I have a wedding cake coming up in which I'll be doing black buttercream stencil work on white buttercream. I've read somewhere on here that if you need black, mix your other different colored buttercreams together and add black, which i think is a great idea. The only thing is that I won't have other colored buttercreams. I only need black. What are your methods of achieving a good black?

Also, my other question is about sifting powdered sugar. I tried tonedna's method this week, and for the first time, i was able to get a very smooth buttercream, with sharp edges. FINALLY! I found my "it" buttercream. I sifted the powdered sugar with a sieve. It took longer than I planned, because of the sifting, so I'd like to, maybe a week prior to making the buttercream, or sooner, go ahead and sift all the powdered sugar. I have a five gallon food-grade bucket that I figured I could put it in. I'm only afraid of it getting clumpy again, for whatever reason. Do you think it would be fine to do it early? Should I stick a piece of bread in it, like what people do for flour? Hope that makes sense.

I have read on here that if you want black buttercream or fondant, first mix in cocoa - it gets it to brown and gives it a nice flavour and then add your gel colour. The cocoa should also work to absorb some of the excess liquid since you use so much colour. If you just use the colour by itself I'm told it can give it a really bitter taste. I tried this method this week with fondant and it worked really well!

How did sifting the PS take to long? To do a whole bag it should take only a few minutes. I wouldn't do it before hand.

Mike

For black buttercream, I just use a chocolate buttercream recipe, then add Americolor black to it. It's super. I couldn't believe how well it turned out. It takes very little colouring and doesn't affect the taste. It also doesn't discolour the mouth of the person eating it! lol ..... I used it on this cake:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1445155
and it worked great!
HTH

I just give the americolor super black gel a good squirt and mine always comes out black..........I've never had an issue and there is no flavor with it either.

Hi, I did my brother's wedding cake with black BC stencilling last spring, and I bought a small bucket of black icing from the bakery at Sam's club. I used my icing spatula to stir/flatten the amount I was using first which did two things; softened the icing to help it spread like butter, and removed any bubbles. When dry it looked like black velvet. I tried mixing leftover colors to achieve black once and it wasn't as 'black' as I wanted. I also didn't use cocoa powder because I didn't want the icing chocolate flavored.

I wouldn't sift that much ps at once beforehand, I think it would just compact back down on itself. Did you use a metal strainer to sift? It only takes a few minutes to do it that way for me. Now, using an actual sifter was a pitb and I gave that up very quickly!

I would definitely go with the pre-made black, you can buy small tubes at the grocery store and experiment.

I have used those tubes (both black and red) for borders and such and was surprised at how good the consistency was and the fact that the icing actually crusted.

I'm not sure about the stenciling as I have never attempted that, but it's worth a try.

HTH.

Kim

For black buttercream I would suggest Americolor Super Black...no need to use cocoa powder. As for the sifting, I don't think doing it in advance would be a problem. I'm just wondering why it took so long. What kind of sifter do you use?...maybe you could try a different type that's more efficient.

Thanks for all your replies! You all have several good ideas! I'll let you know what I end up doing, and how it turns out.

It took me awhile to sift because I have a very small sieve. I already have plans to go buy a bigger metal strainer, but I also work full time, so I'm trying to think of ways to save time as it draws closer to the wedding. I just figure that if it lifts some stress from that week to be able to do it now, while i'm not stressing about anything, and it works just fine, then why the heck not?

Yeah. I, as well, will never use a sifter ever again. Thank you, cheap metal strainers.