I know this may sound dumb to most of you, but I'm new at this cake stuff. I used wiltons icing color to turn my white icing black. After several hours it still looks kind of dark blue. I added more, but I'm afraid of adding to much. Will it eventually turn black? How far in advance should you tint icing to achive the correct color?

Going from white to black can be really difficult and even if you do, you may end up with a bitter taste when using the Wilton black. If you start by adding cocoa powder to make chocolate, you can get to black easier. If you don't want the black to taste like chocolate, you can just tint it brown. You also might want to try using AmeriColor's Super Black. No aftertaste and you'll use less of it. I was able to get to black straightaway but you can usually stop adding color when the icing is a charcoal grey. Let it set overnight and it should be black by morning.

The easiest way to make black icing is to start with chocolate icing. You won't need to add much black coloring to it. I usually don't use much black icing at a time so I buy pre-made chocolate frosting from the grocery store and color it with black coloring. As a side note, its also easier to get red icing if you start with a pink icing first so I usually tint buttercream icing with pink first and then add the red coloring.

Hope that helps.

Cindy

huh! I'd never thought of that with the pink icing! I'm glad you asked the question! You learn something new everyday!

How do you get black icing if you don't have the option of starting with chocolate (person is allergic and wans a spiderman cake)?

Ok ... I do mine the real easy way. My cake supply store has small containers of black icing that I buy. She usually has lots of it available in May (Indy 500 season!). Since I don't use much, I just pick up one of these.

I'll check that. He has so many allergies that I am just sooo nervous about making this cake!

What about trying to color it brown first and then adding your black?

i was having the same problem getting my fondant black even using brown first didn't work so good and Yesterday I had some dark green fondant that I put some black color in it and it worked so good it is really black without using so much.

I usually make chocolate icing and color it black. Or, I'll make brown and go to black.

I do make my icing a few days in advance, to allow the color to really take shape. It makes all of the difference, in my opinion.

Another thing to do is say you have leftover icing of all colors (you could even try mixing small amounts of different colors if no leftover) then mix them together and add a small amount of black. After all, white is the absence of color and black is the opposite (it's all colors..she said in her most un-scientific voice LoL!) Try it tho..it will work for you.

Thanks for the advice. I checked the store version of black icing and it has vegetable oil (which includes soybean) and he is allergic to that as well. Told you this was going to be hard! I will try mixing a bunch of colors and see how that works.

I echo the above post, Americolor every time.

I never thought to use brown (or pink) first! Such a great place to learn! I've always just added alot of black color and let it sit over night....

just a personal side note.... be ready for a black tongue! But, after reading everyone else's posts... its' probably because I use so much color and don't use brown first. lol