Tinting Frosting Black???? Help!!
Decorating By Quietcntry Updated 15 Aug 2006 , 3:27pm by Sweetpeeps
I am new to cake decorating and am loving it! I need to take some black frosting to my 3rd class tomorrow night but I can't for the life of me get it to tint black! I've used about half of the wilton black and still have a dark charcol color. I remember when my mom made me a raggady ann cake that the black was bitter so I am trying to avoid this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I love these forums so I thought this would be the best place to ask. Thanks!!
It is best to make Black (& red) icing a couple of days ahead of time because the longer it sits the darker it gets. If your icing is already a dark charcoal color that's probably good enough. When you decorate your cake the black/charcoal will turn even darker.
Also, I've tried tinting my icing chocolate (as mkerton mentioned). It works great!
Thanks for the help. I tinted it last night so I'll see what it looks like by tomorrow night. Hopefully it will darken. It is just for the class practice ( I think we will be attempting people) so I don't need that much.
Thanks!!!
In order to see the true color your looking for - you need to pipe a small amount of the icing on something (a small piece of parchment paper or wax paper) and let it air dry for about 15-20 minutes. That's when it will truly darken and you will see the true color. All icing colors darken a little after mixing the color in but they darken even further once they hit the air. Have fun in class. 
I always make chocolate buttercream if I know I want to tint it black. This results in having to use a lot less black and it tastes great. Also, as suggested, try to get your hands on the Americolor gels, they work the best! If you have any cocoa powder on hand, you can just add that to your buttercream now to help darken it!
I just made black they other day. I used chocolate buttercream first then I added the Wilton black. I had read on here how people did that and it worked like a charm. I also made a little extra than I needed so I can use it next time. When I just need a little bit for an eye or something I don't have to redo all that. YEAH! I love being able to freeze icing!
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