Here are 7 tips for how to make red buttercream that's truly bright red. Use this for cakes at Christmas, Valentine's Day cakes, or any other occasion!
First of all, I don’t recommend using liquid colours to make red. Liquid colours are watered down so your frosting will be light, even if you use a lot. Using too much liquid colour will make buttercream runny and difficult to work with.
Use gel colouring instead, starting with white buttercream or adding it to leftover orange or pink buttercream. Gels are much more concentrated than liquids and can tint buttercream with just a few drops.
Tint your buttercream to be much lighter than you want it to be. The coral shade above is perfect. With the next few tips you'll make this red much brighter without needing to use any more gel. If you make your perfect shade of red, keep in mind that it will darken significantly!
Next, microwave the light red buttercream for 5 seconds for a small bowl or 10 seconds for larger quantities. You can use a double boiler to do this over a pan of simmering water on the stovetop instead. You’ll melt the butter in the buttercream and the heat makes it much darker!
Obviously, melted buttercream is not the right consistency to frost a cake or pipe with. So after stirring, move on to the nex tip for how to make red buttercream that's truly red!
Put the bowl of melted red buttercream into the freezer for 5 minutes. The cold will darken the red colour even more. It will also thicken the buttercream so it comes back to the right stiffness or consistency.
Time alone will make red buttercream darker! Cover the bowl with cling film or saran wrap and leave it for a few hours. While the buttercream rests, the colour will develop further. You’ll notice it happen after an hour or two.
If you tint buttercream the exact shade you want, it will only stay that shade for a short time. Without using the microwave, freezer, or resting period, the colour will develop and darken while you decorate the cake.
For example, within a few hours this heart went from bright red to ruby red to burgundy! So if you skip tricks #3, #4 and #5, tint the buttercream a bit lighter than you want it to be. By the time you finish decorating the cake, the red will be much brighter.
A common question about red buttercream is whether it has an after-taste. If you use the microwave and freezer and resting hacks, you will need minimal gel. Red details and accents won't have a noticeable flavour.
But if you use a lot of gel or if the whole cake is covered with red buttercream, you will probably notice a gel after-taste. For these cakes I recommend adding another flavour to disguise it. Clear vanilla and clear almond extracts are my go-to choices. They pair well with almost any flavor of cake and the do a great job of masking unwanted gel tastes without really changing the flavour of the cake.
This is my Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe with red buttercream using all of these tricks and it's delicious!
Find pins for this tutorial below and watch a video of this tutorial on how to make red buttercream:
Here are some pins from this tutorial to save to Pinterest for later:
