I always have trouble getting my icing to be jet black..any suggestions?

Start with a deep chocolate icing, if possible, and make sure to let the icing sit awhile to let the color deepen!

Either that, or airbrush/paint black on top of your icing once it's on the cake. I'd do that for larger areas anyway.

Here's some threads discussing this same problem. HTH!

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-652167-black.html+icing
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-651536-black.html+icing
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-651122-black.html+icing

Mix some coco powder in it until it's a nice chocolate brown, then mix LOTS of black color in.

Your answer is Americolor - super black! It hardly takes any at all and it will be JET, SUPER, DARK, BLACK! =o)

I have to agree with Cylstrial Americolor... I just bought the super black for a cake I was making and WOW... It took very little to actually get a good black color.