Red Food Colouring

Originally Posted by Dayti 



I had the same problem with this one, using the Americolor red to make pink. Let's just say when I tinted the fondant and covered the cake, the fondant was the same pink as the ribbon... the next day when I came to put the black lattice strips on, the cake had faded loads. It's due to leaving it in the light, any light, but especially flourescent or sunlight. I only use Sugarflair Extra Red now, definitely learnt my lesson. Oh and Americolor is not approved by the EU, but still some places sell it over here. It's because the Americans use different ingredients in their colours, apparently.

Originally Posted by cazza1 

Last year I made this cake for my wedding anniversary.  I make fruit cakes because I love the taste but also because I can then look at the cake for as long as I like, knowing that it will not go off.

 

Within one week the pink had totally faded out and you would have sworn that I had used white icing.  I used Americolor gel to tint the icing.  On contacting the American company that I purchased the gel from I was informed that America has new laws on red food colouring and that it will no longer hold it's color.  The old red is no longer available as it was toxic.  I was advised to either make my cake close to serving time or keep it in a cool, dark place, neither being any use to me who likes to look at the cakes.  I was also informed that other parts of the world still use the old red food coloring as it has not been banned anywhere else and that I might like to purchase some red color from another country.

Considering the forum on Disco Dust I thought that this might be interesting to some of the other members who have not heard of it.  I know in Australia we quite often have things for years after they are banned in America.

 

 

 

Cazza - you can buy Sugarflair in Australia. Its from the UK I believe. The BEST thing about it's purple, pink and red is that it doesn't have that awful bitter taste that the Americolor range has in the same colours. The colours will not fade. Also, another way around it is to airbrush your cake. If you can't get the Sugarflair, keep your pink, purple or red cakes out of UV light as this is what is causing the issue.

 

Re: the purple being blue...guess that is why it was free ;-)

When purple fades, its the red that is fading, so you end up with this shade of blue. Not sure why this happened, it might have been a faulty batch where they didn't add the red in! Usually the SI purple is a lovely shade of purple.