Perfect Red Buttercream with Minimal Food Colouring

Here's How you can make Perfect Red Buttercream with Minimal Food colouring for this Valentines Season 🤩 and also how to cover the cake with very little Red Buttercream so your cake tastes great!

If you’ve been keeping up with food regulations, you may have heard that Red 3 food colouring has recently been banned in the U.S. This particular red dye had already been prohibited in the EU and several other countries due to health concerns.

This is an important reminder that excessive use of artificial food colours isn't ideal for our health.

I personally use Colour Mill food colours, which do not contain Red 3, ensuring a safer alternative. However, even when using high-quality food colouring, I believe in moderation.

This is why I prefer working with pastel shades when decorating cakes—they require less food colouring while still looking elegant and beautiful.

But what if you need a bold, rich red for your cake design?

In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you exactly how to create a deep, vibrant red with minimal food colouring. Plus, I’ll share my technique for covering a cake using very little red buttercream while still achieving a striking result - Watch the Video Tutorial 👇 

Tips for Getting the Perfect Red Buttercream Without Excessive Food Colouring;

Add enhancing Colour – Add warm-toned colours such as yellow or orange into your buttercream to build depth without relying solely on red colour. Add a dot of black to deepen the red shade.

Warm Coloured Buttercream - Heating the buttercream for 5-10 secs in microwave will help darken the shade.

Let It Develop – Colours deepen over time. Mix your buttercream and let it rest for a few hours or overnight; you’ll often find that you need less colouring than expected.

Use Gel-Based or Oil-Based Colours – Highly pigmented colours require a smaller amount to achieve vibrant results compared to liquid food colouring.

By following these methods, you can achieve a beautiful red hue while keeping food colouring to a minimum. 

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial :) Got questions? Email me neetha@buttercreampetals.com