im making mickey mouse shortbread cookies and dont know how to get the icing black. If i use the wilton black dye get it will turn out gray unless i use tons - hoping someone has the answer

royal icing takes color a lot better than buttercream does (there is just a lot of "fat" in buttercream that is harder to color). So it doesn't take as much black coloring. I have used wilton black or Americolor super black with no problems.

I use wilton Black to get the icing dark...then I use Americolor Super black to get it black, black. I find that if I use all Americolor, the icing tends to have a bitter taste so I started using both and I don't get the bitter after taste anymore.

I dye it brown first, Americolor chocolate brown, let it sit for a few minutes, then start adding Americolor super black. Always turns out black-black.