I'm REALLY new to this so please bear with me and my irritating questions. Does anyone have any tips on making good black icing? I use regular buttercream with half butter half shortening. I have some Wilton gel color but am considering ordering some Americolor that others rave about. I also use glaze on cookies and wondered if there is a different approach to making black in that case because of the thinner consistency. Does using a lot of color alter the taste of the icing? I usually stay away from deep dark colors out of fear that I won't get the result I am looking for, but it's time to put on my big girl pants and get with the program. Any tips or ideas you experianced pros have would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Laura
I am certainly no pro, but I was taught to make black icing by replacing about 1/3 of the powdered sugar in your buttercream recipe with powdered cocoa (the real stuff, not the "Quick" instant drink kind). This will darken your icing so that you don't have to use as much color. It works great for red as well. The color will darken as the icing sets so you should make your icing well ahead of starting your project.
Hope this helps.
I made a spiderman cake a couple of weeks ago and almost went crazy because ended up using a whole thing of wilton black and then it was so bitter I had to throw it away it was terrible.
So then I also started of my new batch with choc icing it still needed quite a bit of black but I used the black with no taste so at least it was not bitter...lol
so now I always try find the dark colors with no taste 
Good luck have a great day!!!!!
Americolor black works better for me - I also used it with good results in RI. It was dark gray while wet, but it dried to black.
Good tip about getting color that is No Taste...I have heard that about red coloring and have stayed away from using red for that reason, once again, it's time for me to get with the program and branch out. lol Also, it's good to know that when using RI, the color might look dark gray but dry to black...I would have kept adding color and not given a thought to what it might look like dried...thanks for letting us know about that! You all are a wealth of information and I am glad that you are willing to share with me.
I don't know too much about Americolor either , only what I've heard from this website. People seem to like it better than Wilton. I had to go online to find places to purchase it seeing as I'm in a part of the country that doesn't have any cake supply shops. Global Sugar Art sells it, assorted caking suppliers...I just googled and then went from there.
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