Just made another batch of buttercream with hi ratio shortening. It turned out wonderful. I then put wilton black color in it to make grey and it turned green. How in the world can I get this icing to be grey? I'm making an adding machine cake and if things don't work out it may be a green machine. Please Help!!!!

I somewhat solved my problem. I remixed some of the white icing from the Buttercream Disaster Post that had sit on the counter for a few days and added a spoonful of the hi ratio shortening. It turned out pretty good. Acceptable. I then mixed it into the green icing that was suppose to be grey and it is a lot better. At least it looks more grey not. Whew! Thought I was going to have green adding machine.

if you are able to use chocolate, invest in some black cocoa and use that as a base for black, you will get a wonderful black with out the nasty taste, and if you just need gray a little black cocoa would usually suffice

For a good black, I find that starting with a chocolate frosting works best. If you don't want to use chocolate maybe just add some brown to the 'green/gray'. It might have the same effect and give you a better black. Don't know, just a thought. Good luck!

I have had the same problem. Made hand cuffs once that had a green tint to them. Yuk! Another problem I had with black colored bc, it would bleed red on white bc when i was using it for writing. I have found when I need black frosting that I first start with chocolate buttercream and add black gel color. It works great and no more bleeding.

Hey Peg818, where do you find black cocoa?

i buy black cocoa at my local cake decorating store. But hersheys puts out a special dark cocoa that i have seen in the grocery store, not as black as the black cocoa put darker then the regular hersheys.

You can get black cocoa from the King Arthur Catalogue.

Use chef master liqua gel colors and you wont have that problem.

I doubt it was something you did. I've had the same issue--trying to do a silver so I wanted a grey fondant base. Used Wilton black. And I got PURPLE. Per Wilton, it "takes a lot of colors to get black, so you should have stirred the color before using it." I did that lady, and that bottle gave me a lovely shade of purple. So, no more Wilton colors for me. No way, no how!

I agree, no more Wilton Black.

I found this thread as I had the same problem last night. Unfortunately the responses didn't help much. BUT I did learn something about the color wheel. The correct answer is to add red. It worked beautifully. I too will be switching away from Wilton colors.

The Americolor Super Black works great!

Americolor super black is indeed the best....but also remember that black & red icing both need to rest overnight to darken completely. (It's the same for fondant)

AAgreed, on the Americolor black! Decopac isn't bad, either.

I have actually never had it happen with Wilton black or Americolor black...but I just had it happen with Americolor super black.  I added half the bottle to half a pound of icing...and it was army green.  When I added a little water to my frosting (about a Tablespoon or two, it seemed to release the black magically.  Go figure.  For what it's worth to someone else out there...