How To Do Black Icing W/o Bad Taste?
Decorating By cat121481 Updated 22 Jul 2006 , 6:27am by katskreations
I find starting with choc. buttercream and using Americolors black does the trick. With the Americolors, a little goes a long way. Don't forget to let the colored icing sit for awhile.... sometimes what looks gray now will be black in a few hours.
Hmmm, wish I could be more of a help. I've never had a problem with Wilton colors tasting bad, you just need to use so much of it. What's the black for? If it's for outlining or just a little detail I wouldn't worry about discoloring teeth. Besides I think most people expect colored icing to give them tye dyed mouths for a little while. 
Try using remade fudge icing in the little tubs. It goes black with just a little bit of black color and will still taste good.
I make the wilton class buttercream, and melt some Hershey Special Dark into it. That gets you a dark chocolate icing.
Then add Wilton black coloring, (it really doesn't take very much) - it'll look a kind of really, really dark green.
You'll be saying "Uh oh, that's not right!"
Put a cover over it and let it sit overnight.
Check in the morning and it'll be a really dark gray or black. The longer you leave it, the blacker it gets. Tastes good too, everyone loves it...
Hope that helps - works for me!
You can buy Americolors from here!
Right now the prices are 50% off on the americolors, and shipping is fast and reasonable...not to mention ordering from cakecentral helps keep CC going!
So you get good prices and you get to support something you enjoy!
I use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge for my black. It's very close to black and tasty. The only problem is you can't really do the star fill-in method because it's too soft. But you can pipe it out with a round tip and spread it. In the case of covering your whole cake, you don't need to pipe it. Click on my web page under my signature and look in my "karate and martial arts" album. There you will see black things like a panther, yin yangs, ninjas, black belts. They are black enough for my taste.
I use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge for my black. It's very close to black and tasty. The only problem is you can't really do the star fill-in method because it's too soft. But you can pipe it out with a round tip and spread it. In the case of covering your whole cake, you don't need to pipe it. Click on my web page under my signature and look in my "karate and martial arts" album. There you will see black things like a panther, yin yangs, ninjas, black belts. They are black enough for my taste.
i too will sometimes use store bought icings....and then
to get them to star piping consistency....just put in the old KA and add powdered sugar until as stiff as I need.
imartsy,
I zap 2 1/2 ounces of the Special Dark for each cup or so (I just glob, don't measure) of the icing. Melt the chocolate only. 
Add the icing, stir the two together really well and YOW it's nice!
Just try not to eat it all before it gets on the cake or cookies... 
You can see what the colors look like in my photos. The monster cookies have the black, and the basketweave is the chocolate.
Let me add my 2 cents;
Rather that using melted chocolate in your icing, as it might change the texture, make a chocolate butter cream using cocoa powder; it will be dark brown; then add 1 whole tube of Wilton ready made blacking icing; & let that stand, covered, overnight.
Depending on how much icing you have to make, this will be black enough; if it is not, then at this point I add the black gel & let it stand for a while longer.
Also, you might want to make a huge batch, and freeze it in smaller batches for later use. I put it in small plastic containers & place the containers in plastic bags. It keeps for a long time, & saves me the hassle of making black when I need a small amount. I can also take a spoonful to add to white if I need grey icing.
But, no matter what you do, once you have black in the icing, there is no way to avoid black tongues & teeth!
But, no matter what you do, once you have black in the icing, there is no way to avoid black tongues & teeth!
There are no black tongues and teeth with Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge frosting.
CarolAnn,
I am a second-degree black belt in Kempo karate, so are my husband and my 17 year old son. My karate studio which does birthday parties, gives me a lot of cake business. I leave my photo albums in the waiting room and the children and parents look at them all the time for something to do while waiting for their other kid to get out of karate.
A tip to all, leave a photo album of cakes in a waiting room of some place that you trust it will not get lost. You can drum up business there.
Smart lady putting the photo albums within reach of those with time on their hands. I am nowhere near the place where I want as much cake business as you're getting but glad it's working well for you. I guess you can be about as busy as you want to be and that's great. I am also a woodworker and trying to get a business going from my old barn converted to workshop here at home. I'm ready to start learning to make gumpaste flowers so I can draw business from doing the kinds of cakes I like best. The realistic flowers just blow my away.................
What about a can of the black spray color. they even have those at the grocery store.
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