Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi..how do you get jet black royal icing/buttercream? I bought black extra and I had to use practically the whole tub and it isn’t cheap!! Any other brands that are stronger??

many thanks

Hi there.   I personally haven’t made black buttercream, but I buy white margarine from my local cake decorating shop if I am doing coloured buttercream for cupcakes etc as it gives a far nicer look to the colour you are trying to achieve.   Try your local cake decorating store, if not the one I go to is called Centre Attraction in Liverpool and they have an online shop. I once tried to make buttercream red, but as you say added lots of colour but the margarine made it go more of a deep pink.  Have always been pleased with the results of the buttercream with the white margarine though.  Good luck!
Elaine

In the past when customers have asked for black or red buttercream, we suggest the cupcake case or the decoration in the colour rather than the buttercream…….!!!!   I always use the teeth one to scare them lol Px

Be fantastic for Halloween though, no costume needed 🙂

i have found that paying that little bit extra and buying either gels or pastes instead of the usual food coloring that is runny, gives a better color and a lot less needed to produce the right color, using only cocktail sticks dipped into the gel/paste!

I’ve been told that adding a bit of blue and green prior to the black helps to develop the colour a bit better, although I haven’t tried it myself.  Let me know if you give it a try!

JC x

I make brown then add the black. I love americolor extra black and usually takes a lot less to develop it. Also leaving it overnight really helps  the colour to develop

Jmilne..I like the ound of that..will try it..many thanks. Thanks to everyone

I don’t know about the black royal icing, but someone told me that black buttercream left the guests with black teeth, so might be best to warn them 🙂

Sharon, that’s sooo funny! It’ll make them all look gummy, hehe!

Regalice blue fondant is the best for colouring teeth and tongues!!!  Sometime for decoration ie in the teddy bear tutorial black piping was used and people like the happy birthday message piped in black on the board too. So sometimes unavoidable. I think I will give the brown and black mixes together a go. Thanks

What did your black buttercream taste like.  I had a cupcake at street party that was blue and the icing wasn’t pleasant.  I can’t see how you could mess up the flavour making buttercream so presume it was the colouring (blue didn’t appeal to me but no-one was touching them and I knew the person had made an effort in supplying ☺).  I also didn’t know you could obtain white margarine so thanks for that Elaine!