I must be missing something. I made a cake today and I tried to color my icing black for zebra stripes and I used two complete jars of wiltons black coloring and it still wasn't as black as I wanted it to be and now the icing tastes bitter. Is there a trick to this that I'm not thinking of? what kind of coloring do you use? please help I know I will be making more cakes like this and today was a nightmare. 
I use a can (I know 
) of a cheap canned chocolate frosting...if I need just a tad of black....if I can't use chocolate then I tint my bc brown and then use the black and let it sit over night to deepen in color...you still have to use quite a bit...also try using americolor OR even ck colors that might also help you 
HTH
if it's for a small area, i use a little canned coco to start with, but it will lgive a chocolate taste. sometimes i add in a little bit of store bought icing that's black (you know, the nasty stuff in the cans) you can't taste it, but it helps darken my icing, i also have to add black coloring. letting it sit a while helps tremendously. but i've only done these ideas for small areas, sometimes could you use fondant tinted black for accent areas? like the stripes on the zebra? fondant takes the color much better. fortunately i've never had a cake asking for a lot of black.
I just made a Guinness cake (looks like a pint of the black stuff) for someone's 18th birthday (its the legal drinking age here in Ireland). I chickened out and used canned chocolate frosting bc I was afraid the black would taste bitter. My chocolate bc - tinted black came out grey.
Is the Americolor really potent black or just not taste as bad?
Thanks for any and all help - living in Ireland means that this Guinness cake idea is really taking off (have had 4 requests since yesterday for it!)
I feel your pain with the black icing! I made some last week for my motorcycle cake - started by mixing cocoa powder in the BC, then adding quite a bit of Americolor black. I prefer to use the premade black fondant but I didn't want the extra expense of the fondant. The black BC still turned everyone's teeth black.
sabriana - Guinness is my drink of choice I used precolored black fondant when I made a Guinness cake. worked great and no black teeth.
Try using the extra dark cocoa powder in your icing it will come out very dark brown, almost black and then you just have to add a little black color to get all the way there.
My wilton teacher told us to use BLACK cocoa. I just bought some a few weeks ago and made a black cocoa cake. You know, the dark choc they use for oreo cookies. Cake tasted like oreo cookies and was black. I have not made the icing yet but my teacher said that you just sub the black cocoa for the usual cocoa you use in your bc recipe and there you have it, black icing!!
yep I start with tinitng my BC brown, then I begin to use the black.
I use some coco in it, it makes it drier so add some milk to thin it. Then added no taste black. Let it sit for a little bit. It might look like a dark grey but it got darker after. Good luck!!
My wilton teacher told us to use BLACK cocoa. I just bought some a few weeks ago and made a black cocoa cake. You know, the dark choc they use for oreo cookies. Cake tasted like oreo cookies and was black. I have not made the icing yet but my teacher said that you just sub the black cocoa for the usual cocoa you use in your bc recipe and there you have it, black icing!!
Lenore, where do you get this black cocoa? I see that you're in PA and I could have my mother get it and send it to me. By the way, thanks to all who replied! All great suggestions - but the allure of oreo cookies just got my attention... 
I order my black crystal color from Beth Parvu at sugarpaste.com
White icing turns jet black[i]! The black color won't stain your mouth or clothes. I made a white wedding cake with black details this summer. It works great.
I never tried it yet, but a fellow decorator told me mixing red and green will yeld black too! HTH.
Really, the key here is LETTING THE ICING SIT OVERNIGHT. You'll use far less if you just let the coloring do its thing. I always have black icing already made (as well as red and navy blue). I just keep it in the freezer. Oh, and quit using that Wilton crap. Get yourself some Americolor Super Black. Color your icing til it's a dark grey, then see what it looks like the next day!
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