I have a friend who asked if I could make her some graduation cap cookies (she saws pics of the ones i made previously) and I agreed. The thing is she wants them to be black.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations on how to make Black cookie icing? I made chocolate royal icing and tried coloring it black, it is still coming out charcoal. HELP! I need to find an idea by tomorrow when i need to start decorating so they are dry in enough time.

Thanks in advance!

I make black RI all the time, using Americolor Super Black. (Examples can be found in my gallery--wedding shower cookies with heart "tuxes".) I have found that it helps a LOT to make it at least a couple of hours ahead of time, to let the color deepen.

On the other hand, I have never had much luck using the Wilton gel for black.

I start by adding cocoa powder (in a "slurry") to my white RI. Then, I use Americolor black (much, much better than Wilton's). I mix it to a deep charcoal color, then let it set overnight in a sealed container at room temperature. By morning it darkens to black.

I agree with Bonniebakes. You need to be patient with black and red. Let them sit for several hours and the color will deepen. Americolor is the way to go. Wilton's one requires a lot more black and then it started tasting funny. HTH. Good luck!!

I make black kind of like Bonniebakes does, but instead of cocoa powder, I use Americolor chocolate brown and color it to a nice, deep brown. Then I start adding Americolor super black until it's near the shade that I want (doesn't take much), then let it rest for a little while to darken up the rest of the way.

I have Americolor airmist food coloring in super black. Can i use that to achieve the deep black or is that really just for the airbrush machine???

I do the same thing Bonnie does and it works like a charm. I use Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder. Just mixed up black this morning and it is already deepening.

Thank you all so much!! I tried the cocoa then added the Americolor Super Black, let it set for about 4 - 5 hours and achieved a great Black color!!

Thank you all again for the tip! I really appreciate it!

I get a great black by mixing together leftover colors - you know, when you have a little bit of blue icing, and little bit of red, and a little bit of yellow, and a little bit of green. That gives you a good base (somewhere between a brown and dark gray, depending on your colors), and then I use Americolor Superblack. I save icing by using my leftover colors; plus it does not take nearly as much of the black food coloring to get a nice true black. I do the same thing with fondant.