How To Make Black Buttercream Frosting
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Learn how to make black icing the easy way with this quick and easy tutorial! Then top some cupcakes for a fun spooky Halloween treat!
The first time I ever attempted making black icing, I ended up with a gray soupy mess. No matter how much black food coloring I used, I could never seem to achieve a black icing.
I figured it was simple right? Start by making the best buttercream icing. Add in your food coloring. Voila! Black buttercream frosting. Mmm, so wrong.
Why bother telling you my buttercream mishaps? So you can learn from them of course!
Making black buttercream is not hard. You just need to know a few tricks so you can avoid a grayish hot mess and achieve this instead…
Ingredients Needed
First, you want to start by making a basic buttercream and then it’s just a matter of adding a few extra ingredients. You could start with my recipe for the best buttercream icing. It’s a basic easy recipe that uses:
- butter
- powdered sugar
- heavy cream
- vanilla extract
- cocoa powder (or melted chocolate)
- black food coloring
If you want to try your hand at a more skilled buttercream, you could try making swiss meringue or italian meringue buttercream but I haven’t tried with these types of icing.
How To Get Black Buttercream Frosting
Start by making the vanilla buttercream base.
Next, you want to make this vanilla buttercream brown. We want to get this buttercream close to black before we start trying to add in our food coloring. I learned the hard way there was not enough black food coloring to change it to black on its own. By starting with a brown base as our buttercream, we only need a little bit of coloring to then make it black.
If we didn’t make it brown first, we run the risk of making our buttercream too soupy before we ever achieve a black color.
Make the vanilla buttercream brown a few ways:
- Add in cocoa powder (I add in about a 1/2 cup for each batch) – You can use any type of cocoa powder, but a Dutch process or black cocoa powder is better because it’s darker in color to start.
- Add in some cooled, melted chocolate
- Add in some brown food coloring
If flavor isn’t an issue, I prefer adding in cocoa powder or chocolate. Basically you are making a chocolate buttercream with the first two options, and adding your black gel food color after. But if you don’t want chocolate, then you can opt for the brown food coloring to keep it a vanilla buttercream.
What food coloring is best?
Ok, so now that we have a brown colored buttercream, we can proceed with making it a black buttercream. I suggest you use a gel food coloring as opposed to a liquid food coloring.
A gel food coloring will not change the consistency of your buttercream like a liquid one can.
My two favorite black food colorings are these:
Add in a little bit at a time with a toothpick and stir to combine. If it’s not black enough, you can add more. But know that your buttercream will darken over time.
So if you’re not sure if you have added enough, let it sit for 30 minutes and then see how dark the color is. If it’s still not dark enough, then you can add more. Keep doing this until you achieve the perfect inky black color you were going for.
Recipes To Try This On
You could use this black buttercream frosting recipe really on anything cupcake or cake you want. Maybe some classic chocolate cupcakes, top with some fun sprinkles and have one spooky Halloween?
Or you could frost some Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes or my Easy Vanilla Cupcake Recipe. Or have some fun mix it up, and make some Pumpkin Cupcakes!
Recipe FAQ’s
This is because it’s very difficult to try and turn a white icing to black with just food coloring. Start with that brown base by adding cocoa powder and then add your food coloring.
My two favorite black food colorings are these:
Wilton Black Gel Food Coloring
Americolor Superblack Gel Food Coloring
That depends on how much icing you made and what kind of cocoa powder you used. I let my frosting sit to darken up. It’s best to make this a couple days in advance as it will darken. If not, then you can add more.
I prefer a darker cocoa powder like Dutch process or black cocoa powder so it’s already a darker icing base before I add coloring. You can use natural unsweetened but you may need to use more food coloring. The darker the base of the icing, the less coloring you need to use and therefore it won’t stain your teeth as much!
More Cupcake Posts To Check Out
If you want to master buttercream once and for all, then grab a copy of my Buttercream Basics Guide!
How To Make Black Icing
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (1 1/2 cups, softened to room temperature)
- 2 1/2 cups (284 g) confectioners sugar
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch table salt
- 1/2 cup (42 g) cocoa powder * see notes
- black food coloring
Instructions
- Combine the butter and confectioners sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Mix on low speed at first, then increase the speed until combined.
- Add in your heavy cream and vanilla extract, and mix on medium to high speed for 8 minutes until light and creamy. Add the pinch of salt.
- Add in the cocoa powder and beat to combine.
- Add a few drops of the black food coloring and beat to combine. If it's not dark enough, add a few more. The color will intensify as it sits, so if it's still not dark enough let it sit and then try adding more if need be.
Notes
- Storage: I store mine in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s best to make it advance so the color of the frosting darkens over time. And will re-whip before icing. If storing frosted cupcakes, store in the fridge for up to 2 days. Before serving your cakes or cupcakes with this frosting, be sure to bring the frosting to room temperature due to the butter in the frosting.
- Food coloring: Wilton Black Gel Food Coloring
or Americolor Superblack Gel Food Coloring - Cocoa: I prefer Dutch process or black cocoa powder (for a much darker base) as it will give it a darker color but also a smoother flavor. But unsweetened also works. Or you can replace the cocoa powder with bittersweet melted chocolate.
- Butter: Use softened butter to achieve the best consistency. And use unsalted to control the salt.
- Sifting: To ensure no lumps, you can sift the powdered sugar.
- Whipping: Make sure to whip this buttercream for a full 8 minutes to get a light airy fluffy consistency. If you are using a hand mixer this will take longer.
- Storage: I store mine in the fridge for up to 5 days. It’s best to make it advance so the color of the frosting darkens over time. And will re-whip before icing. If storing frosted cupcakes, store in the fridge for up to 2 days. Before serving your cakes or cupcakes with this frosting, be sure to bring the frosting to room temperature due to the butter in the frosting.
This is so cool! I love how easy it is, and perfect for Halloween!
great to hear, thank you 🎃🎃🎃
This was such an easy treat and just in time for Halloween! Turned out perfectly light, fluffy and delicious!
Thanks for your spooky comment, Sarah! So happy you enjoyed 😀
I actually never thought to make black frosting for my Halloween cupcakes until I saw your recipe, and now I can’t wait to use this frosting to top all kinds of treats at our Halloween party this year! 🙂
I cannot wait to hear what you think, Anjali!
Your best bet for a really dark buttercream is to add black cocoa rather than normal cocoa. Let the buttercream sit for a couple of days in the fridge to oxidise and it will go even blacker.
Hi Gail! That’s a wonderful suggestions – I love using black cocoa powder. I will definitely be sure to add that into the post and update it with that information. Thank you for sharing!
My go-to frosting is a cream cheese….will this method work the same as with a bittercream?
Hi Tanya! I don’t see why not! Let me know how it goes:)
Did you make this with cream cheese icing? I’m also wondering how it tastes with chocolate added?
Hi Jen! I haven’t but cream cheese icing should work fine. I prefer adding a bit of cocoa powder first to finally get to that “black color” – gives good flavor and then also gets you to the achieved color faster!
How about starting with chocolate buttercream and then adding black gel color?
Hi Jann! Yes so that’s what I mean by adding cocoa powder or melted chocolate (aka making a chocolate buttercream) so if you have a go to chocolate buttercream recipe try that and add your black gel color!