How to get a rich black?

Achieving a deep, rich tone of black can be very challenging. Many decorators complain that their black frosting turns out gray or the shade is not deep enough or, on the contrary, that it turns out so black that it stains adjacent sections of the design. When browsing the web, you might also encounter intriguing information about "secret ingredients" such as cocoa and activated charcoal powder that will darken the base color of the icing.

Black is a challenging icing color.

Why is that? Because if you want to achieve a rich black, not a dark gray (for Halloween motifs, penguins, backgrounds etc.), you need to add a lot of food coloring, which is easy to overdo.

What happens if you add too much of dye?

1. Your icing dries very slowly or not at all. Too much food coloring makes your icing oversaturated and slows down the hardening process. The texture of dried black royal icing with too much dye is crumbly and a bit soft when touched. It won't dry completely hard even after whole night in a dehydrator .
2. It tastes bad. Adding too much food coloring gives the icing an odd, metallic taste, and even lemon juice or an artificial flavor won't mask it (or can even make things worse). The bitterness is detectable in freshly prepared icing as well as after drying (if it dries at all). This side effect is less than desirable, especially if your cookies are going to be eaten by children.

How to avoid said problems and achieve a deep tone?

• Use gel food coloring, because it is active without adding any moisture to the icing (no changes in consistency). Start with just a drop or two (you can use a toothpick or a knife tip) and add more as you go; stir between adding more drops. Stop a shade or two lighter of the desired tone, as your color is very likely to deepen!

• Cover your icing tightly with a plastic food wrap, put it into refrigerator and allow the color to develop for at least 12 hrs (in extreme cases up to 48 hrs). The color of the icing naturally gets darker over time as the color is developing in the icing. Always dye your icing the night before for the best success.

Sometimes dark gray is OK

Sometimes a super dark gray instead of black is absolutely fine. It is better than risking having too much food coloring (and risking all of the mentioned issues). Remember that in some cases people won't notice the difference.