Over the weekend I had 2 cake projects to complete; a baby shower cake and some rainbow birthday cupcakes. I thought that the cupcakes would be a piece of cake, no pun intended! Well, turns out that they were a total nightmare. I had made a batch of cupcakes from a new recipe a few days prior and they were pretty awesome so I agreed to use that recipe. The only thing I thought was that they were a little dry or too "cake-y" for cupcakes so I added 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil to the ingredients.

When I baked the cupcakes, after coloring the batter 7 shades of rainbow, I took them out of the oven and they had fallen in the middle! They were completely un-saveable and had to dump 36 cupcakes!!!!! I can't tell you how angry this made me! Grrr! I whipped up a second batch (using my go-to recipe) and colored 7 shades of rainbow AGAIN; these turned out fine. You should have seen all the rainbow colored (dirty) bowls in my sink after this fiasco!

Once they were all baked, I made a batch of icing (red). Well, I didn't think that the color red was going to be so terribly hard to acheive! I used 3 large red Wilton color gel tubes and I had a salmon color whipping around my machine! At that point, I was in crisis mode, considering I had another project that deperately need my attention! This is where the boyfriend came in handy as I sent him on a hunt for Red-Red icing color (by Wilton). The icing finally turned red, but I was very unhappy with the bitter after taste left by the frosting. Does anyone know how to get rid of that without jeopardizing the true red color?

I would have posted pictures of the cupcakes, but like I said, I dumped them in the trash during my small fit of rage.

Thank you to anyone who reads this and actually allows me to vent; from one caker to another!

Any time I need a RED for icing, I use Americolor Super Red. No aftertaste and it colors a TRUE red. Sorry this happened to you.

Yeah, well first get rid of the Wilton red and go to Americolor (available at Hobby Lobby). You'll use less. Also let the red buttercream rest a bit before adding more. It deepens with time and you may not need to add as much.

Also...maybe rethink doing a solid red color buttercream...it will color teeth and tongues (which kids love, but adults may not). Maybe consider using your white buttercream and top with a little fondant rainbows or discs that have the rainbow colors swirled together as toppers instead. (next time of course)

It also helps if you color your icing at least a day ahead of time. The red dye tends to darken with time, so the salmon will become red within a day or two. This is also true for making black icing. HTH

like others said the americolor. I also used airbrush coloring, it seemed to yield a better color. May also try powdered red food coloring, i always had good results with it too.

Wilton has a "no taste" red color which is good.

Wilton red is pretty horrible switch to americolor

Take a look at this video from SeriousCakes. The part you want to really look at is how she explains how she gets her deep red by mixing a few colors,and it doesnt leave a bitter taste.

Here is the link.

I buy red and black icing from Sam's. They are true colors and do not bleed into other icings.

I made blue and red frosting for 4th of July and there was no teeth or lip staining issue. I started with a white frosting and colored it with Americolor. I may have just gotten lucky with the teeth staining issue. But there was no bitterness. I agree with others, ditch Wilton and come over to Americolor. You won't regret it!

Wow!! Thank you ALL for the great tip! Americolor, here I come!!! Also, thank you for letting me know that I can't just "add oil" to a scratch recipe to create "moist-ness"; what can I do instead?

I truly appreciate all of this feedback! All of you are amazing!!!!!!!