[Tigster]

My son has asked for a red cake for his birthday, and without thinking about it I agreed.

The problem is that I normally use butter cream icing, but this always looks pink no matter how much food colouring I use.

Can anyone recommend a type of icing that will actually look red without killing everyone with red food dye?

[monnianni]

I think you will need a gel food colour, you can get them at spotlight, some kitchen shops or online.


This post has been edited by monnianni: 08/11/2012, 03:20 PM

[taffy19]

Wiltons gel red red id what I use if I want real red colouring

[heatherbell89]

I have had red buttercream, the first time, I used wiltons whitener to make it white then used red red / christmas red to colour it. Put it in fridge because as it cools the colour deepens/ Also I read online another hint is to make chocolate buttercream (just add cocoa) then use a red gel colour to get a deep dark red colour, I did a combination of all the above and ended up with perfectly shaded dr suess hat

[SeaPrincess]

I find even the gel red doesn't go really red. When DS asked for a red cake, I used ready-made red fondant.

R

[HollyOllyOxenfre...]

Wiltons is great. There is also a Pillarbox Red by Queens in liquid form, but you do need to use a fair bit and it will change the consistency of the icing

FYI - the red icing in this picture was done using the Pillarbox Red colouring


This post has been edited by HollyOllyOxenfree: 08/11/2012, 03:31 PM

[Procrastinator50...]

Just a word of caution - when my DS had a bright red birthday cake, he came out in hives, after never having had any kind of allergies before. Didn't make for a fun birthday! It's a really strong artificial colour.

Just my 2c!

I'd probably go with the readymade red fondant icing if I was doing it though.

[heffalumpsnwoozl...]

I don't rate fondant on kids' birthday cakes, because kids really only like the icing and fondant is BLEH! I did a dalmatian with a red collar and big red tongue on DD2's cake this year, so I needed black and white and red icing. I went to my local cake decorating shop and got a tub of ready made white icing (tastes quite nice and is buttercream consistency) for $10. It would have cost me almost that much in butter and icing sugar to make that amount of buttercream, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm pretty sure they had red too, but I just used the red gel colouring that I already had and it came out beautifully (much better than when I've used it with buttercream, as that goes a bit orangey).

[soontobegran]

I just use the pre made red Wiltons icing instead of the usual butter cream. I have tried all other sorts and methods of getting a 'red red' but nothing beats the Wiltons.

[mummacat]

I used the wilton's no taste red gel in butter cream this year for DS2 birthday cake and it worked really well. The kitchen shop just said that you need to use a lot of the gel to get the right colour. They were right.

I had used the wilton powder red in previous years and it turned out pink so you really need the gel.