How do you make red icing RED??

Any cake specialists out there that can advise on how to get red icing red? every time i make red icing it turns out to be orange. I am planning to make a red bus cake for my baby's 2nd birthday & desperate to make the colour red. CAn someone pls advise? Thanx in advance!

Red food coloring is probably your best bet. If you're not getting the dark red color you're after try adding some dark green food coloring (or black or dark blue) to the mix in order to make the color darker (rather than pink or orange).


Red food coloring can be tricky to get the right color, you may want to try and find some coloring paste which often has better results. Also, colored icing often turns darker when left in the fridge overnight... so have a play with adding some darker colors to the red and letting it sit in the fridge for 12 or so hours.

If you put too much color the cake will not taste good, it will be bitter. But, if you still want that red color; you can use powder color or color paste (for color paste you have to start with pink color and add the red color after ward otherwise you will never get the color you want). Other way to color is easier use, food color spray, I think this is the best since you color only outside of the cake.

Hope your cake will look perfect!

Agree with Champei.

Or just buy the ready made red fondant. It's so much easier.

HTH :)

thanx guys, unfortunately my attempt failed & the red bus was a bright orange one! the good part of it was my baby still got excited & was singing the wheels on the bus go round song so she recognised the bus, I was thrilled with that.


Pls let me know where I can buy these cake stuff in HK as I was looking around & found no places that sells colour paste or fondant icing. My other daughter's 5th b'day is not far away & she wants a 'hickory dickory clock' so I better get a wriggle on...cheers!

Price Tag, where do you live? There are so many shop every where in HK sale baking stuffs, not only equipment but all thing you need for baking. you can PM me I'll tell you, most shops are not G/F. You'll be happy!

Hi Champei, I am in Quarry Bay. If you can pls let me know of any in Island side I would really appreciate it.

If your red icing is orange, perhaps you are using butter icing (which is yellowish - therefore mixing with the red to make orange.) You need to use very white icing, so substitute Crisco (or other vegetable shortening) for the butter. It doesn't taste quite as nice, but it's actually what most confectioners use.


Alternatively, you can use butter and add "White White" - a product that turns the icing whiter.


As someone else mentioned, you will get a better result using colouring paste; and first using pink and then red. This means you use less red, which does have a bitter taste. (Though you can also buy a special 'no-taste red' paste.


Anyway, all of these pastes and the whitening - or ready-coloured fondant if you want to make your life easier (in some respects) - are available at speciality shops like Complete Deelite (in Central). Just google it to get the address and directions. (And yes, it really is spelt that horribly.)

Honkeyblues, you are correct...I have been using that French butter that i also use for spreading on bread. It's quite yummy & all my kids love the taste but the bad part is that the colours don't turn the way I want them :( Thank you so much for the advise, I will be visiting the shop on monday as my second daughter wants a blue clock & knowing the way I make the icing it probably will turn out to be green. I will try & get the white white. thanx again!

Hi Price Tag,

Sorry didn't go on line for sometime. Yes at Complete Deelite sale almost everything and many thing that you can't find else where in Hong Kong but everything is more expensive too. There are a lots of baking supply in Shanghei street very cheap you can also buy ingredients there. There is shop call I LOVE CAKE and other one call TWIN .CO ( the TWIN.CO had a few shops, you can google to find the one that is nearer to you) also one in Wan Chai at Johnston rd.

Hope that would help!

Yes, the butter's yellow would be responsible for the orange... But that's the problem with all (or at least most) buttercreams...


The whitest one I know would be the Mousseline Buttercream by Rose Levy Beranbaum... because it uses only egg white, and not the egg yolk, so the only yellow comes from the butter... If you substitute the butter with Crisco white shortening the flavour, of course, won't be as good... but if you want to stick with buttercream, you can check this one out... https://youtu.be/SIRk8NKWa-k?si=QAeK4wnTA8aFvDed


A friend from Australia made a red car cake for her boy, and the red was definitely red enough... as far as food is concerned... She used a Marshmallow Fondant, which she said was much easier to make than regular fondant... and also much less sweet... And she did make flower cupcakes and a host of other pretty things with the MMF...



All you need is a bag of marshmallow, a bag of icing suger, and some Crisco shorteining... all of which can be purchased in CitySuper, I believe... so no need to hunt down those little baking stores / schools... Their prices vary a lot anyway... so much so that I keep an Excel file on what the 2 nearest stores charge for my commonly needed ingredients...


One point to recommend, though, is that you should add the colouring in after the marshmallows melted, before kneading in all that icing sugar... It will be much easier to get the colour evenly distributed than if you add if in the next stage...


Also, do bear in mind bus-red is a dark colour, and all the fondants are white-based... so it will take a lot more colouring to get to your red, after you get past the pastel stage...


Good luck with your next cake !! And have fun !!