Is there a trick to getting frosting a deeper color? I bought a small variety of Wilton liquid food coloring jars and it seems with black red and blue no matter how much I put in it won't become a deep color. Also do the dust food colorings work better or can you only use those on other things? Any help is appreciated. Thanks. -Julie

Sorry Wilton...I love you but I have to say it...use a different brand. I use americolor for deep colors. I still use Wilton just cause it's there and the others have to be mail-ordered. If you like Wilton, just use more of it. Let it set a while too. The colors usually deepen when set.

As with any colors they need to set awhile before you get the true color.Red,Blue and Black require almost the whole bottle of color to get a true red,blue and black.It can be done and my colors come out great everytime.Check the Racecar out in Gallery...those colors are wilton and are red and blue but I used alot of color!! Americolor is also great but as Lisa mentioned ...most likely they have to be purchased online.

Wilton has OK products but not at all when it comes to coloring additives (their pans are horrible compared to others, also). I use Chefmaster Liqua-Gels. I never have to let them sit to get to a deeper color. Black is black, red is red and so on.... instantly... and only a couple of drops are needed per cup of icing.

I've heard lots of great things about Americolor. both are available at my local cake supply store. But I know you can get them on-line.

Geesh, Cali4Dawn, which pans are you referring to that are horrible? I must admit my favourites are the Decorator Preferred of which they have discontinued most of the line of. I am not a big fan of their cheaper ones as they are a rather flimsy aluminum. I don't buy them. But for the most part at least with the Decorator Preferred, I find them comparable to the professional lines. I also have Crown and Chicago Metallurgic pans and I love Nordicware. Personally I still find WIlton Preferred better quality than either of those brands. I also have some older commercial pans that I am not too keen on. And some Cusinart and Kitchen Aid. Now the character pans are of course not the best weight of aluminum but for what you would use them for, they are adequate. And you would have to say that even their absolutely cheapest and worst pans are still better than anything Baker's Secret makes. Don't get me started, haha!
The colours, well I have to say I do like the Chefmasters although, like Kiddiekakes, being in Canada, we have a lot more limitations on the manufacturers and brands that we have available to us without going on-line and paying dollar conversion rates, huge packing and shipping rates and then on top of that, Custom Duties. Even within Canada, for instance when I visited Kiddiekakes' hometown of Calgary, well she had things available to her that I cannot get in Ottawa and vice versa. Plain and simple, the Wilton ones are always available to us and in all of the various shades and colours.
I do like Chefmaster's Liqua Gel when I can get it and also Cake Craft when I can get it. The one drawback with both of these is that they are a lot more liquidy and so when added to fondant, you are also adding a lot more icing sugar. But I do find that yes they do get red faster. But in our cases, when Wilton is easy to come by, well you use what you can get and it does work - even though you use huge amounts. I must admit though for red, I use all three most of the time except for perhaps some very specific colours of red where I stick with Wilton's. Though they are almost the same colour, there is a wee bit of a difference.
I suppose for me that isn't a big issue because I was decorating in the days where there was no such thing as a real red, all you could make was a horrible shade of pink when you did red pointsettias. Heck I was decorating in the days when all you could get were the food colours that you use to colour Easter Eggs, I believe they had a vegetable oil base.
Anyway, a lot of people are more limited because of the areas they live in. For instance, in some European countries, food colour addititve guidelines are such that they do not have similar products as we in the U.S. and Canada have. So they are using a totally different product.
So I tend to recommend Wilton colours to most people just because I know that the vast majority of people can get their hands on their products.
Unfortunately we don't all have the same abilities to purchase the same thing. Even within the U.S. many folks are limited by the size of the area they live in. Makes it all very interesting, doesn't it?
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Heavens, don't you hate it when you pay good money for something and discover it is warped? Geesh!
Anyway, good heads up, I will be checking the pans a lot closer now.
I haven't seen that line of pans here. I tend to go to the restaurant supply stores when I need pans these days. Ever since they stopped making my Decorator Preferred! I like the squared lines of the square and rectangular ones, have a thing about rounded corners.
Heck I get mad when I get warped foil covered boards for my cakes, geesh! You really have to watch for that and boy can it cause issues if you end up with warped ones! Here we pay so much for them too!
Anyway, in my case, it is bad enough that the decorator is warped, I want straight pans and boards!
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Exactly! I purchase a lot of "hardware" from restaurant supply stores also. But I still like my Magic Line best. Everyone I've spoken to (so far) likes them better also. I also like nice square corners on my cakes.

The trick is in the brand that you use, unfortunately everything I've tried is better then the Wilton colors. If you want a nice deep true color you could try using an oil based color, just like the ones used for chocolate. A few drop will do the trick as opposed to the entire bottle!

Gee, I don't find that at all. Maybe there are better reds, but as far as other colours go, I really don't see any difference. In fact, Wilton has nicer colours when you get outside the primary colours - at least in my opinion. I find their black works really well, I don't have an issue with their brown. I love the garden colours. What I do find is that most folks only use the primary or pastel colours. Also nearly everyone uses leaf green or kelly green and there are so many nicer colours to use for greens that are more natural looking.
Now mind you maybe here in Canada I don't have the same access to choices, but I have used the CakeCraft rose or pink shades and I don't see a difference in how much I use at all. The same with the leaf green or blue.
Interesting.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes