?

AWhatever brand you can get your hands on(except for maybe Wilton; and even that would work in a pinch). I don't have a cake supply shop near me so I order from fondant source.com.

I recently discovered that red based food colour is different in some countries to America.  America apparently has banned some substance that stops the red from fading.  Sugarflair from Britain is supposed to hold it's colour.  This does not make it easier to get a darker colour but the colour will hold over time, rather than fading in a few days.