Black Buttercream.help!

Decorating By cakegirl71 Updated 9 Apr 2011 , 8:31am by cakegirl71

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cakegirl71 Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 6:07am
post #1 of 15

I have a up coming cake and need to get my buttercream black.It is not turning dark enough.Any suggestions or products?I am currently using a gel.

Thanks

cakegirl71

14 replies
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LKing12 Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 6:29am
post #2 of 15

I had a wedding cake that had to have black detailing and I tried several gels and pastes and nothing made it darker than slate grey. So, I went to Sam's and bought a tub of black. It was cheaper than the total cost of all the tubes of black color that I had already used. It also did not "bleed" into the white butter cream!

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auntiecake Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 6:50am
post #3 of 15

It does take a lot of black color. If it is a DARK grey it should turn black after it sits a while. It gets quite a bit darker. Hope this helps! If you use cocoa first it won't take as much black coloring.

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Margieluvstobake Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 6:56am
post #4 of 15

If you put cocoa in it first and turn it brown, it will not take as much black color to make it black.

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platinumlady Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 7:10am
post #5 of 15

Make chocolate BC then add black coloring. when you start off w/ chocolate BC then it doesn't take a lot of color gel. I melt either semi-sweet or unsweetened chocolate depending on how much icing I need. if it's a lot I use the semi-sweet to help cut down on the taste of black BC

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ajwonka Posted 31 Mar 2011 , 5:36pm
post #6 of 15

I learned the hard way to start with chocolate! Used a whole jar of black paste coloring! If you find it's looking a different color (mine was turning green ), you can add a color on the opposite side of the color wheel (I had to add red).

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cakegirl71 Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 5:11am
post #7 of 15

Thanks I will try the chocolate and cocoa. This helps a lot.

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labmom Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 5:46am
post #8 of 15

I always keep a can of chocolate fudge frosting on hand... it works perfect to color black. and it is better taste than just white buttercream tinted black. for that last minute black frosting that is needed to write with or frost.

but if it is a big project you can also buy black buttercream from sams club.. they sell small buckets of it..and many other colors. I think it is about 17.00 for the bucket..i bought red for christmas cakes that I did. so much better than trying to tint that much frosting all the same color.

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indydebi Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 12:15pm
post #9 of 15

Red and Black bc were the 2 colors that I always bought premade.

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lola52 Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 12:48pm
post #10 of 15

seriouscakes on youtube , her halo video shows how to make apretty good black

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auntiecake Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 4:38pm
post #11 of 15

If you color your frosting pink and then add red it will take less. Remember is gets at least a couple shades darker after it sets. If you put a dab on some wax paper and let it set you will be able to see what the end color will be. Don't add too much red, because it will get too dark and then it isn't very pretty.

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cashley Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 4:58pm
post #12 of 15

If you use super black from americolor you won't need much. I was leary at trying this but had so much problem with red and black that I thought I would try it. I will never use wilton again. I can get black or red right away with this product without using much of it.

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VickiG Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 9:10pm
post #13 of 15

I've started using the Wilton buttercream tubes for any black or red piping. I've given up on mixing it myself.

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auntiecake Posted 1 Apr 2011 , 11:41pm
post #14 of 15

I prefer Americolor too! It is more concentrated and mixes easily.

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cakegirl71 Posted 9 Apr 2011 , 8:31am
post #15 of 15

I Love all the suggestions.I will be revisiting the post.Thanks a lot.

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