I tried making black royal icing last night but it ended up being this yucky greenish/grayish/brownish color instead. The consistency was like Fluff, it was so terrible. I ended up throwing the whole batch it the trash bin. I was using wilton gel colors (probably not the best idea). I started with a bit of brown, then blue, then green, and finally black lol. I guess it was my own fault...

Can you all please provide me with some tips for making pure black royal icing for piping. What brand color do you use? Should I use liquid or gel? Or perhaps powder. As you can all see, I really need help. I plan to use it with the grass tip to pipe hair on a sculpted character that I'm making.

I use Toba Garret's Meringue Powder Royal Icing recipe, btw. Thanks!

It will darken as it dries - I add americolor to a charcoal gray color - then it will turn black when dry. HTH!

I use antonia74's royal icing recipe, when I am done with a project, I take all the leftover colorts, mix them together and add enough americolor black until its black...I dont usually have to add much. Its the same consistancy as the other colors.

I also use antonia74's recipe. I had some brown RI leftover from a little while back and the other night I needed black. I used the Americolor black and it did not take much at all. Maybe like 5 drops. Highly recommend the Americolor black.

I was just trying to make royal black icing too....my cicing turned out great-consistency wise, but not a black colour!
I only have Wilton colours where I live, and cant have Americolour shipped here either. And im getting a dark grey but no black!

Pickulz- Why can't you have americolor shipped????

I live in the middle east -shipping charges are usually a lot and not many companies ship here. I just moved here after living in the US/Canada for over 10 years and I soooo miss going to 'Michaels, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore'!

There are very limited cake decorating supply shops here and they typically carry only Wilton. Though one of my friends is going to visit in November and I going to have her bring it.
Unfortunatley I need black icing and a good red icing for this saturday! Its my sons 5th birthday party and im making a spiderman cake...or attempting to.
I just made white spider webs out of RI and they are drying! Wish I made them black though.
Now Im wondering how to get a good red colour from the Wilton no taste red I have!

I was wondering why you couldn't have Americolor shipped as well. Your profile says you're in Virginia!

oooh....didnt realize that...I use to live in VA till Januaury of this year....miss it terribly...cant wait to go back!!!
I guess its time to update my profile...im still a newbie here on cake central ...

I had the same problem recently too. I finally got black but by that time my icing was super runny. I was told to use powder colors or start out with just the gel color and no water. Once it was the right color, add water until the consistency was right.

I haven't had a chance to try again yet.

Good luck!

Why didn't you start with just black? I've covered cake boards in black royal icing, using Wilton's and it does get darker as it sits.

I read a post a few weeks back to make black using red. blue and green in equal amounts. I tried it with mmf and it worked great. hth