I just read the How to Make an Ice Cream Cake. My son wants this kind of cake for his birthday so I think I am going to try it. I'd like to know though before I start, can you color whipped cream icing the same as buttercream? I am doing a Star Wars theme so I'll need dark colors, black, blues and oranges. Does that type of icing color well? I have Wilton and Ameri color. I will look for Rich Whip it suggests and us that if my stores carry it.
Any suggestions would be great!
TIA!
you can get dark colors, just like buttercream. If you don't find Rich's, you can get whipped topping from Publix, they will sell it to you from their bakery. You can even get them to color if for you if you want, but if you're going to do it yourself, here's what I find...
Make sure you don't leave it out too long, it will melt really quick. Also when adding the color, stir it in as fast as possible. You can use a hand mixer, to speed up the process.
I'm not sure how rich's whip works, but you may be able to add some color in before you start whipping, and then get it darker after it's finished whipping.
When I colored real whipped cream for icing I made it a grass green and the color bled.
I spoke to the company (Rich's) and they suggest Americolor's gels to tint their product. I know Sam's Club and Sysco (sp) carry the prewhipped. At Sam's, it was $22 for 15 pounds and will keep in the freezer for about a year. It freezes "fluffy" so you can just remove the amount you need from the tub and let it thaw in the fridge overnight while leaving the rest frozen.
oh shoot, I hadn't thought about the color bleeding. With using dark colors that would be a mess if they bleed. I was at Jo-Ann today and looked to see if they had black spray. I thought that would be easier but they did not.
Now what do I do? I guess I can check with Publix to see if they will color it black - don't think I have seen black on any of their cakes though. 
Follow up - I made my sons cake this past weekend. I used the whipped cream icing recipe on this site! LOVE IT! I was unsure how it would do but now I know - LOVE IT. It was easy to make and work with and I did not see any major bleeding.
I covered the cake in white then did a second layer of icing with the tinted dark grey icing (I was affraid to use black which I originally wanted) to avoid it bleeding into the cake. It bled slighly into the white but was not gross or bad by any means.
It froze very nicely and was very good and light tasting. I am now hooked, I love doing ice cream cakes with whipped cream icing! 
thanks everyone for sharing your ideas and experiences.
I wish I could post a photo but I can not get my pics small enough to download.
I still have some Wilton colors left but am gradually replacing them ALL with Americolor... they are truer, richer colors.
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