Red Icing for Cakes

Hi A.,
Have you tried the food network.com website?. You can type anything in their search box and they will tell you how to do it. They also rate the level of difficulty and the time needed to do it.

I'm enjoying to cook again, and do some baking. I've never made my own icing. I bet your icing will be great!
L.

Not sure if they sell red icing, but www.kitchenkrafts.com sells just about anything you need for baking and decorating cakes, etc.

Hi A.,
Making red icing or frosting is challenging - but not impossible. The food coloring nibs you get at the grocery store will not produce deep red coloring but rather pastel colors like you mentioned. If you want a true red, the best icing or frosting will be to use vanilla icing/frosting as your base. Making red frosting requires alot of color and sometimes can even taste bitter. Sometimes mixing a little bit of orange color with red can deepen the color a little. The trick with red frosting is that you need to have it sit so that the color "stains" the frosting and it will darken with time. I would try letting it sit for like an hour or two and check to see its progress. Not sure if Michaels or JoAnns sells it but there is a red gel paste color called AmeriColor Red which is great. Hope that helps!

You need to go to Campbell's cake and candy store in York and get Christmas red food coloring paste and you will have to use a lot of it but it will be a Christmas red.

see if mixing a smidge of black will deepen it.

Try a bunch of coloring with a wee bit of frosting. Remember that frosting is white and when mixed with red, it makes pink. What are you using in your frosting ? I always used vegetable shortening, not butter, for the base. It makes the colors true-er. . . (and I happen to think it tastes better) You could add a little brown or black to the red to darken it, but I'd experiment on a wee amount in a bowl so you don't waste your ingredients playing.

I have the same problem. I have thought about using milk chocolate and tinting that. If you find out how to do it please let me know! I also have alot of trouble making black so help with that would be nice too.

i hade the same problem with a CARS cake i made ast year. i went to our local cake and candy making supplies store and got the wiltin gel tint. it worked great. they even have different shades of red!!! if you dont have a store like that close to you check the web. Wiltin has there own site. good luck and have fun baking, I do.

I love to bake also. My daughter is allergic to traditional food dyes. I have used some products from Whole Foods. They have natural beet and vegetable juice and are much safer and healthier. Please be careful with traditional dyes, especially red. My daughter literally was uncontrollably hyper and then sick just from one red taffy before she was diagnosed. All food dyes should be monitored or avoided. I may sound extreme but little bodies can't handle them and over time they do build up in their systems and cells. I don't think I'm as crafty as you so I'm sure you can come up with lots of healthy, tasty and cool treats. Wow, I just read some of the responses. I hope these kids aren't eating all that red dye. Make sure they know it's for decoration ONLY!

Have you tried gels? That may help you.

Try going to the grocery store bakery dept and asking to purchase some red icing. I always go to Giant or Genuardis when I need black because I can never get a solid black. The Walmart bakery just gave it to me but the others usually charge a couple bucks-well worth it for not having to go through the hassle.
Good luck and happy decorating.
G.

A.,

I did an Elmo cake for my daughter last year and was very worried about the color and the taste. I used Marischino (sorry that's not spelled correctly) cherry juice instead of water when making the icing. That gave me a nice shade of pink. Then I added the red till it was a deep pink and let the icing sit for about 2 days. It turned out great, and didn't have that bitter red after taste. Good luck!

Hello A.:

My sister is the master baker of our family and she has done quite a few cakes. A.C. Moore or Michael's has red icing in their baking department.

Other then that I suggest you could try adding extra food coloring to the icing, and very little icing to get the consistency that you need.

I hope this helps, and wish you the best of luck with your red dilemma.

A. C. - Hanover, PA

I used to decorate cakes as a hobby; before marriage and kids filled my life. You will want to use the Wilton's colors because they are thicker. The trick is to tint your icing but then paint the inside of the icing bag with the food color. Fill the bag carefully and then just squeeze. This works for red, black etc. It works really well once you get the hang of it. Good Luck!

I found this on the internet:

How do I make red icing?

Red icing can be tricky to make. Many professional decorators avoid it because it is kind of a pain. To make red icing you need to plan ahead. You'll need to make it at least one or better yet, two days in advance. If you try to make it the day you need it you'll either (a) not be able to get it dark enough, or (b) you'll add so much food coloring that it will turn blotchy after it dries on the cookies. To make red icing, take the amount of royal icing you anticipate you'll need -- maybe a little more just to be safe -- and add food coloring -- I like our gel colors -- to get it to a nice dark pink. Now, put it away for two days. It will darken over time. When I make red icing I use maraschino cherry juice instead of water as my liquid and almond flavoring. This takes the icing to a nice pink and it tastes good. Then I add enough gel color to get my dark pink icing. After two days I have a dark red icing.

I am a professional pastry chef. To get a true red, use a gel based color, not liquid, RedRed gives you the truest red color. Mix the icing to a dark pink, let it set, it will darken. If you need it darker add more. Even with the gel it takes a fair amount to create a true red. If you have a candy and /or cake decorating store close by, try there. Remember, if you use butter in your icing (I use half butter half shortening) there will be a slight yellow to the frosting, which will change your perception of your colors.

Good luck and have a wonderful time making memories for your children!

This will do the trick, it's awesome stuff:

http://www.naturesflavors.com/product_info.php?cPath=72&a...

Also, please be very careful how much of the typical store bought food coloring you ingest, as it is definitely not good for you. The link above is all natural, and non-toxic. :D

Try using the paste colors. I found that they turn out more true than the liquid drop stuff. I made an arieal cake for my daughter's 4th bday and used the paste red and it was really red!!!

Hi, A..
I've found that if you add the wilton food coloring, (you may need to use a lot to get true red color) and whip it for a few minutes...really more like at least 7 minutes, it should turn out for you.
Hopefully you have a kitchen aid mixer, or something you don't need to stand over, but if not, a hand mixer will do fine. It just takes a bit.
good luck!

This is just a guess, but to make a red velvet cake you just add red food coloring. This is a chocolate cake with red food color, so I am guessing that if you make a slightly choc. icing and add red food color it may work.
Barbara

I used to make a deco. cakes for a living. i found that the wilton gel colors work the best. they come in all different colors and when the icing sits after being colored it gets darker.