Hi, I use Antonia74's RI and was wondering how to make black, or is the only way to add black colouring? Cocoa powder? Not sure, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

I just add a few drops of Americolor Super Black..That's all you need!

I use a hint passed on to me by SweetDreamsAT. Mix cocoa powder into your RI until it is medium brownish and then add black. I use Americolor Super Black. I add a bit less than I actually need and let it sit a day or two for the color to deepen and get richer. You use less black this way and the RI had a nice cocoa flavor.

You can also paint it black after it's dry..

I use black extra by Sugarflair... works great!

Great! Thanks so much everyone!!

Either of a few methods:

Make your royal icing this way:

1 lb powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
7 tablespoons warm water
3 tablespoons powdered egg whites (meringue powder)

Mix powdered sugar, cocoa and egg whites.
Add water slowly until the icing is the consistency of thick frosting for outlining and thin with more water to fill.

and then add black colouring to get true black or..

For red start with fuschia pink, black start with brown.

The trick I use to make any black frosting RI or BC I take all left over frostings after each cake just make sure you keep the BC with the BC and the RI with the RI. Put in a container with a tight sealing lid. Just keep adding to it each time you have left over colored frostings. The color will be the ugliest color you have ever seen. When you have quite a bit of this ugly color, add a little black coloring to it. This can be done with either RI or BC.

Or just use alot of the colourings but that can make it taste horrible.

When I need alot of red or black RI, I substitute airbrush color for the water (I use meringue powder). It works great.