Hi Gang! I have an order for a black grad hat with buttercream icing?? Usually you would use chocalate and add black to it, but they dont want that. Will white buttercream ever get black? PLease help!!

I am not sure this is in time to help you or not, but I save all the little bits of different colored icings in a bowl in the freezer. When I need black, I pull that out and mix it, then add black color to it until it is the shade I need. This works out really well for me.

You can also purchase the tubes of already made black icing from wilton - not the best, but black doesn't taste good no matter how you make it IMO.

why not ice your cake with white butter cream first, then your last couple of layers use the chocolate/black coating. It's what I usually do when I use colored frosting so as not to have a solid color all the way through. The chocolate would be minimal then. Black icing is notorious for doing lovely things to your teeth and tongue if it's solid! Little kids love it but adults might not see the fun in it. Good luck!

I do not like to cover large amounts of cake with black unless I start with chocolate, even with that this will stain your guests mouths etc when eating it. Why not try white BC then air brushing it? I have read that people have done that. Wilton's has a black color mist spray. Definitely try it on a test cake first.

If your client still insists on black. I like to color my white blue & brown first, then add black.

Not to hi-jack the thread but I posted a couple of days ago about layering choc and white buttercream. I need to ice a cake in choc. but then I want to put a white layer of buttercream on top of it. Is this possible? Do you need to freeze the base cake with the choc frosting first?

FYI, You can buy small amts of black frosting in wilton tubes however, I did a black cake once and it looked awful because everyone has purple teeth. I would do buttercream covered in black fondant and tell them to peal it off. Good luck.

I would urge the customer to upgrade to fondant. Even a thin outer coat will leave all their guests with colored mouths. If they will not then you certainly can add lots and lots of black to white frosting to get it dark. I too usually start with all my leftover colors and mix together for the base.

My local cake supply store makes black buttercream which is easy to pipe and it crustes well. I just purchase a tub for those times I need black buttercream. I usually suggest fondant if they want something of that nature since you can make black fondant using dark chocolate and candy melts.

What I do all the time is take ALL my leftover icings except pink cause I use that for red and put it in a bin and add Americolor Super Black to it. The longer it sits the darker it gets so when it's charcol grey stop. For red I use Americolor Super Red with the pinks I have left over. Black and Red are always in the fridge at my house and they are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I agree w/ Debster. I always keep red and black made up and ready. You can "collect" other colors and add black, but if you don't have those already collected and need to start with white buttercream, you can!

Just add black to white buttercream, stir, and get it to a charcoal gray color. Then walk away. In an hour or so, it will have darkened to black. I've piped it on cakes right after making it and it turns black on the cake - either that or it's so close that you can't tell it's dark gray, haha. You use half the color doing it this way.

With red I do the same thing - get it to a dark pinky color, then stop. It turns red w/in a short time.

Good luck!

Hey Shannycakers check this out and they ship fast !!!

http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=24872&name=Black%20Buttercream%20Icing%203%201/2%20pound%20tub%20by%20CK%20Products

I use the Wilton stuff that you buy in tubes. You still end up with nasty coloured mouths, but you don't have to worry about a strong food-colouring flavour or beginning with a chocolate base.

[quote="sillywabbitz"]Not to hi-jack the thread but I posted a couple of days ago about layering choc and white buttercream. I need to ice a cake in choc. but then I want to put a white layer of buttercream on top of it. Is this possible? Do you need to freeze the base cake with the choc frosting first?



It's possible. You don't need to freeze it, but it should be VERY cold and hard before topping with the white--if you use real butter this will not be difficult. If you need to add more layers of white (and I imagine you will to cover the chocolate), just keep putting the cake in the refrigerator between layers. If you are not doing a smooth layer of the white and want more of a 'swirly' look, then you may not need to do the layer technique. Just slather the white buttercream on after the chocolate layer is cold.

you can also airbrush it black if you have one if not you can go and by the spray cans buy wilton or duff even makes some.