How Do I Make Red Icing?

[janelyb]

My son wants a red firetruck cake and I already know what cake mix and frosting I'm gonna use but I have no clue how to make my frosting red. Does anyone know what I can do. It must be gluten-free and dairy/casein free as well.

thanks.

[jerseyangel]

If you don't mind using a food coloring, McCormick's is gluten-free. In addition to being a company that will clearly list any gluten on the label, I have called them about their food coloring, and it is gluten-free.

[janelyb]

  jerseyangel said:

If you don't mind using a food coloring, McCormick's is gluten-free. In addition to being a company that will clearly list any gluten on the label, I have called them about their food coloring, and it is gluten-free.

but I can never get it red...it only turns pink...I've tried it several occassions. Any tricks to get it RED like a fire engine?

[jerseyangel]

I know--it's hard to get a true, vivid color. I would suggest calling the company (1 800 632 5847) and see if they have any suggestions. I'm sure they've gotten that question before!

Good luck with it

[SunnyDyRain]

Wilton Cakes has little jars of paste. If you use liquid food coloring you need to ass extra sugar to make it not thin the icing down. I'd call wilton to see if their icing paste is gluten-free, and use that. YOur going to need alot of it, but it will get red!

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[Karen B.]

I have seen red petite fours at Christmas, so I know it's doable. But I don't know how to do it. I wondered if you could use red cookie sugar sprinkled on and gently pressed into white (or pink) icing. I know the colored sugar holds it's color when I bake with it at Christmas time. I can look in some cookbooks when I get home.

If you find the Wilton's is gluten-free and you can use it, I saw this note on their website: "Note: Large amounts of Red-Red, Christmas Red, and Black may affect icing taste. Use No-Taste Red for large areas of red on a cake. When using Black, start with chocolate icing to limit the amount of color needed." The note reminded me of an unpleasant Red Velvet Cake I tasted that had way too much food coloring in it. Aside from turning everyone's teeth red, it had an icky undertaste.

[janelyb]

  Karen B. said:

I have seen red petite fours at Christmas, so I know it's doable. But I don't know how to do it. I wondered if you could use red cookie sugar sprinkled on and gently pressed into white (or pink) icing. I know the colored sugar holds it's color when I bake with it at Christmas time. I can look in some cookbooks when I get home.

If you find the Wilton's is gluten-free and you can use it, I saw this note on their website: "Note: Large amounts of Red-Red, Christmas Red, and Black may affect icing taste. Use No-Taste Red for large areas of red on a cake. When using Black, start with chocolate icing to limit the amount of color needed." The note reminded me of an unpleasant Red Velvet Cake I tasted that had way too much food coloring in it. Aside from turning everyone's teeth red, it had an icky undertaste.

that's a great idea using the red sprinkes I might do that instead. And yes another friend mentioned to use the no taste red one too.

[janelyb]

I wonder if the spray on stuff from wilton is gluten-free?

[Rosewynde]

I don't know about gluten free or not but I've used the Black Paste from Wilton's before to get a black frosting instead of an odd grey green or grey purple that you can achieve with food color. To much paste WILL flavor the frosting funky though cause I've had that happen. Maybe a combination of food color and the paste would work, that's what i did my second time around and it worked better. I also settled for a dark grey instead of black ; D

[Karen B.]

  Rosewynde said:

I don't know about gluten free or not but I've used the Black Paste from Wilton's before to get a black frosting instead of an odd grey green or grey purple that you can achieve with food color. To much paste WILL flavor the frosting funky though cause I've had that happen. Maybe a combination of food color and the paste would work, that's what i did my second time around and it worked better. I also settled for a dark grey instead of black ; D

I did see a suggestion on the Wilton's site that for black frosting, start with chocolate so you don't need as much coloring to turn it black.

I was wondering if licorice strings are gluten-free because it seems like they'd be great for drawing out details on the firetruck. Are you using yellow gumdrops for the headlights?

[Michi8]

  janelyb said:

My son wants a red firetruck cake and I already know what cake mix and frosting I'm gonna use but I have no clue how to make my frosting red. Does anyone know what I can do. It must be gluten-free and dairy/casein free as well.

thanks.

As already mentioned, the Wilton food colouring gels are fantastic. I made a cat in the hat cake one birthday (4 round cakes stacked...white & red strips) and the colour turned out well. It will stain mouths, hands and teeth though.

However, the fire trucks in our town are yellow...it could be a good option over so much red icing...and would use way less food colouring.

Michelle

[Darn210]

I was wondering if licorice strings are gluten-free because it seems like they'd be great for drawing out details on the firetruck. Are you using yellow gumdrops for the headlights?

[Michi8]

  Karen B. said:

I did see a suggestion on the Wilton's site that for black frosting, start with chocolate so you don't need as much coloring to turn it black.

I was wondering if licorice strings are gluten-free because it seems like they'd be great for drawing out details on the firetruck. Are you using yellow gumdrops for the headlights?

Unfortunately, licorice strings are not (typically) gluten free. But piping black icing would work just as well.

Michelle

[natalie]

I've used the wilton paste and it works really well. I use to no taste red. Like another poster said... you will need a lot.

Good Luck

[janelyb]

thanks everyone I'll post pictures when I make it next week. Not sure yet which idea I am gonna use. Maybe the sprinkles idea seems the easiest or just do a yellow fire engine.

[janelyb]

I wanted to try out my friends vegan recipe and also practice for my son's b-day cake. I didn't have all the supplies I needed to decorate so I made due with what I had. Somewhat how I want the real one to look like. Here is a picture

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1338/605675690_d9454253e9.webp

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[Karen B.]

  janelyb said:

I wanted to try out my friends vegan recipe and also practice for my son's b-day cake. I didn't have all the supplies I needed to decorate so I made due with what I had. Somewhat how I want the real one to look like. Here is a picture

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1338/605675690_d9454253e9.webp

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It looks cute. Are you going to make it red on B-day? Or stick with yellow?

[laurelfla]

Hi!

I'm taking a Wilton Cake Decorating Course at Michael's and just wanted to add here that the box of 12 icing colors is gluten free and also the meringue powder. The icing I found out about by calling today and the meringue powder info is from their website.

[Juliet]

There's also edible spray on "dyes" by, I think, Wilton that are gluten free. And a lot of times people use fondant, and there's colored gluten free fondant by Wilton, too.