How to Make Black Icing

Achieving a solid black color in cake icing can be a challenge for a home cook. Fortunately, there are techniques and products you can use to make black icing without using a whole jar of black food coloring and risking having a bitter aftertaste.

Things You'll Need

• Food coloring
• Icing

Instructions

1. Choose what kind of black food color you want to use. A concentrated gel or a powder works best without diluting the icing. Find the food color at cake decorating, hobby or specialty kitchen stores or on the Internet.

2. Buy a can of icing, or make your own at home. Chocolate icing provides a good base for the black color, but you can also use vanilla or white if you don't want the chocolate taste.

3. Dye white icing with any color of food coloring you have on hand, or a combination of colors. Green works great. This provides a dark base without the bitter flavor of using too much black coloring. Skip this step if you are using chocolate icing.

4. Add the black concentrated gel or the powder to the icing, a little bit at a time. Mix until you reach the desired color. Remember to use as little black as possible to avoid having a bitter flavor.

5. Let stand a few hours before icing your cake to let it darken with time.

Tips & Warnings

• Purchase pre-mixed black icing for small tasks like piping or writing words.

• Make an almost-black icing without black food coloring by mixing the icing with a little bit of every color available until you have a purple-grey color. Put this mixture in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It darkens upon standing.

• Keep black food coloring out of the light as much as possible to avoid fading.

• Handle black icing carefully because it does stain things easily.

Resources

• Wilton icing colors, including black.
• Black powdered food coloring.