ok so i was trying to color my icing BLACK....used a WHOLE tube of coloring..needless to say it did not turn black and tastes NASTY!!! should i pitch it or can i add something to it to help with taste????

I'd throw it away, but if it's only for deco then maybe keep it.... start over with chocolate buttercream, that way you need less black coloring. Wilton makes colored icing in tubes now and all you have to do is add your tip to the tube, so maybe you could look into that!

You should always start with a chocolate icing or fondant...it takes at least a tsp. per cup of icing....also, the icing will darken up as it sits, even if it looks kind of purple to start...

Yeah, I would always start with chocolate buttercream. If you are in a pinch, I would just go get the tube of Wilton black icing (as long as you aren't using it to ice the cake). I used it for the graduation cake I did because I just needed it for writing and a small border, and I really hate making black icing. I just squeezed it into a piping bag and it was the perfect consistency.

I usually start with chocolate butter cream and add purple then I add the black. That seems to work for me. I had a person who was allergic to chocolate so I started with purple then added black and it worked out pretty good too.

If you don't want the chocolate flavor, starting with brown then adding black works well, too.