Cake Decorating Novice: How do I make pink icing?

[Yurtgirl]

as title says

If I add red food colouring to fondant icing i seem to get a pale red colour progressing to RED

How do I create pink? Do I need to go to a fancy cake decorating shop?

Help!

[ramonaquimby]

just a a v small amount to the icing

[Goober]

Red food colouring. Just a drip.

[giddykipper]

Just a teeny tiny bit of red colouring should work, doesn't it?

[Yurtgirl]

I am hoping to recreate something vaguely similar to this

Well that colour at least - Im trying not to be too ambitious!
Just a circular cake that colour with fancy little decorations on top would do!

[Yurtgirl]

You reckon?

I tried that - sort of went a peachy colour!
If you add a drop to glace icing it does go pink, but with this shop bought fondant icing I just seem to get a peachy colour or a pale red - ie not PINK

I will go and try again..........

[PlumBumMum]

I used a cotton bud and added a bit at a time I got pink from red,
but you can also get pink food colouring

[Goober]

How about if you make a tiny ammount of pink glace icing then add that to your fondant?

[Yurtgirl]

I have tried again and sadly it just wont turn the colour I need it too - ie the colour of the castle in this link (scroll down)

I am going to have to find a local shop that sell something suitable

Where can I buy pink food colouring/paste from?

argh!

[PlumBumMum]

You can get pink in the supermarket, I used pink colouring for the ponies on my profile, I used red for the writing on the other cake, you do need to work with it loads to get past the peachy colour

[PlumBumMum]

Or buy this if you can't find pink, I've seen it more than pink

[Yurtgirl]

Plumbum - thankyou that would do, pink food colouring
I have supercook red which isnt doing it for me!

I wonder if I try a different tescos if they will have it.........

[daisydotandgertie]

I order cake decorating supplies from these people here.

They usually send things next day delivery and have masses and masses to choose from - have a look under consumables and sundries, and a piece of cake has 2 pinks - baby pink and pink. The pink looks closest to the colour you're after.

Good luck!

[Yurtgirl]

Thankyou daisy Ill have a look now

[Yurtgirl]

Thats great daisy!
Another q though - is that icing ready to be used or paste that I add to my icing

How much of that paste will I need to colour 1kg of icing that shade of pink?

[daisydotandgertie]

Oooh. They've got a really cool cerise too.

[Yurtgirl]

I am now thinking of getting some cake smoothers!

Pretty please can anyone advise about paste
How far will 100g of paste go?

[daisydotandgertie]

For the cake you're doing, maybe some of the ready to roll sugar paste from M&B London might be easiest. They have a huge range of icing and it comes in a decent quantity.

Have a look a bit further down the list for M&B.

[Yurtgirl]

Daisydot - you are a marvel thankyou!
That is the cerise one you were talking about earlier yes?

So I could buy 2 packs of 500g cheaply

Persumably that is ready to use as it is
Can I add white to it to make a paler version of the same?

[Yurtgirl]

Pants that one is out of stock anyway!

Am I right in thinking there are two products available?

ready coloured icing, ready to use
And paste that you add to icing yourself

[bellavita]

Yurtgirl - you can buy ready made white fondant at Tesco (get mine from there) and I colour mine myself. You just need to get some SugarFlare pink paste, add, kneed, roll it out and voila!

[bellavita]

knead

[daisydotandgertie]

There are a few different products really.

There's ready to roll icing like the 500g quantity one (it may be worth an email to them to find out if there's a substitute available or whether they're expecting new stock in the next day or so).

And there's a sort of sophisticated colouring which comes in a small glass pot usually - it's a bit like poster paint in consistency and you add more or less of it to white rollout icing depending on the shade of the colour you're after. Have a look at Squires Kitchen on the site in the same area.

The flower paste is a different consistency, a bit like ready to roll icing, but with a different make up. It's designed for moulding flower petals and so on.

There's so much on the site that I'm sure they'll have something that will help you with the cake. Every time I look at it, I find something else.

[bellavita]

daisy - squires kitchen is a very good site.

[Yurtgirl]

Thankyou for the helpful guide to icing daisy

Bellavita - Do you mean this?
Sugarflair Colours - Spectral Paste - 25g in pink?
I cant link to it directly annoyingly!

Persumably 25g will colour well over 1kg of fondant icing - which I did buy at tesco yes

[Xavielli]

With paste colour you literally only need to dip a cocktail stick into the colour and add to the sugarpaste and knead and it will turn it a very vibrant shade.