Strawberry Red

[Andy M.]

SO wants to make a cake to look like a strawberry. Bright red!

I'm not sure you can get that deep dark red with food coloring from the grocery store. What do I do?

Can she just dump a ton of red food coloring into the frosting or should we be buying something else?

 

[Kathleen]

Red Cake

Andy, when making red velvet cake, which is pretty red, we add like 2 ounces of red food coloring. I think that would work regardless of the flavor of cake. Then red food coloring in the icing.

Is the cake going to be flavored with strawberries?

~Kathleen

 

[Andy M.]

Andy, when making red velvet cake, which is pretty red, we add like 2 ounces of red food coloring. I think that would work regardless of the flavor of cake. Then red food coloring in the icing.

Is the cake going to be flavored with strawberries?

~Kathleen

We're only concerned with coloring the frosting. The cake will be a yellow cake.

The cake will not be flavored with strawberries but there will be strawberries between the layers.

 

[jabbur]

I think there's a thing called color paste that you can get in the stores that sell cake decorating tools. It's used to make more vibrant colors. I know my sister has used that but I've never tried it myself. Often the stuff in the little bottles in the grocery stores won't get you the really vibrant reds.

 

[Kathleen]

My sister uses the paste too for icing and also for candy that she makes. It's very red.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

SO wants to make a cake to look like a strawberry. Bright red!

I'm not sure you can get that deep dark red with food coloring from the grocery store. What do I do?

Can she just dump a ton of red food coloring into the frosting or should we be buying something else?

Andy, Wilton makes concentrated gel colors that work great I use them often for my frostings as well as red velvet cake... You can get them at Michaels, i'm assuming you have a Michaels in your neck of the woods...

Go slow with them as they are very intense, and a very little goes along way... What I usually do is keep some frosting seperate from what i'm coloring just in case I get carried away, then I can add the white frosting in and tone it down... Hope this helps....

 

[mollyanne]

I wonder, to avoid too much red dye, if you could add Beet juice to the red dye to intensify it. Just a thought.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

I wonder, to avoid too much red dye, if you could add Beet juice to the red dye to intensify it. Just a thought.

Mollyanne unlike the food coloring you buy from the supermarket (where you have to use 1-2 ounces just to get the right color for red velvet cake) the gel is used sparingly... I use a toothpick to add to frostings, and cake batters...

As for beets, IDK, hey heres an idea Google it google girl!!!

(just playing around girl, you know I love ya more than my luggage)

 

[buckytom]

mmmmm, beet cake.

lol, j/k mollyanne. beets are a great natural dye.

andy, are you going to make all of the little seed specks, like on a real strawberry?

 

[Andy M.]

...andy, are you going to make all of the little seed specks, like on a real strawberry?

Not a chance! I don't have the patience for that. SO is making this cake. I'm just the computer assistant.

 

[Selkie]

That rich, dark color of a red velvet cake comes from from using red food coloring in combination with a chocolate cake batter. Using beet juice to make a strawberry cake is the wrong shade of red.

The strawberry cakes that I've seen, use a pure white cake (angel food?) with strawberry frosting. It's more of a dark pink than red. White frosting with a very few drops of red food coloring. Go slowly.

 

[Andy M.]

...It's more of a dark pink than red. White frosting with a very few drops of red food coloring. Go slowly.

Don't care about the color or the cake. The color of the frosting is what I'm after and it has to be !!RED!! Like a strawberry.

 

[Selkie]

As a graphic artist, I learned that reality doesn't matter. Perception matters.

 

[Andy M.]

As a graphic artist, I learned that reality doesn't matter. Perception matters.

As a partner in a committed relationship, I've learned that what my sweetheart wants is what I try to get.

 

[Selkie]

As a partner in a committed relationship, I've learned that what my sweetheart wants is what I try to get.

That's true!!! "She who must be served" must get what she wants!!!

I hope it works out for you.

 

[Andy M.]

I'm confident!

 

[nikki]

Beets will make it taste a little odd, I've tried before... lol...
For the icing, if you want a deep rich red, stick to the gel/paste food colouring that the above posters have mentioned. I use that when I'm colouring red velvet cupcakes, icing, or rolled fondant, and get great results.
If you want an icing with a hint of cocoa flavour, you can even add in some cocoa powder to the icing, along with some red gel food colour, and you'll get a rich deep shade of red (you'd probably want to test something like that out with a small sample batch at first, just in case the colour isn't right...)

 

[mollyanne]

I wonder, to avoid too much red dye, if you could add Beet juice to the red dye to intensify it. Just a thought.

My suggestion in post#7 to add beet juice to the red dye to intensify the color in Andy's frosting did not suggest to replace the red dye completely but rather add it to a lesser amount of red dye for health reasons and for the purpose of enriching/deepening the red color. Actually Beet Powder is the way to go so as not to cause a runny icing. It shouldn't affect the taste with what little you use (since you are coupling it with red dye as well). Using the Beet Powder alone would create a pink color but added to the red dye would just make it a darker red I'm thinking.

Whole Foods carries an all natural Blackberry Red Food Coloring but I've never used it and therefore not sure if it alters the taste. I've never used beet powder either but I've read about it's use and comments from people who have used it that appear favorable. I wonder if there is a Strawberry Powder available?

OffTopic (since this thread is about icing): Baking a red velvet cake using beet powder is a whole other issue because the heat changes the color to brown. There is a way around that as suggested in this link:
Naturally Colored Red Velvet Cake: Red Colored Cake Without Food Coloring and No Red Dye

 

[PattY1]

Not a chance! I don't have the patience for that. SO is making this cake. I'm just the computer assistant.

Vanilla beans would work for the seeds, I think.....

 

[Andy M.]

Vanilla beans would work for the seeds, I think.....

I was thinking sesame seeds for the seeds on the strawberry. They seem to be the right color.