I have made the Rose Red Velvet Cake so many times but I cannot get it to be red.  I have managed a very light barely noticable red-orange but never the traditional red.  I have tried both the red food colouring from a bottle and mixing my wilton no taste red with water and I still can’t get it red.  Any suggestions?

Hello Moderncake

Are you deviating from the recipe in any way?  When I made this cake, I got the expected red. 

Are you using an especially dark chocolate?  Have you tried increasing the chocolate just a little (and decreasing the flour) by the same amount?

moderncake - 07 October 2011 08:07 PM

cannot get it to be red

You used the entire bottle?

I weigh all my ingredients and follow it to a tee.  I first tried it with the liquid food colouring and found it to not be very red so I tried adding more wilton red gel colour to it and it still wasn’t very red.  I made it tonight with the maximum of cocoa (and subsequent reduction in flour) and it was barely red, more chocolate.  The cocoa I am using is 24%.  It still tastes super yummy, I just really wanted that bright red cake.

Hi Moderncake,  I used supermarket red food coloring and it came out a beautiful shade of red.

It look at least 1 teaspoon of the Wilton gel color for the cake I made to be really red.  How much coloring did you use?

I will have to try the bottle of food colouring again.  Maybe I will add wilton red to it as well.  I will let you know my results!

Hi there!
I have made at least a dozen of Rose’s red velvet recipe. I use wilton’s red-red colour, half of the 1 once jar. I have used the no taste red but ended up using the whole 1 once jar to get the same affect. What i do in order to stay through to roses measurements is sit the egg mixture on the scale, add the red food colouring and then water until i get the same weight as what rose’s suggest in her recipe for the red food colouring. Then I combine with the whisk. Attached is a picture of what you can expect the colour to look like. Keep in mind I add an extra tbsp of cocoa and decrease by the same amount the flour. Hope this helps!

Thank you!  That is exactly the colour I am trying for.  I will have to follow your tips the next time I make it.

your welcome! Hope it all works out for you!

moderncake - 07 October 2011 08:07 PM

I have made the Rose Red Velvet Cake so many times but I cannot get it to be red.  I have managed a very light barely noticable red-orange but never the traditional red.  I have tried both the red food colouring from a bottle and mixing my wilton no taste red with water and I still can’t get it red.  Any suggestions?

Moderncake, I have the same problem…Rose’s red velvet cake looks magenta, not red when I use my supermarket’s brand of food colouring, Club House.  Based on what others have reported, I’m beginning to think that perhaps it’s the brand of liquid food colouring…..I’m curious to know what others are using.

Claudine - 05 February 2012 06:03 PM

Hi there!
I have made at least a dozen of Rose’s red velvet recipe. I use wilton’s red-red colour, half of the 1 once jar. I have used the no taste red but ended up using the whole 1 once jar to get the same affect. Attached is a picture of what you can expect the colour to look like.

Claudine, your cake is beautiful!

I’ve also used gel instead of the liquid food colouring to adjust the shade of Rose’s red velvet cake (and water to make up for lost volume) but I used the Wilton no taste red and though it was an improvement, it still wasn’t ideal…now I know why! I had no idea that the no taste was any different in concentration from the red-red. Thank you so much for that information. I’m tempted now to try AmeriColor red….I’ve used their black in the past and it’s far superior to the Wilton black.

Claudine - 05 February 2012 06:03 PM

Keep in mind I add an extra tbsp of cocoa and decrease by the same amount the flour.

I’ve recently tried a few recipes for red velvet from other sources (Baked, Flour) and I’ve noticed that the best colour is achieved in those that use more cocoa powder. I’m going to try your adjustments the next time I bake Rose’s; hopefully I can replicate your results . Thank you for sharing.

I found the photo I had taken of the 4 recipes I had tried:

A is The Cakeman (liquid colour + small amt cocoa powder)
B is from Baked (gel colour + larger proportion of cocoa)
C is from Flour (liquid colour + lots of cocoa….tasted like chocolate cake!)
D is Rose’s (liquid colour + small amt cocoa)

you are Welcomed Sophia!
Yes, indeed, Wilton’s has 2 red’s and the no taste one will give you an orangy tinted instead of the lovely red on Rose’s book unless you use the whole jar. Trying to cut back on how much food colouring and price (those little jar get pricey after a while!) I decided to stick with the red red instead as i use half I have also tried with different brands, names i can’t recalled but was suggested by clerks working at Ares and such… never worked. was either too pink or orange.

Looking at your pictures, I’m starting to think that depending on their performances, it’s the quantity of the colouring that needs to be adjusted depending on the brands, in order to make the cake a deep red… the photo for b seems close, perhaps same amount of chocolate cocoa with a little more red colour would work? I am now use to seeing what the batter should look like before baking it so luckily i can adjust when using a different brand of colouring when i’m out of wilton’s before it goes into the over!

Thanks for all the info on the red-red & no-taste red—I was looking at these the other week and wondering which to consider—and how much I’d need to use.  Many, many thanks for all this great info!

Sophia, love your pic of the different reds produced by different recipes!  Very helpful.  I bet there are also differences between different colorings using the same recipe.