Ok so I bought some Lorann oils for some ganache and buttercream batches I needed and I must say they were awful. Well for sure the raspberry one was nasty-I had to go pretty far to get those and am wondering if it is worth it to continue to try them out..any one else unhappy or is it perhaps just the raspberry that is not especially great?

im not impressed either... i prefer to use natural flavorings, fruits and nut pastes. I wouldnt buy them again.

it would depend on your recipes. Real buttercream and raspberry.. umm..not a good match in my experience. Your better off just making a raspberry filling, torting the cakes and covering in buttercream.

I haven't tried the raspberry yet, although I do have it. The flavors I have tried, I have liked. I've used it more in candy so far, but will definitely try in in frostings. Sorry it didn't work out for you. Now I'll have to try the raspberry to see.

I love lorann oils, but I am mainly candy.

I agree with tesso, try raspberry filly or jam next time.

I do love the raspberry flavoring for my pixie sticks tho lol

Welcome to CC. Ok maybe you're not impressed with them; you're a newbie on this site but that doesn't mean you are newbie to making cakes. If you are, here's something that you may or may not know about the oils.

Some of the flavors are stronger than others so a little goes a long way. I've bought/used raspberry, strawberry, almond, pineapple, coconut, banana cream, orange cream, bavarian cream, vanilla butternut, eggnog, cotton candy and amaretto.

I use the overflow (sugarshacks) method when making my bc (2- 2lb. bags of ps) and I start with 1/8 - 1/4 tsp. of flavor per lb. of ps (1/2 - 1 tsp. total and this depends on the flavor). I like a hint of flavor rather than a strong flavor; if I want more flavor I add 1/8 - 1/4 tsp while the mixer is on, wait a minute then taste til I get the flavor I'm satisfied with. Too much flavor can definitely make a nasty icing, (almost like cough syrup; remember these oils are meant to flavor candy).

I agree with Tesso; certain flavors in a butter based icing might not work well. In this case, I do a layer of buttercream and put a layer of raspberry or strawberry fruit filling on top.

I don't like the orange cream. Eggnog, bavarian cream, vanilla butternut and cotton candy are the flavors I'm not really feeling. I haven't used them because I don't appreciate how they smell; so I don't want to waste ingredients for something that won't be liked. I'm not giving up on these flavors; one day I'm going to have to try them and not rely on the smell from the bottle. Banana cream and Amaretto makes me want to drool, and that's just from smelling them.

I want to try the pistachio and cheesecake and others I can't remember right now. Any other flavors that you give thumbs up too.

Definitely try some other flavors...use sparingly and add more if you think it needs it.
I don't typically use in buttercream as I rather add fresh fruit to make a fruit buttercream. But, I use them all the time in baking. It's kind of trial and error on which ones work with what and how much. Keep trying!!

I've used the cheesecake oil in fondant which is good. I love the peppermint oil in chocolate -- I make all my mint chocolate using that. I like the orange in chocolate fillings too. So far I've been very happy with them, but like the others said, not all oils are created equal. Keep experimenting!!

I use the butter rum flavor a lot.

I've never tried their orange because regular orange oil is so much cheaper and I get the added bonus of feeling like I put something natural in the icing

Lorann's emulsions are really good though. I use Buttery Sweet Dough in all my sugar cookies.

I always detect an aftertaste with these particular oils, so I don't use them.

I use LorAnn oils and I like them. As stated abouve you need to be careful how much you add. I add raspberry and strawberry to my homemade fillings if I want enhance the fruit flavor.

I also like the peppermint, lemon, lime & the orange also.

I highly recommend the apple lorann oil. Tastes like a granny smith apple.

I LOVE them! Just use a little bit though - I use 1-1/2 tsps for 12 cups of buttercream. I use the strawberry, raspberry, banana cream, key lime, etc. I only use them in my buttercreams though and get compliments all the time, I tried it in a cake mix and it didn't taste very good - not sure why, maybe you can't bake with them or maybe I used too much. Oh, and I use the bavarian creme one all the time in my glaze icing on cookies - to die for! Yum!

I used the eggnog for last Christmas and the cake was delicious.

I really like the Lorann almond oil - I use about an eyedropper full (or so)in a half batch of MFF and LOVE how it tastes. Since I use almond extract in my buttercream, they really complement each other. And the almond or peppermint oils in fondant on sugar cookies is great too.

Thanks everyone for the advice, trying them in cookies or MMF sounds like a good idea, think I may give that a go!

I use Lorann oils all the time and absolutely love the. I recently used the Raspberry in a chocolate cake and the people who ate it LOVED it. I have been using their oils in my cakes, frostings and candy and I have never had a problem with them.

I use it in my MMF. I add five to six drop per batch but I stick with either cherry, strawberry or cheesecake. I don't really care for raspberry. I haven't tried it in my frosting's as I don't think it needs it. I have heard of people adding the lemon to lemon cake batter.

Lol, I guess I should have done this search an hour ago BEFORE i bought raspberry. I guess I wont be adding it to my frosting!

I was going to add cotton candy and raspberry to some frosting for cupcakes

I haven't used raspberry, but I use cheesecake flavor all the time. I also luuuuuuuv their emulsions...very nice, fresh taste without any aftertaste.

I started with Lorann oils so I have nothing to compare it to. So far, my hands down favorite is the coconut bakery emulsion. I'm kind of known for it around here now.

I haven't tried the raspberry, but I enjoy the banana. It is a banana candy sort of flavor, though. But, I like it. I got a bunch of blackberry flavor thinking I was going to making a mass amount of candy for a wedding, but it got cancelled so I experimented with it. It's another flavor where if you're hoping for real berry flavor, you won't be impressed. I kind of liked it in my frosting, but it was disgusting in cake.

cinnamon roll was so so. You're better off with a good butter flavor and real cinnamon in my opinion. I like their almond emulsion. Very nice. Still on the fence about their butter vanilla. Their cappuccino chocolate flavoring is absolutely disgusting, and the coffee candy flavoring is not much better.

Anyway, that was an entirely too long description when I could have just said that it really is hit and miss. I would really like to try the cheesecake oil, though. Sounds fun

Sugarmoon for some reason it made me laugh reading your post "I kind of liked it in my frosting, but it was disgusting in cake." dont know why it was funny

and OK, so now I am scared to/convinced not to put a fruit flavored oil in my cake mix from your post and a previous post

I was gonna do a box mix strawberry and cotton candy frosting

Ok also I am trying to decide if I want to try to make the dreamwhip frosting (as the box recipe says) or Indydebi's buttercream cotton candy flavor.

before last month (when I discovered cake decorating) the only frosting I really cared for was mixing coolwhip with milk and pudding. But it isnt really great for piping

I havent tried the dream whip recipe yet, but i do have some dream whip left from indydebis buttercream (which I dont think I will be making her buttercream, because although it was good, these cupcakes will be at my house, and I can only imagine how much weight I will gain from eating a cup of shortening!)

lol - what's worse is I tried to dye my cake to reflect blackberry flavor and it came out purplish grey. I had alot of my family members asking me what flavor it was supposed to be. Thank goodness it was a practice cake I was serving only to my family. If you're worried about the cotton candy flavor I'd say add a drop to a small amount of frosting and taste it. It sounds to me that you like my kind of frosting

I'm a whipped frosting kind of girl since birth. If decorating is not an issue, I'd go with what you like. The Wilton whipped frosting isn't so great on its own, but it tastes awesome with some of my coconut emulsion. I think the frosting recipe on the Dream Whip box is something a little similar to this? Don't know for sure. But yeah, I've never tried the cotton candy, but it might be good. Doesn't hurt to make a small sample and see. Good luck!

After reading so many great reviews about the LorAnn oils, I bought several to try them out. I first tried them in buttercream, because I had some leftover from a cake. Even only putting a drop in with a cup of buttercream, the taste was overwhelming. I was ready to dump them, but then I tried them again in cupcakes. Big difference. Here is what I thought of the flavors I tried.

Butter Rum - disgusting. Didn't taste like butter or rum at all. Tasted like industrial strength cleaning solution in my mouth. However I will give it another go with even less flavoring before I write it off.

Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion - This one made my buttercream taste like skittles and I was completely turned off. However, used in moderation in a cupcake I ended up with a pleasant poundcake taste.

Champagne - tastes like those candy hearts you see around valentine's day. with a little less flavoring this might be really nice in a cupcake for those who like that kind of flavor.

Irish Creme - tasted great in buttercream. In my cupcake it ended up tasting like butter pecan, but perhaps that's because I added it to box cake mix.

Princess Cake and Cookie Bakery Emulsion - tasted like sugar cookies with a slight lingering citrus aftertaste. It made my buttercream taste too artificial, but was ok in the cupcake. I would like to try this with sugar cookies as a flavor enhancer.

Red Velvet - the flavor wasn't as strong as I had hoped so I can't really comment. Will try again with more flavoring. Would be nice if I can make red velvet without adding a TON of red food coloring.

On a similar note, I also bought some McCormick flavors. 

Anise - surprisingly delicious in the cupcakes. That is, if you like black licorice. Cupcakes tasted like regular vanilla cupcakes, but with a slight licorice aftertaste.

Coconut - great! great in buttercream and cupcakes as well. Would love to make an "almond joy" cupcake with this.

Coffee - added this to chocolate cake mix and it made the flavor so much richer. 

Maple - heavenly. I don't like bacon, but love maple & bacon cupcakes.