Hi! I make the ocasional chocolate chip cookies for me and my family, but I am not well versed in cookies. I do decorate cakes, and I have an order where both worlds collide. A bride sent me a picture of a cake that is decorated with cookies spelling out the words JUST MARRIED. I will attempt to post picture, but don't know if will work.

Anywho, the problems is that the cookies are BLACK with white fonfant icing and black piping on it. My main issue here is the color of the cookies. I have tried several recipes, but the cookies are always chocolate brown color, never black. I used Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder, but it is brown, not black, therefore the cookies will never turn black.

I have read here some posts about a Hershey's dark cocoa powder, but I live in Puerto Rico, so I can only find the regular one.

Can anyone of you cookie experts give me some tips/ideas/rescue me?

Thanks!!

Try adding black food coloring to the dough. Or you could coat the baked cookies in black icing and go from there.

Maybe I'm color blind but the cookie looks chocolate brown with black outline.

I second GeminiRJ. Make any cookie you like and just cover it all in icing.

Kate714 --good point! I wonder if you could cut shish kebob skewers or small dowels into 2-inch pieces and stick them into the top of the cookie before you bake. That way you could have a very smooth surface to decorate (bottom of the cookie), and the top would have the dowels you could push into the cake to hold them in. Then just secure with a little extra icing. Just a thought.

It reminds me of cakes from the Flour Patch Bakery. I remember reading that they don't use skewers to attach. Must be a way.......lots of BC?

Here are some cookies I made that taste like heaven......if you undercook them just slightly they still firm up nicely but taste like a fudgy brownie....yummmmmmmmmmmmmm...and they keep their shape just perfectlly...I've used them twice and love em'!!! Oh and as you can see they are a very very dark brown almost black, in fact I bet if you used the dark cocoa powder they'd BE black!

Here's the recipe and you can adjust it for how many you want to make....when I first tried it I made it for 10 cookies LOL

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Ever-Chocolate-Cutout-Cookies/Detail.aspx

Ha. I'm a goof. Just found that cake on www.flourpatchbakery.com . Love those cakes, such a great niche they found for themselves, just wish I knew how they attached their cookies.

Oh...checked out their cookie menu and it's vanilla, chocolate, or gingerbread, so I think you are safe making a chocolate cookie. I bet it's the lighting or the fact that they are decorated with white icing that makes them look black.

I wish I knew too!

KHalstead, those are BEAUTIFUL!!!! And thanks for sharing that recipe!! They look yummy!

Thanks to all for your great suggestions. CC'ers never disappoint!!!

I still have a month before the cake is due, so I'll try some of these tips and let you guys know how it goes.

Thanks also for the idea for the skewers. I hadn't given much tought to sticking them to the cake. I just figured BC would hold, but you guys gave me plan B.

THANKS!!!!

Hershey makes a "special dark" cocoa which makes your cake or cookies much darker than regular cocoa without having to change your recipe or add more. HTH.

I wish I could find that dark cocoa around here!!

Thanks to all your recommendations! Here is a picture of my cake with the black cookie letters. I could not find the Hershey's dark cocoa powder in PR, so I used a recipe that called for a high cocoa to flour ratio and added some black icing coloring. It worked!!

The white backgroud in the cookies is Royal Icing (hot&humid in PR, so fondant does not keep as well) with black RI piping. The bride & groom both have motorcycles, so they asked me to put one in the cake. They also provided the topper, which looks very similar to actual bride & groom.

Thanks again!!!

Excellent!

where's the picture?? I don't see the link to your photos on the bottom?

I love it! You did a wonderful job recreating that cake.

awesome! how'd you end up attaching the cookies?

You did a terrific job! That cake is very unique-I'll bet the couple was thrilled with it!

That cake looks beautiful. for anyone else that might make this cake, i think it looks so black because the RI outline is black, and the flooding is white. How did you get the cookies to stick to the cake?

oh, I see it now! I swear, it wasn't there when I just read this thread It came out GREAT!!!

WOW !!! Great Job!!!!

Very impressed with your end result, you did a magnificent job!!
Your cookies look great.

Very cool looking cake. You did a great job!

Thanks for your comments. I'm blushing.

The bride sent me an email today telling me that they loved it and that it looked just like the picture, so I am very proud of myself.

I attached the cookies using a bit of BC and a bit of RI, since the wedding was outdoors, in a Puerto Rico summer (temp over 90, humidity almost 100%). In a cooler climate, I think BC only can hold. They were not that heavy. Plus, since the cakes were 3" high, the cookies actually sat on the cake and were suported from the bottom. If they had to be suspended, I think I would have baked dowels/toothpicks into the cookies like it was suggested in this thread.

Thanks to everyone again!!!