I'm making up my icing for the camo/army cake I have to do and my green is way to bright. The big dummy that I am used leaf green. Will adding a darker shade of green give me a darker green or am I doomed to make more icing.

Any help appreciated.

You might try adding a little black to it. I have made blue to bright and have added some black to it and it seems to take some of the brightness out of it and darkens it a bit. I use a very small amout and keep adding until I get it to the color I want. Maybe brown since you are doing a camo cake might work better. Just try a little bit of the green and see what happens. Good luck.

I have the help you need even though I do cookies and I think you need it for a cake. Just tonight I made green frosting for some cookies that was too bright. I wanted it much more muted so I barely touched the end of a toothpick dipped in black to the frosting and it gave me just what I wanted. I was coloring about 1/8 c. of royal icing. I was amazed at how little black it took to tone it down so be careful....and good luck to you!!

Here's a tip! Another way to dull a color so it's not as bright is to add the complimentary color. I know it may sound strange but it really works. Green's complimentary color is red. Just add red by very small amounts until you get the color your going for. It won't change the green to something else, it will just dull the color. Sometimes when you start adding brown or black to darken a color, it will take on a "muddy effect". If this happens the color doesn't look as clean & pure or as appetizing. (Something you learn when oil painting) (well...not the appetizing part... ) But it also works great when coloring frosting, fondant or anything else for that matter. With that being said...you may want more of a "muddy" color since you're trying to get the army/camo effect.

Just an FYI.

You're right jjkarm, if you add black to tone it down you can very easily get the muddy look you don't want. That's why you need to add tiny amounts of black. My green yesterday turned from too bright to the prettiest light, light sage green when I added just a pinpoint of black. But I'll have to remember the complimentary color rule too!

I'd add the red.. I do it all the time. The same can be said for red.. if you want a nice muted pink add a teeny bit of green.. Blue and orange.. purple and yellow.. it all works. Get yourself a color wheel and the options are endless.

Just another bit of advice. Add the red (or black, or whatever you're using) to just a small amount of icing. If you like the result, color the whole batch. If not, you haven't ruined the entire batch.