I think I have finally figured out how to make really good black icing. Start with a can of ready made frosting. I used Pillsbury Creamy Supreme Chocolate Frosting. I put that in a bowl and added about 1 1/2-2 cups of conf. sugar. Mix that together. Then start adding black gel. I used wiltons brand and I used about 1/2 of the little jar. It came out so good. It tends to get soft quicker then regular buttercream, so I just put it in the fridge when I wasn't using it. SOoooooooo much better than trying to color white icing.
Stay away from ready made frosting that is "light and whipped". I experimented with that and it takes more conf. sugar to stiffen it.

I SWEAR BY Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge icing just the way it is out of the can. I add no color whatsoever and it's black enough for me! But, you are right, it's soft; so I don't do the star fill in method with it. Any cake in my photos that has black on it was done in DH frosting.

I checked out your cakes to see the black. Your yin yang and panther look really good and really black. Thanks for the tip.

OOOOOOO thanks for that tip!!!
I made a corset cake for my daughters bachelorette party and started with the white buttercream and the black Wilton Paste. A jar later it was Charcoal Black which was fine but the taste was SOOO bitter...yuk! I never even thought to taste it because no one ever mentioned it to me.
Now I know!!
Thank you Thank you Thank you
Ronni

Hey Guys,
I have had some problems with bitter icing trying to get a black color as well... What I have done is actually made chocolate butter cream and start there. This way, you already have a dark colored base. Then you can add your black color and it doesn't take as much and the chocolate combats the bitterness. Has worked for me, that way, you don't compromise your buttercream and can decorate and smooth/shape as needed. Also remember, when the buttercream dries, the color gets a shade or two darker, so don't be dissappointed with the color in the bowl, give it some time. Hope this helps.

When you use a jar or so of black, don't people's teeth and tongue and lips get black too?

WildWires, welcome! I see this is your first post!

if you don't want to use ready made frosting try adding cocoa powder to your icing and then black color. it always works for me...and remember...your icing gets darker after it sits for a while.

Yes their teeth and tongues turn black!! Didn't really think about that one either. It was kinda funny seeing abunch of people walking around with black mouths. I had my sons brush with peroxide to get it off their teeth.

My son said "I don't know how to tell you this mom but there is something wrong with the cake. It has a NASTY taste to it. I can't put my finger on it!"
I said " No but you put your tongue all over it" I was crackin' up!
I just thought folks would scrap the frosting off because I normally do...boy was I wrong.

But I will do as you say and make chocolate buttercream and then put black into it- nobody around here will ever eat anything I color black again-but I digress....and that should take care of the problem.

Hey, don't give up yet. Have you ever tried the (No Taste) Wilton Colors. I found some (NO Taste) Red yesterday at our local Wally-World (Wal-Mart), and it is not near as bitter and the normal coloring. Maybe if they have a no taste Red, they have a no taste Black??? Worth looking into... Cheers

Hey WildWires!!
Welcome to CC!!
I have used the no taste Red but have not found any no taste Black... But that is a good idea, I will look for it.
No doubt one of my boys is gonna want a superhero cake and there is always black on those bad boys!! LOL
Happy baking
Ronni

Awesome, if I find some, I will let you know...
Up! UP! AND AWAY!!!!!!! NEVER FEAR, CAKE IS HERE!!!

I swear by Americolor Super Black and Super Red - they are great. Any black or red in my cake photos are using Americolor (starting with white BC). My DH is a firefighter so I use black and red a LOT (not to mention the local school colors are also black and red).

The only "no taste" coloring offered by Wilton is Red.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30B2D9-475A-BAC0-5D5C3DB846DFD354&fid=3E33265A-475A-BAC0-597A6ED538D55E2B

I just made some black royal icing this morning. I was gonna use a chocolate icing mix rather than white, but I forgot to buy it, so I just started out with white and added a liquid black which has very LITTLE taste to it, I'll check the brand and re-post. it thinned the icing out quite a bit, but I then added some cocoa powder, made it really really think and then thinned it out with some more black, seems like a long process, but it seems to have worked.

I also start with a chocolate base but for color I use the candy color that you would usually use to tint chocolate melts. You don't have to use as much. I also use use the candy color to get red too. Only trick is that it has to be a fat based icing like buttercream with butter or shortning/sweetex.

Hershey's has their "Special Dark" Cocoa out now and I've used that in my chocolate icing before tinting with black Wilton color. Just for outlining, so am not sure how alot of it would taste if used for a big frosting job.

There's a whole lot of great tips in this post! We are working on a halloween gingerbread house and have not had a good time trying to make more black icing. Can't wait to try some of these out!