More specifically, how do I make black buttercream so that it doesn't turn people teeth funny colors? Reason I'm asking, I ordered a Batman cake a few years ago, and when we all ate it, all of our teeth were tinted black/blue. This year, I'm attempting to make a cake for my husband's nephew, and he wants a black cake (not fondant) with flames all around it. Any tips would be great!

Make choc. buttercream. (just add cocoa powder to regular buttercream) then add black gel coloring. You don't have to use nearly as much coloring when you make choc. buttercream.

I'm not sure about the teeth coloring thing but I make chocolate buttercream and then put black coloring into it. It is a whole lot easier to get the black without using the whole bottle and the horrid black taste. I don't recall anyone's teeth turning black but I didn't specifically ask... HTH

I would do the cocoa tip, but he doesn't like chocolate (I know, weird - what kid doesn't like chocolate??)

I had some luck adding black to some purple BC I had left over from another project. I've read somewhere on here that someone takes any colored icings left over and mixes them together and then adds black. That might work for the kid who doesn't like cocoa (mighty suspicious, if you ask me.)

A pinch of salt actually cuts down on the horrid taste of the black coloring. I always start with the chocolate buttercream frosting and add black and a pinch of salt.

No matter what you do you are going to get the color on the teeth thing with the dark coloring.

I use equal drops of blue, red and green to make black. However it turns your teeth every time!

Yeah, the colored teeth is probably unavoidable...that black gets everywhere, even if you start with chocolate...maybe give out whitening toothpaste as a favor?

Thank you all for the help. I think I'm going to try and talk my sister in law into going with white rather than black - if not, I'll be sure to give them fair warning!