Red icing?!

[Daisy17]

Hello, first time in cakes and bakes, quite a notice. Cut, have decided to try to make my 2 year old DS a ladybird cake for his birthday......gulp......the actual construction looks fairly straightforward, but what's the best way to get red icing without it just looking vaguely pink?! All suggestions gratefully received.

*Novice!

*But! Oh dear, if my cake's as good as my typing.....

Also a novice but I've recently had bright red success with gel colourings from Wilton Clicky here

A lot stronger and more vibrant than traditional watery colouring and it doesn't make the batter more wet (?) either.

HTH!

Thanks, Legs, will take a look....

are you wanting the icing red or the sponge cake??
if it is the icing, I really recommend you buy the ready made red sugarpaste.
I make cakes for my job and there are 2 colours that I buy Black and red.
it just takes so much time and paste colour to make it vibrant enough.

when do you need the cake for?

Yes, the icing - readymade sounds like a good idea too - any favourite brand?

doesn't really matter, the supermarket ones are quite good, the PME ones are good and so are the regalice ones.

Even with the Wilton gels, red is hard. I have their 'no taste' red and it tastes disgusting. I had to resort to red glitter last time.

Thanks, ladies. I have over a week on hols to experiment, so will have a look at gels and readymade. Or make a chocolate coloured ladybird with smartie coloured dots?! He's only 2 after all... Will let you know how I get on!

I made DS a fire engine cake for his third birthday. I used the red gel stuff to dye fondant icing. It took took the whole jar to get it proper fire engine/ladybird red. It looked great but tasted horrible and the children were hyper!

For his 4th birthday NeverKnowingly helped me out with some fondant dinosaurs. She is fab!

for a straight forward solution this is a straightforward answer. get 2 red one black for the dots and face. it rolls out like pastry i would cover the whole cake with red the add the black face ontop.
a pyrex dish will give you a great semicircle for your lady bird.

oh and thanks for the reference BRS

I really wouldn't faff around with dying fondant unless doing a really specific colour. The link that NeverKnowingly has posted is where I get my icing from. You can either roll it out between clingfilm sheets or use icing sugar to stop it sticking. It won't leave a dusty look - in an hour or two it just disappears. If it doesn't then just paint over with water. If it's the first time you've used fondant just remember that you need to have enough down the sides so it doesn't pull and tear.

A good tip for dying fondant is to mix the colours rather than dying - just need it together in whatever proportions you want (made a scrabble board last week and used this method for the double letter scores etc). I've had much more success making pinks, flesh tones and greens like this than using gels etc. Tesco sell a four pack of fondant in red blue green and yellow for a couple of pounds. Don't forget to post a photo so we can see how it turns out!

Ooh and don't forget to smear something on the cake before putting the fondant on so it sticks down properly. Think it's called a crumb coat? I use buttercream for this. I have hideous memories of DS2's Woolly and tig cake with crumbs stuck in the fondant and trying to pick them out and tidy them up.

Thank you so much for all your help - I'm really pleased with the finished product, a picture is on my profile, will let you know the birthday boy's reaction tomorrow.....

Nora, I used jam to stick it!

It's brilliant! Well done

yay well done!

Thank you! He loved it and even correctly identified it as a ladybird, always a good sign. And it was yummy. :) Thanks again for helpful advice.