Did you know that black frosting is easier to make if you start with chocolate frosting? Here is an easy way to make good tasting black frosting!
How To Make Black Frosting
When making black frosting, start with chocolate frosting and add black food color to it. Chocolate frosting works better when making it than if you start with vanilla and it tastes delicious!
Also I would use a disposable decorating bag or a Ziploc bag with the corner cut out when using black frosting. It stains your regular decorating bags very badly. A word to the wise – use small amounts. You can’t imagine what 15 little ones look like after eating a cupcake piled with black frosting. Ask how I know this. : )
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I have never seen black food colouring.
what brand sells it please.
Wilton is one brand but now at Halloween they sell it every where here along with orange. I have even seen it at my fabric store. You might check the craft section or where they have the halloween supplies at places like walmart (do you have wal mart in Canada?) or some place like that.
I just bought the little jar of Black coloring @ Michaels Craft store. It cost $2.29. Wilton makes it and it works very well. Use a toothpick to stir it around. It is a paste. Then use what’s on the toothpick to swirl into your icing. Mix it very well,then add more if needed with a fresh toothpick. (keep the icing out of the jar). It is concentrated and strong. Not at all like classic liquid food coloring that would be used to dye Easter Eggs. My mom used this 30 years ago and if you keep it clean and close the bottle tightly it lasts for years. DO not be deceived by the size of the jar. It’s as round as a quarter and under 2 inches tall. A little goes a long way.
Yes Susan this is usually the kind we use too. Don’t forget to use those coupons too. I get mine at Jo Ann Fabrics often because I have a 50-60% off coupon so you can get it for really cheap.
If paste colors dry out, you can revive them with a few drops of food-grade glycerin. I’ve made a lot of wedding & other cakes, and I always used paste colors.
Where did you find black food color? I only usually find the primary colors that have to be mixed if you want orange or pink, for example. They usually only come in yellow, blue, red, etc?
Like I told grandma you can get it almost any where now especially at this time of year. Don’t go to the normal baking section of the store but check the halloween or craft section and as a last resort you can go to a cake decorating place but I don’t think you will need too. I was just at Jo Ann fabrics and they had a huge display of it right up front.
thanks jill. lots of walmarts one even within a 4 hour drive. But I will check it out or get my dil to do it for me.
I did a Dukes of Hazard cake once and used black licorice ropes for the black I needed. Icing would have been much easier.
Thanks. We have a Walmart and a Jo Ann Fabrics so I will try both.
Don’t forget to ask if you can’t find it right away. They are especially nice at my Jo Ann’s at helping me.
Bea, grandma and anyone else I forgot to mention the black food coloring will probably be in gel form and not the liquid which a lot of people are use to. The gel (or powdered) is really the better kind of coloring to use especially in some things like candies where liquid can affect the recipe. I have used nothing but gel for many years and you can get it at walmart and most places now.
The gel makes richer colors and uses less. With the gel and powder don’t forget the color will deepen some after it sets so keep that in mind.
Thanks Jill for the info. Appreciated.
WOW!! That looks really spectacular :) The silver really sets it off.
Does anyone knows if black food coloring stains much? I’m not so worried about little mouths, but clothing might be a problem for their moms!!:)
Thanks!
I would say “yes” but I don’t remember for sure if it stained on our kids clothes.
I can’t say for sure because I can’t remember ever having a problem with it staining clothes. I wouldn’t think it is too bad though because it is the same stuff they use in many bakeries and when people order cakes for special occasions so I would think if it was that much of a problem they wouldn’t use it.
I do know with colored pop, kool aid, lollipops etc. and the kids mouth gets colored it will do that.
barb I would say it would stain fabric very well.
I use food colouring to stain wooden toys I make and it works great for that.
So be careful around things you want to stay the colour they originally are.
Thanks so much for the info on black food coloring. I came up with an idea last night in bed (my brain seems to work overtime when the lights are out!) for black brownie spiders. I have a bundt cake pan that makes 6 mini bundt cakes. I was thinking I would make brownies with a little black coloring in the batter. Then let the kids frost them black. I have some big pretzel sticks that I could break in half for “hairy” scary legs. I have some orange M&Ms that would work for eyes. Any other ideas to make them really COOL for 6 kids under 9 yrs.?
Thanks-you guys rock!
Hi! I do quite a bit of cake decorating for the family and couldn’t resist adding a couple tips that have worked great for me. I always make my own buttercream frosting from scratch. It’s so easy, tastes great, and makes a large batch. Here it is: Cream together 2c. Crisco shortening(tried generics, but don’t have the right consistency for frosting),1t. clear vanilla, and 2/3 c. water. Gradually add 1 lb.powdered sugar(many sift this or process in the blender to make it extra fine, but usually I just use it straight out of the bag). If I want black frosting, I mix in 1/4- 1/3c. powdered cocoa and black paste or gel coloring until it’s black enough. You can always add a bit more cocoa powder also. This frosting will keep in the fridge for several months, so you can make a double batch and use it as needed. Tastes great and is a lot cheaper! Also, black food coloring leaves a purple stain on everything even after it’s washed!! Found this out the hard way, of course:)
Laurie you are right black food coloring is wicked. We posted a thing one year on black frosting and the “warnings” on it because you do need to be careful. I even keep one decorating bag that I use only for my black frosting because it messes it up really bad.
Also as a young mom did I learn the hard way. When we were done decorating eggs one night my kids didn’t want to quit so to help with their disappointment I said I would put food coloring in their bath water. What was I thinking? Dumb, Dumb and Dumber of me. To make it worse it was Sat. night and we had church the next morning and I had multi colored kids.
Sometimes people say “I know this sounds like a dumb question but…” and I tell them how do they think I learned the answers to these questions? Usually because I learned the hard way. :) :)
And if you want this Crisco buttercream to hold up really well, such as for humid weather or wedding cakes, add one egg white per one cup Crisco. Reduce water accordingly. Be sure to beat a long time so it gets fluffy (about 5 minutes).
Yes great idea. If you don’t want to use a regular egg (which I myself don’t mind using) you can buy powdered meringue. You can get it in the cake decorating section of walmart or any craft store and it stores forever.
I just bought some black frosting at Aldi. It was the same price as regular frosting. Harris Teeter had tons of different colored food coloring yesterday. Not sure if anyone has any of those around them.
How to make it really cool for kids? Provide pretzel sticks, m&ms, candy corn, red and black licorice whips, free reign of the kitchen, and what have you and let them go at it. You will be surprised at their creativity. You may want to offer a valueable prize ($100,000 bar) for best creature.
Love the $100,000 bar for a prize. Kids do love free reign. I use to bake giant gingerbread men for my grandkids to give them but then I decided to start a new tradition and the day after Thanksgiving I have them all over to my house to decorate their own. They love it and some of the things they do to those poor gingerbread men is a crack up.
Actually we have so much fun because after they do their decorating they rake all of my leaves for me – making huge piles which they play in then have to rerake again. They think this is so cool because they have no trees in their yards so it is fun and not work. We then come in and have hot chocolate and gingerbread men. The parents liked it too because it gave them a break over Thanksgiving week end.
Jill, we will have “Year 20 of Grandkid Baking Day” at my house this year. Even the married ones & spouses join. I buy reduced ingredients after all holidays and keep them in covered plastic boxes so we can make lots of goodies that they take home and to work to share. It’s a Christmas gift to them, and they love it.
For little kids who love to help in the kitchen, go to the thrift store for pillow cases. Cut holes for little heads & arms. Kids are completely covered & no stained clothes. Works great!
Thanks Nancy good idea.
Men’s heavy weight flannel shirts, worn backwards, work much better and protect their sleeves from mess, too. You can either get them from a thrift store or save the old ones that have seen better days, using them as smocks instead of throwing them away.
Thanks Laurie, Made the crisco frosting and it’s great!
I have used gel icing for many years and love the colour. The main thing to remember is that when you are mixing any of the gel colourings is to ensure that you have egg white or a merigue powder added to it. The first time we made the icing up we used a full bottle of black and 2 full bottles of blue gel. The colour was perfect (100% over kill re: amount of gel – need only a tooth pick or two of the colour). My husband brought this decorated cake to the bbq he was going to and every person who ate the cake had stained teeth and fingers. We later discovered that egg white and/or merigue powder will prevent this.
Just a funny to add to this. My Grandma was a caterer and made thousands of cakes, one year around 1988 or so our little country church had a Halloween party on a Saturday night and Grandma had made chocolate cupcakes and decorated them like spiders with black icing (mixed cocoa into her butter cream icing then added black paste coloring) with big green eyes. Anyway, those cupcakes were used in a cupcake speed eating contest where you put your hands behind your back and try to eat your cupcake without touching it. Oh my what a mess! The next day at church, every single kid (including myself) had a distinctive purple halo around their mouths and noses from that black icing. After that, Grandma made pumpkin cupcakes with much less staining effects. Ha!
Too funny Brenda. That is so true. I found that out so fast when I first learned cake decorating. I avoid black frosting as much as I can.
Jill, what a nice grandma you are. “Letting” the kids rake your leaves. I let the kids scrub floors, wash windows and toilets at my house, as long as they don’t mess it up too much. If they do, they aren’t allow to wash any more. Evidently they never saw my sister wash anything!
And what a nice mom, watching the kids for your daughter.
I try to not use a lot of black icing as I usually end up with more of a steel gray when I make it from scratch. If I am thinking ahead I will often just purchase a tube of premade black icing. Much easier and I know that my color is truly black.
Oh I love how you use Chocolate frosting.
I make dark chocolate frosting, would that help not using too much black icing?
I don’t what them to have black lips and mouth , hands etc! lol
If you add black food coloring they may have some black lips but not near as much if you use the dark chocolate say instead of white frosting
One caution about black frosting — and it is a funny one!!
We learned the hard way after a successful black belt test that provided black frosted cupcakes, which we enjoyed eating. The next time you or your child goes “Number 2” after eating black frosting, there will definitely be a green or bluish bit of color that leaks into the toilet water from your “Number 2!” Not trying to gross anyone out — but trying to save any unnecessary panic or calls to the doctor. All is well! :-)
Thanks for letting me share! And I understand if you don’t let this comment stay — LOL!
LOL Linda thanks for the tip. We ourselves live in the “real” world and dealing with “Number 2” is very normal for us and for anyone who has kids LOL (or pets for that matter). And many – especially newer or younger moms and dads may not have learned this yet and it is scary when it happens the first time so thanks again.