Black Tinted Buttercream Not Black Enough
Decorating By laurasc Updated 13 Apr 2006 , 3:30pm by laurasc
I have to decorate my ds's birthday cake today and per the advice of the lady at the store, I tinted my buttercream black last night and let it sit overnight. It is darker than it was yesterday but it's still an odd dark gray. I used over half the bottle of black paste colour for about a cup and a half of buttercream. 
How can I make it darker still? I don't need a lot of it, just mainly outlines and other small details but it HAS to be black.
Thanks
Laura
I always add cocoa powder, because I can never get White buttercream to turn BLACK.. only gray
I've wondered the same thing before. Mine never seems to be black enough. What I've found is that even though it doesn't look dark enough in the bowl, when you get it out there on the cake it tends to look darker. Does that make sense? I'm not experienced at all, but I just thought I'd give my .02. 
If you are using wilton paste you will have to use almost the whole bottle.Americolors are better because they require less gel and don't leave a yucky taste.Keep adding!!
Really?!! What kind of color are you using? I use Americolor - and getting black is not a problem... a few good squirts. I would just continue to add more - if your buttercream gets too thin, add more powder sugar to get the right consistancy.
You might want to add some blue or green to the black.
It'll help darken it quite well. If you add blue you can also add a touch of orange too (yes orange, it's the complement of blue on the color wheel) it will help get rid of the blue tint. If you add green to the black use red for the same reason.
Hope this helps.
Rats! I used the last of my cocoa yesterday making my ds's cake. (I had to make a triple batch to fill all the cake pans! 
) I suppose liquid Qwik wouldn't do the trick, eh?
I'm using the Wilton black paste colouring. I live in Quebec and have never seen Americolor before. Chances are it's not available here...a lot isn't.
I'm going to try to add some blue to the buttercream and more black if necessary. Unfortunately the black is really essential, it's a spiderman cake and the black is supposed to be the webbing.
Thanks for your very prompt advice! 
Laura
Real Spider webs are white. Couldn't you make them white instead of black?
Lazy_Susan
you gotta just use a lot...........I use 1 and 1/2 bottle for this cake!!!! It didn't taste bad...but man, was my hand tired of mixing all that color in......I wish I would've just made the chocolate bc for that half of the cake!! They are right too...for some reason it looked a lot more like black once it was on the cake
you gotta just use a lot...........I use 1 and 1/2 bottle for this cake!!!! It didn't taste bad...but man, was my hand tired of mixing all that color in......I wish I would've just made the chocolate bc for that half of the cake!! They are right too...for some reason it looked a lot more like black once it was on the cake
My birthday boy son (the spidey freak) was looking over my shoulder and nearly face planted when he saw the cake you made. That's awsome work! I'm going to add the remainder of the black to the buttercream and see what happens. Who knows, maybe it will look darker. But right now, in the container, it looks rather sickly.
Thanks
Laura
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