Whats the best way to make black buttercream icing . Can you start with chocolate icing and color it black?

I like to start with chocolate and add black powdered color. It prevents it from getting to wet.

Thank you Misterc ! Ive never heard of the powder colors Would this work in the fondant as well ? Ive added to much gel ( red ) to my fondant before and it broke down ? Thanks again !

When you cannot use chocolate because it has been specified NO chocolate, I have used brown coloring first and then added black. This works well with the Wilton colors - my location limits me to Wilton colors. Thankfully I have not had any problems with anything breaking down, but it is good to know that it can. So if it does happen I know exactly why - thanks for the info. I will have to order some powder colors to give those a try, because I have read a lot of good things about them here in CC. Good luck with your black BC

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-716815.html

Have you seen this post?

If you make your own fondant you can add the powder color while its still wet. I still add some black gel but not nearly as much. All of my black fondant cakes were made using that method of coloring.

Thanks for the tips I can always count on my fellow CCers TexasSugar Thank you !!!

Americolor super black and you won't need much coloring it works wonderful. Much better than Wilton colors.

You dont need chocolate to make black. You need a good quality pigment color.
Use chefmaster or americolor liqui-gel black. Wont give you a bitter flavor.
Hope this helps
Edna

All I use is americolor gel but I still find I get a better tasting black if use the powder color plus a little gel.

Thank severyone for your help I used americolor super black . Didnt have time to order the chefmaster or the powdered but Im definitely going to .

heres my black bc . I started with chocolate a little at a time. used a half of a small bottle of the black color and it still looked gray :-/ but I covered and let it sit for a couple hours and it did look a little darker I added a little more color and stated icing my cake . Let it sit for a while and sure enough it got darker as it sat didnt bleed on to my mmf white decor over night yay!!!!

I hate living in Ga the humidity is NOT my friend I always have to worry about the bleeding !!!!

Thanks everyone for the help and Edna I did order me some Chefmaster. I hope it helps me with my bleeding problem ...

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2023033