I need black royal icing for hair on my little figures for a cake for this weekend and I think by time I add enough food coloring to white icing it will no longer hold up. Anyone have any suggestions. I thougt if I started out with chocolate royal icing it would work. Anyone ever do this.

Add more powdered sugar.

more powdered sugar lightens the color

I have added black and then cornstarch to thicken it back up. The problem I find is that if you eat it your mouth goes black/purple (yuck).

I have had much better success with adding cocoa powder first as it thickens and darkens the royal icing and so I need a lot less black coloring.

yes, i have made the icing as usual and then added the cocoa and black coloring. But I often use royal icing for cookies, not flowers, so it may be more different to get the consistency you need if you are making flowers.

Actually I need it to make long flowing hair on little figures on a cake. Thanks I'm going to give it a try.

I make dark royal icing - black included - by adding the color before adding any powdered sugar. You'll need far less this way. Touch it up with a bit of extra color if it's not dark enough when you're done mixing.