
Hi all!
I am making some Royal icing Sugar Cookies for Halloween. I need a lot of black, and hate the taste. A very good suggestion is starting out with chocolate icing. However, I've never seen this for royal icing.
My question is, if I add some cocoa powder to my royal icing recipe, will it still set the same? I need them to set hard like regular royal icing does.
If not, do you have any other suggestions for good tasting (or tolerable) black royal icing?
Thanks!!


i agree, royal icing with cocoa powder added will work fine and set up great.


Sarin, I used a chocolate royal icing recipe, which contained cocoa powder, by Callye of The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, on some cookies I made for Easter. The icing was easy to work with and set the same as regular royal icing.
You can find Callye's recipe here: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2012/02/chocolate-royal-icing/
You can find the cookies I made ith the icing here: http://sugarkissed.net/chocolate-cookies-almond-butter-filling/

Thanks for the recipe Janine! However, I only use egg whites for my Royal Icing. I will probably never switch to the powder. Do you know a recipe that is trusted that uses egg whites? I'll be making the icing today and I am a little worried about the outcome!
I did do a test recipe and I put enough black in where I started to taste it, and it turned a purple grey color. It looks like you can't get true black without it tasting bad, even when starting with chocolate?

Sarin, I don't know of a chocolate royal icing recipe that doesn't use meringue powder. However, I can tell you that when I need to make black royal icing, I used my regular white royal icing recipe and just color it with Americolor Super Black. I use enough color to get it to dark gray and then let it sit overnight to darken.
Also, when I'm finished with any baking project where I used royal icing, I mix all the left over icing together and freeze it for my next project. All the different colors mixed together make a good base for starting black icing on my next project.
Hope this helps!

I did do a test recipe and I put enough black in where I started to taste it, and it turned a purple grey color. It looks like you can't get true black without it tasting bad, even when starting with chocolate?
Make sure you do NOT add lemon juice or cream of tartar or anything else (other than sugar) to your egg white. The acid causes some shades to fade, and black is a mixture of different edible colouring materials. So your black shift to purple-ish.
For the same reason, if you add cocoa, use ONLY Dutch processed because natural cocoa has a significant amount of acidity. Use Droste brand if you can find it.

I did do a test recipe and I put enough black in where I started to taste it, and it turned a purple grey color. It looks like you can't get true black without it tasting bad, even when starting with chocolate?
Make sure you do NOT add lemon juice or cream of tartar or anything else (other than sugar) to your egg white. The acid causes some shades to fade, and black is a mixture of different edible colouring materials. So your black shift to purple-ish.
For the same reason, if you add cocoa, use ONLY Dutch processed because natural cocoa has a significant amount of acidity. Use Droste brand if you can find it.
I do use cream of tartar for my recipes. Good to know. Will it affect setting times if I don't use COT?
I use Wilton brand. Americolors aren't available near me, I'd have to order online and since I am just a hobby baker, Wilton is it.
Thanks again.

Droste is a brand of cocoa not colours.
Setting time depends on local temperature, local humidity and amount of sugar you added. NOT on acid.

Droste is a brand of cocoa not colours.
Setting time depends on local temperature, local humidity and amount of sugar you added. NOT on acid.
Good to know! I was always told COT helps with setting and stabilizes the final product.
I think in the end I might just stick with my white icing and dying it black. For the cookies that will have a lot of black I do not mind it being a tad bit grey. I am sure the cookie will cover up the nasty taste to a point.
Appreciate it again guys, maybe one day I'll be brave enough to try chocolate royal icing! Hehe.
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