Do you ever have any problems getting red icing red? I know I do. It can happen for a couple of reasons: didn’t add enough icing color or used shortening with a high yellow dye content, such as butter flavored shortening. Do you have a lot of minerals in your water that could make a difference (like well water)?
In the Wilton Decorating Room, we get the best results for a brighter red color using a combination of Red-Red Icing Color with Christmas Red Icing Color, equal parts. It will take a large amount of the icing color to achieve a deep red shade. Just keep adding more and mixing it in after each addition. Depending on the amount of icing you need to tint, you might start by adding 1/2 teaspoon of each for one cup of icing.
You will also get good results when using No Taste Red Icing Color; you’ll still need to put in approximately 1 teaspoon of color to 1 cup of buttercream. No Taste Red Icing Color is muted a bit in color, but the taste of the No Taste Red is more acceptable.
If it’s at all possible to plan ahead, make your icing a day or two ahead – or even three days! The color will deepen as it sets (but it does need to be a red color to start, not pink!)
Keep in mind when you use a large amount of icing color, sometimes the buttercream icing taste becomes a little bitter. If this happens, add a little more flavoring to compensate for the difference. The amount of flavoring to add will depend on the number of cups of icing and your taste preference. Maybe an additional 1/4 teaspoon will help for each cup of icing. But the best judge will be your own taste, so adjust as needed. You can use Clear Vanilla or No-Color Almond Extract to increase the flavor. These extracts are clear so they won’t change the tint of your icing.
A tube of Red Ready-To-Use Icing Tube (4.25 oz) comes in handy when I need a small amount of red, especially for a facial feature or maybe some red trims. (Keep your eyes open for a large container of our red buttercream icing, sold in a 4.5 pounds, available at Wal-Mart.)
If you are using a lot of red icing on an adult cake or special occasion cake, keep in mind that anyone who eats it will wear some red tint on their teeth for the evening! If it’s a formal occasion, you might want to limit the use of large amounts of dark colors if possible.
If you have any leftover red icing, you can save it for a future use. Just put it in a container or a double self-closing bag and freeze it for future use…like for Valentine’s Day when we do special treats for those we care about!
Mary is a Senior Cake Decorator at Wilton. She started her cake decorating career as one of the first Wilton Method teachers in the Chicago area, teaching at various Sears, Montgomery Wards and JCPenney stores and earned her place in the Wilton Hall of Fame. As a cake decorator in the Decorating Room, she creates the cakes for photography used on new labels and packaging and in all Wilton publications. Mary also teaches the Introduction to Gum Paste Class at The Wilton School. Mary is a member of The International Cake Exploration Societé (ICES), an organization promoting the art of food and cake decorating throughout the world. She has served as Illinois State Representative, Past ICES Vice President and Corresponding Secretary during her 3-year term on the ICES Board of Directors. She is still active in the organization. 
In response to questions about powdered red color. I use this all the time and have great success with beautiful red color and no bitter taste. This sure is a lot better than gels or paste. This works great for black also and no bitter taste : )
P.S. love all your information
I agree…The powdered colors are the best because they also don’t thin your icing out…
Where can you buy powdered colors? I have never heard of that.
I use red Kool-Aid powder. Cherry works well if you don’t mind cherry flavored icing.
What a great idea.. thanks.
Isnt Red Kool-Aid powder flavored?
During my course 1 Wilton course, our instructor gave us a great tip for getting true reds or true blacks – just add some cocoa powder. It’ll deepen the reds and darken the blacks. I’ve used this for both colors and it works great!
I made Cars cake for my son’s 5th birthday and I needed the deep red color for my icing. So I did exactly what you said. Made my icing and let it sit for 2 days and got the color I needed. It works better that way.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Wilton, Tierelantaart.nl. Tierelantaart.nl said: WiltonCakes Need help making red icing for your Christmas cookies or other holiday treats?Our blog post can help http://s.wilton.com/eGyrNW [...]
I was trying to make red icing last night and was going to go online and find out how to get a good red and opened up Facebook and there it was!! I am going to try it tonight & I sure hope it works!!! Thanks!!!
I usually start with several tubes of the Ready to Use red tube icing and tghen add more butterdream icing and red color. It gives a better base to get your red color (I also do this with the black colors)
How can i colour fondant black using your regular gel icing colours and make sure there won’t be a bitter taste at all?
I have made black fondant a few times, and the best way is to make chocolate fondant and then add black food coloring to that. If you try to make black fondant with just food coloring, you can end up destroying the fondant from all of the food coloring. I normally make marshmallow fondant, and add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to my powdered sugar. Once that is done being mixed I add in my black food coloring, to the appropriate color. Good Luck!
I just made some black marshmello fondant and got a true black ny adding the color to the melted marshmello before I added the sugar!!!
I make marshmallow fondant and anytime i need a dark color (red, black, blue) I add the no taste gel food coloring to the melted marshmallows until i get the shade I need. After I’m done mixing the fondant, i wrap it up tight and let it set overnight. you will get a true shade and no bitterness. if it’s not dark enough, you can always work in a little more color.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Wilton, Cakemania.nl. Cakemania.nl said: RT @WiltonCakes: Having trouble getting red icing red? Read how our decorators get the best results. http://s.wilton.com/id2cIQ [...]
what colours do i mix to get gold?
yellow and brown. I start with choc butter cream and add yellow – works great!
In comment to the post on how to make red, I found an easier way to make red and don’t have to use so much red….I start off with regular buttercream icing (white) and add hot pink to it…make sure it’s hot pink not pale pink or neon….then add red to it and you’ll see that it doesn’t take much…I use the gel and have never had the problem of my icing having a bitter taste.
I also go deep pink first when wanting a deep red.
For dark reds depending on shard you can start with chocolate frosting. The darker the frosting the darker the red. You can also use a smidgen of Wilton’s black gel colorant to darken it up. Just remember the more color you use the more it stains the mouth and teeth…especially alot of red will. Delectable decorating to all!!
That should read …. depending on SHADE… :0)
I do the same thing…works great when making crimson, garnet or burgandy!
I just love to see what is new in cake decorating.
Another way to get red with out tons of food coloring gels is to use Marichino Cherry juice as your liquid when you make buttercream to start. It will then take less red gel to get a nice deep red. It will give it a cherry taste, so you might want to reserve it for decorations instead of covering the whole cake that way unless you are after the cherry flavor of course!
I color white icing orange then add the red. It doesn’t have to be a bright orange either for it to work.
and how can get th black?
Let me get this correct…..I cannot use butter (which has some tint of yellow) if I am going to get RED icing. I will need to make the icing just using white crisco, confectioners sugar, clear extract and the wilton icing gel. Is this right? How will it taste with just crisco and not butter incorporated?
thanks for any info on this.
Hi Margie,
I always use white crisco. Just add Wilton’s clear butter extract when you add your vanilla flavor. I do this because most parties leave cakes sitting out all day and sometimes the butter melts, especially if it’s a warm day. The butter extract tastes like real butter and no one will know the difference. Good luck!
You can use butter to make your butter cream if you choose however you need to beat (or whip it) for at least 10 minutes before you add anything to it. Butter turns white after a while of beating. I found this out when i was making whipped shortbread for a Christmas potluck. Also if you can find it you can use white margerine for butter cream icing. It gives a nice flavor as well. Myself i do not like the taste of the butter cream made with Crisco. Even when i add a flavor.
I use butter in my icing as well and I havent had a problem with my red. I do use the 2 reds combined and it always comes out well, especially the fondant. One is the Christmas red, but the other one not sure if its red red or no taste red. one of the 2 always smells like “hose water” to me so I use the other.
I look for butters that are light in color, so when I mix it, it gets even ligher. Cabot brand is my favorite to work with, but it is very yellow in the winter months. In the summer it is very light. (I went on the Cabot tour when I was in vT and I mentioned it to them. They said that during the winter months, the cow are fed corn which results in the yellow color and during the summer months they are grass fed, resulting in the lighter color) I never use margarine, it will make the icing crackly when it crusts.
It has a great taste, I use just Crisco all the time and my buttercream frosting tastes great but I use the clear vanilla and butter extracts. You can get the buttercream frosting at the wilton.com website I believe good luck.
Oh and you will also achieve a bright white buttercream using the clear butter extract.
i live in peru, i buy this icing colors and i cant have a red color, its everything but not red. can you help me?
Monica, are you putting in enough icing color for the amount of icing you need to achieve? You need to add at least 1/2 teaspoon of color per cup of icing. If you batch of icing yields 3 cups, then you need at least 1 1/2 teaspoons of color to achieve the desired color.
If you end up with a pink color, then you just need to add more.
Is your icing white when you make it or is it an off an off-white color? If there is butter which gives you a yellowish-off white icing, then the colors will not be as true to achieve because of the color from the butter.
I decorate cakes also and have found out that if you add a little bit of clear gel icing it will intensify the color too. It doesn’t take much. Actually if you add too much, it will change the consistently too much. But it does work wonders. It will also help to make neon colors much brighter.
Idecorate cakes and Ibuy difrent kindes of butter but ites still yellow and Icant have red colores its alwayes pink . can you help plese
IT’s difficult to achieve a true color when you start out with a yellow base color from your butter. You will have to use a lot of icing color bot the reds and possibly adding blue to it to help get rid of the yellow. It’s going to be a trial and error process.
If you can, why not try using all vegetable shortening in place of butter, or do half of each. Half butter and half shortening will give you a little base color to start with. If you can use all shortening, then you will start with a white base icing and you will achieve better coloring results.
Why don’t you sell colors like black and red in larger sizes? I’d buy them. (I also buy the tubes if I don’t need much black or red.)
Thanks for your comment. I’ll pass on your comment to the Product Manager for icing colors. You never know what can happen! It does make sense when you use so much color to achieve deep intenese colors.
i have Q, how can we get dark red colour in swiss meringue icing?
I was making a frozen buttercream transfer and trying to color my buttercream (made with real butter-no Crisco) brown. The more gel coloring I added, the more the buttercream started to separate and look bubbly and nasty. The same for the red. Should I have used cocoa powder for the brown? Seems lighter colors did fine, but the dark started to separate. Solutions?
If you add a lot of die it will work
i love using the Wilton color mist food color… (the spray) just decorate all the red parts white then spray all with the red sometimes needs 2 coats but it beats mixing.
Thanks to everyone for their great suggestions to help Sharon.
Sharon,
When using buttercream icing with all butter, the butter base doesn’t take well to colors. The more stirring with a mixer will break it down too as it heats up the butter; mix it by hand with a spatula. That was the problem you were experiencing with both red and brown gel colors,because of the all butter base. If you can use a 50/50 base, half butter with half pure vegetable shortening, it will give your icing more body, which will take the color much better, producing better results.
You could use cocoa powder in the buttercream for brown/chocolate icing. The cocoa powder will thicken up the buttercream.
Can you enhance your buttercream transfer by brushing it with Color Dust or Pearl Dust colors or Colored Piping Gel once it’s on the cake and before it starts to thaw?
If I had to do a buttercream transfer where you don’t need a large amount of colors, I would save time by using the Decorating Tube Icings, especially for the Red color.
My red seems to run all over the cake. It looks good initially and then the by the next day it has run. Is there a trick to red icing or am I just not doing it correctly. I’ve tried already made red but not home made buttercream. Does that make the difference?
Hi Cynthia, sorry for not getting back to you sooner, had a little time off.
Sounds like you’re using red icing as an accent on a cake. Is you base icing or is your red icing very soft, with a lot of moisture to it. (it doesn’t form a light crust) If this is the case, it could be the cause of the red icing to bleed. If you stiffen your red icing or the base icing with powdered sugar so it’s not so moist, it will help.
Let your iced cake set to lightly crust before adding the red icing accents.
If you refrigerate your cake, that will add moisture, from the condensation, to the cake too.
I don’t think it will make a difference whether you use Ready Made Red icing or home made buttercream. If you make homemade Red icing, it will take a lot of color to achieve a deep red; adding a lot of color thins down your icing and you’ll just have to thicken it up again, bringing it back to a medium to stiff constitancy, depending on what you are doing.
Granddaughter wants to have cupcakes that look like red mushrooms. Like Mario game. This is for a wedding! So if there is red icing, the photos may have the bride, groom, and guests with a bright red tongue and red teeth. (Red is the color for the icing on cupcakes.
DJ,
That’s a tough one to answer. There is red icing; we have Decorating Icing in a Tube. We’d need many tubes to decorate cupcakes for a wedding. To make your buttercream red, follow the suggestions above but make your icing ahead of time so it has time to deepen.
You’re correct about the red tongues and Teeth, something a lot of people doen’t think about until it’s too late. Can you do only some of the cupcakes in red for the red mushrooms and leave others with a red fondant mushroom decoration? Or how abut icing the cupcakes in white buttercream and then covering them in red fondant, however you plan on decorating them. We do carry Red Fondant in 24oz Ready to Use packages! That could be a big time and smile saving way to go.
[...] Red food color for icing [...]
Can you freeze the “flood” icing? I had tons leftover and felt bad throwing it away.
Susan,
I’m not sure about this one-freezing thinned down color flow icing.We’ve kept to for a length of time, one-two weeks without a problem. It will probably separate, so then you just stir it to thouroughly mix it, bringing it back to the right consistency.
But for freezing, we have not done that. Not sure how it will react. If you have some icing to space, gIve it a try and see if it works.If you do, let me know so I can share your results with others.
Or maybe another decorator has the correct answer already and will respond too!
Could i mix red koolaid crystals in with my white icing? Would rhat work?
Mavis,
I’ve never tried adding drink mix to icing. I would think that there isn’t enough red color in to to make a batch of icing red. It will also add more sweetness to the icing but if it’s for children, they would probably love it!
If anyone has tried this before, can you share your results?
how can i make my icing really red, with whip cream frosting
Morning Queen,
Whip Cream frosting is great tasting but to color it, you can only achieve more pastel colors. The more color you add will break down the consistency of the whipped cream. The fat content in the cream will not accept the coloring.
Wish I knew of a solution for you, can you add red accents in another icing or gel?
Any decorator out there have a helpful hint/solution for red whipped cream that you’d like to share?
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I have used Wilton paste coloring for years…it’s the best! I wondered what the dye is that makes the red red. I am allergic to carmine (aka cochineal) and so hesitate to use much red until I know. Thanks
Anne
Wilton Red icing color is colored using a series of FDA certified colors. There is no carmine or cochineal extract in any of the Wilton red icing colors.
When I use red, I go with the Wilton Red decorating icing tubes. I do have a few problems with this product though. First, the tube is SO thick and hard, that it really hurts my hands to keep squeezing it! Second, there are lots of air bubbles when squeezing the tube, so it doesn’t always allow for a smooth, consistent line. Third, it dries very differently than the rest of my frostings – almost brittle. I’d like to squeeze it out and use in a regular frosting bag, but am a little hesitant to try.
Any suggestions?
…how would I store it if I do that?
HI Jennifer,
Using the Red Decorator Icing in the tubes makes it easy to achieve a deep red color without any work. If you are planning on using all the icing in the tube at once (which I’ve done before) I cut off the bottom of the tube to release the icing. Put it in a small bowl and stir to the consistency that works best for me. If the icing has been opened before and has dried out a bit, you can add a drop or two of water to bring it back to the consistency easier to pipe with. Then you can use a decorating bag and tip to pipe as needed. If you don’t use it all, then bag it up in a self closing bag or a small air tight container for storage.
A lot of times, we only need a small amount of red icing for so detail work on a cake, so a tube of icing can go a long way.
Good luck decorating!