I need to do a Halloween wedding cake and the bride has requested black icing any suggestions on how to do it...Every time I use Butter Cream and Wiltons color it is always more Gray then Black......

Is she wanting the entire cake black? Or just borders and decorations?

You will need ALOT of black to get black, let if sit for a couple of hours to darken.

Also, icing with that much dye is gross, it's ok for accents but not for icing the entire cake.

If she is deadset on an entire cake, I highly recommend buying black Satin Ice fondant.

If they are not opposed to chocolate I would start with a chocolate buttercream or fondant. It doesn't take anywhere near as much to make it black, and it has a wonderful taste (unless you don't care for chocolate.)

I agree go the chocolate route if possible. You could also try to persuade her to have chocolate brown instead of black. I made a halloween cake with a dark chocolate ganache and a black spider, the photo is in my gallery, I dont think it would have looked any better black...it's worth a try!

I would definitely try to start with chocolate it would be much easier but black can be done you'll need to use a better coloring. Try americolor or chefmaster and be sure to make your icing a little stiffer so when you add the additional icing it doen't get too soft.

I just did a black shower cake. I used DH dark choclolate icing, whipped it with more powdered sugar and a little black food coloring.

I did crust with a glossy finish. If you go to my pictures, you can see the black shower cake with wedding dress on it. Everyone loved the taste of the icing.

If you go the black dye route, when guests smile at the reception they'll all have black teeth. OH Wait, that could really work for a Halloween wedding !!

You should do a small test cake to get your icing right.

I made my dads birthday cake in his team colours of balck and gold. Silly me did the cake black with gold accents. BIG MISTAKE!!!

We all had black teeth and lips and OMG it was hysterically funny but definately NOT for a wedding.

Something else to keep in mind, if you go white to black, all that coloring has to go somewhere and it is not absorbed by the body. I'm not intentionally trying to be gross. My daughters were very alarmed by this the next day after eating a smiley cake which only had black facial features.

I would agree with using the chocolate icing and then using black food coloring to color it. I have done this with a race track cake in my photos and it turned out very nice! Plus it tastes very good too! Good luck!

My first thought was to suggest black fondant like the others, it is just soo much easier. You can purchased precolored satin ice fondant, or if you make MMF you can color the melted marshmallows and it takes a lot less work and a lot less color to get black.

If they insist on buttercream, I would do a darker grey cake then use a black airbrush spray. it will take a lot of coats, paitence, and time, but it will not be as bad as black buttercream.

It doesn't take much to turn poop and pee black when you make black icing.

I strongly suggest you post a card next to the cake with a warning (I do as well as label every box in huge bold print) because if anyone eats more than their share and don't put two and two together I can assure you once they poop or pee black (and I mean it will be solid BLACK), in a panic they will either do a doctors visitor if freaked enough or a trip to the ER. (I've had both happen)

Besides if they do a cake smash that black will definately stain white clothing if that is what she goes with, with fondant it won't be as bad but with that frosting.... UGH!

If they want buttercream definately start with chocolate frosting and add black to that. It's going to take huge amounts of black if you start with a white base.

One other thing with black fondant, even though Satin Ice is awesome, people will still probably peel it off and just eat the buttercream. That way, she will get the look she wants, and the dyes will not go in (and out) of the system.

FYI to those that do chocolate buttercream, I used the Hershey "Special Dark" cocoa before (which I think is nasty), and yes, things came "out" pretty dark!!