How do you guys get your vibrant red color?

I saw somewhere to use paprika first? Is that crazy, or does it work?

Thanks!

It really depends on what brand of coloring you are using. Wilton does not do a good job, take about a whole jar and leaves a bitter taste. Americolor is awesome the colors come out great. You do not need as much. As with certain colors, you will need to let it sit for a day. The longer it sits the deeper the red will be. I usually color the frosting pink first - let sit for a few hours then add red. Let sit over night and let the color get darker.

You can buy americolor here, or sugarcraft.com or countrykitchen

they all have good prices.

good luck

For the most part, I agree with Leana. Americolor does make a gorgeous red without using a bunch of color and without an aftertaste. I just did my first Americolor red for a recent Elmo cake (It's in my pics).

However, if you look in my pics, you will see a cake with deep burgundy roses and another elmo cake (a 3 tier) with the red and these were done using Wilton colors (and NOT a whole container! lol!). Using specific techniques, it is possible to pull up a nice red or other deep color using Wilton. I still say, however, that Americolor does a better job with less product.

Anyway--what I do to pull up that red is this: I take the whole amount of icing and tint it pink. (For Elmo, I tinted it orange because he is more of an orange/red). I then take a small amount of icing--about 1/2 to 3/4 cup. I tint that to the color I'm shooting for using however much color is necessary to get it that way. I then start addiing in more icing and mixing it together on my practice board and add more color as needed.

I always make my deep colors the day or two before they will be used. I then leave them in an open bowl, stirring often, to deepen the colors by exposing them to air.

Americolor is easier to use for deep colors, but it's not impossible to use Wilton and acheive nice results, too. HTH!!

Lisa

I have only used Wilton "No Taste" red and it came up nicely. One of my pictures has deep red roses on it. I brought up my icing to a deep pink first and then added red to that. I feel that is the trick to not having to use excessive amounts of red. As stated before - let the icing set for a little while and the color will deepen. I did the roses and the icing looked a little redish orange - but after setting about an hour - as you can see they turned DEEP red. I have a Michaels right up the street so it's easier for me to just grab the Wilton products. If convenience allowed - I'd try another brand but I'm happy with my results. Good luck.

If you do not have Americolor...I find that you can get a nice red with Wilton's "RED-RED."