Hi there!
Hope you had a great weekend!
Besides enjoying some of the Saturday sunshine, I finished some animal cookies that our neighbourhood’s wee ones were happy to devour. I also made these for you, because coloring icing black may be something you struggle with…
The good news is that it’s easy to do, the not so good news is that you need a lot of coloring.
Which means that the taste of black icing (along with other deep colors such as red and deep brown), can be a bit bitter. Wilton makes a no taste red
If I’m not using too much of said bitter colour 
I don’t worry about the taste, but for cookies with a lot of black, like the bear and toucan here, I decided to make them with transfers (royal icing decorations). I lightly iced them to the cookies, so that they could easily be pulled off.
So, to begin, to tint your icing a deep, dark shade, you’ll need:
Items You’ll Need:
- Royal Icing (for a recipe click here)
- Black Food Gel Coloring
- Spoon/Spatula
- Measuring Cup & Measuring Spoons (optional)
*
How to Make Your Icing Black
- For approximately 1/3 of a cup of icing (80 mL or 3 fluid ounces), add one Tablespoon (15 mL), of black food gel.
- Note: I have gotten used to how much black food gel to add to my icing, so never measure, however to give you an idea, I’ve given you one example of measurements.
- If you are making more, or less icing, just add food gel until you’re happy with the shade.
- Stir until all the color is incorporated
- It should be noted that the icing color slightly deepens with time. You can add a little less coloring if you’re concerned about using so much (expensive), and let it sit overnight. Check the color the next day and then decide if you’d like to add a little more or not.
And that’s basically it!
Some other options:
- If you are low on black coloring, you can use another deep shade, such as brown or burgundy, to help darken the icing.
- Some people like to add cocoa powder to their icing to help darken the base (and it makes the icing taste good too!). I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried it. What was your experience like? When I tried mixing cocoa powder and brown food gel my icing turned out like this (The cowboy’s shirt – it actually kind of worked out well for the look
):
- Something to watch out for – If you add corn syrup to your royal icing to help give it a slight shine when it’s dry, you might want to omit if for deep colors such as red and black. That and add a little less water to your icing when you’re thinning it out because of all the extra viscous ‘fluid’ you’re adding in (food gel).
If you’d like to make these animal cookies, here’s a basic visual step-by-step guide:
*
How to Make Animal Cookies
I should first mention that a detailed cookie decorating tutorial can be found HERE, and some cookie decorating videos can be found on sweetopiautube HERE.
Once you’ve made your cookies and royal icing:
Step One: Outline using a #3 piping tip.
Step 2: Fill in or flood using the same icing and piping tip.
Step 3: Gently shake the cookie to help the icing smooth over.
Step 4: Let cookie base dry.
(Side view for those of you who ask how full I flood my cookie).
Step 5: Royal Icing Transfers – They’re very fragile so I’d recommend making extra!
Outline with black royal icing using a #2 piping tip. Let dry.
These shapes are zoo stickers
Step 6: Fill in shapes with royal icing, using a #2 tip. Let dry and then add small details such as the eyes and nose (#1 tip). Let dry.
Step 7: Gently pick up your transfer and put small dabs of royal icing on the back. Sometimes I use tweezers to help pick them up.
Step 8: Gently place transfer on your cookie and slightly press down on it to help it adhere. If you like videos better, you’re welcome to check out this video on making royal icing transfers HERE).
Finished!
I hope you enjoyed this ‘how-to’. You’re welcome to leave a comment below or on my facebook page here if you’ve got any comments, questions or would like to share some tips of your own!
xo,
Marian
@ Kimmie: Ha ha funny girl! Thought it was a bear in the distance… it was a huge tree stump. Thank goodness! lol
@ Little Flower Bakery: I used Americolor, yes! =)
AWESOME! Thank you!
Have followed you for a long time and have learned so much from you. Thanks! I watched your video link to bagging icing and have a quick tip that I have been doing for years. It just made sense to me. I fill the bag as you do. I then use a bench scraper at a 45 degree angle to the tip and push all of the icing to the tip. All of the bubbles are squeezed out! Then I make the icing straight across. I fold the bag and use a binder clip. It is nice and tidy and ready to go. I think your students would love to use their bags this way. I can send you a picture if you can’t picture what I am describing
I’ve used an entire bottle of Winton’s brown and it looks like baby poop. I need the brown to be a darker brown – after reading all these posts, it sounds like cocoa powder will help deepen it? Should I remake the RI and toss the one I have in the fridge? Or add the cocoa powder to it? I’m needing this by the weekend so I’m hoping all you experts out there can help…thank you!!!
No problem at all Heather; add tiny bits of black until you’re happy with the shade.
I also sometimes look at a colour wheel and try and figure out by looking at it what colour I need to add to make it more or less of _________ (whatever you want goes in there).
To find a colour wheel just google ‘color wheel’ under google images and use a more detailed one to help you out.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Hi, I have just been looking through this posting and I have had lots of success with this method of tinting my royal icing and flow icing (I use a modified King Arthur Flour recipe for my flooding icing). We have learned to measure icings exactly (we are still working on a formula book for our business) and I am happy to share my findings with you. We have found that a piping bag needs 130 grams of RI to be comfortable to work with. To make black royal icing, we use 5 grams of sifted cocoa powder and 5 grams of Americolor super black for the 130 grams of RI. If it is too dry, we carefully add a tiny bit of water to make it pipe better. The same formula works for chocolate brown. The only difference is that you substitute Americolor chocolate brown for the super black. I’m sorry that I don’t know the conversions for grams to teaspoons and cups but hopefully this will help.
Thanks SO much Nancy for sharing!!
Hi Marian,
Thanks for keeping up such an inspiring and helpful site! You’re very generous with your time and knowledge.
I was wondering: my RI tends to dry to a matte finish, but the RI in your dried cookie photos seems pretty shiny. Do you ever add corn syrup to Antonia74′s recipe and how does that work out?
Also, Americolor makes Red Red and Super Red — do you have a preference? (e.g. like your marbled Christmas ornaments or the Royal Wedding crown cookies)
Thank you!
anika
Hello, Marian, this is my first time to visit your website!
Thank you so much that you show and teach us how to make icing cookies perfectly!!
You’re really awesome and generous!
I love all your products very much!!
@ Miu (Fr. Hong Kong): Thank you so much! Very sweet of you! xo
I just wanted to tell you my expierience with cocoa powder and royal icing. I LOVE it! I add the cocoa powder after I’ve already made the icing. I mix it untill its a dark brown and then I only have to add about 3-4 drops of black…..it was perfect and yummy!
@ Kristen Acosta: Super! Thanks for sharing! xo
Hola desde Mexico. Te leo desde hace mucho tiempo y he aprendido muchísimo. Muchas gracias por ser tan abierta y compartir tu conocimiento. Felicidades!!
I love your site and your advice has been invaluable. I am having a problem and wondered what you would suggest. My royal icing colors often seem to try “blotchy” no matter how much i seem to stir>>>HELP!!!
@ Candy: Gracias!
@ Chontelle: This post might help:
http://sweetopia.net/2011/07/how-to-avoid-spots-on-icing/
Let me know how it goes. =)
Hi Marian!
I absolutely love your site and have learned so many new things! You have inspired me!
I am still wary about using black RI to outline my cookies because of the bitter taste. You use it to outline so many of your cookie designs and it looks awesome! Can you taste the bitterness at all when you eat them, or is it off-set by the sweet yumminess of the rest of the icing on the cookie? Thanks so much!
Thanks @ Sippy! When the black is just an outline, no, the taste is fine, but the bear above, for example, wouldn’t taste that great (in my humble opinion
), so that’s why I made him a removable transfer.
Happy baking to you!
I love your tutorials. Just wanted to let you know that AmeriColor does make a tulip red which apparently is thier code for no taste red. I read this on a blog about making red MMF. Might be worth a try. http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/11/recipe-red-marshmallow-fondant-mmf.html
Tara from Valley Kool Cakes
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Valleys-kool-cakes/131353476890032
Ohh, awesome, @ Tara Osmond! Thanks so much for sharing!
hi marian ….im doing these as a gift for a baby shower its safari theme hehe your awesome do you have any suggestions for how to put the gift??
Hi @ Vanessa: Do you mean how to wrap them or do you mean how to how to make a cookie gift please?
like how to give it as a gift such as in a basket or in a bag the shower is on the 13th so any tips…:)
@ Vanessa: I like mine packed individually in cellophane bags, tied with a pretty, matching ribbon. You could put them all in a pretty basket with ribbon too, yes. Many of my other cookie posts show the final ones in bags. Hope that helps!
thanks!!
I just found your site a week or so ago. So I’m going back to view old posts. Love it, thanks. When I was new to decorating cookies I found making the color black to be time consuming and I didn’t like all the coloring I was using. One time I had some left over brown that I decided to turn black. I used such a small amount of coloring to turn the icing black. Now anytime I need black icing I tint the icing brown first (which doesn’t require much colorings) and THEN use black. I have been amazed at how little coloring I need when I do it this way.
I LOVE your blog! It has helped me so much.
Forgive me if you’ve already addressed this. But I’m having a challenge with my black icing. I made royal icing transfers (practicing for my son’s upcoming birthday). I outlined with black and then filled in with two other lighter colors. The lighter colors dried perfectly. But the black never seemed to fully dry. When I removed the transfers, the black didn’t release well, causing the transfers to break. It kind of pulled away and seemed a bit tacking. I waited two days before trying to remove the transfers. Any idea what I’m doing wrong? I want to figure this out before I start preparing for my son’s birthday. TIA!
Hi @ Mindy: Thanks so much for that tip! I’m going to recommend that to @ April right now! =)
@ April: It sounds like the black didn’t dry and that’s usually a result of lots n lots of color and sometimes, a combination of that and a humid environment. Try the tip Mindy shares above. Hope it helps!
Such fantastic cookies! Thanks for the tutorial. I have a question about Americolor. I’ve been using Wilton colors for about 20 years with great results, and just used Americolor for the first time — the Soft Gel Paste Food color (Leaf Green) — to color a white cake batter. I used 7 drops and got a nice light green. To give you an idea of the batch size, this is batter for a 10x15x2″ pan. I tasted the raw batter and found it very, very bitter. This is a cake I’ve made many times and it’s always delicious. I added an extra teaspoon of vanilla and an extra four tablespoons of sugar, trying to mask the bitterness. The finished cake — while nicely green — still seems very bitter to me. In fact, I cannot get the taste out of my mouth, even after brushing my teeth. My family doesn’t seem to taste the bitterness at all. Is this just me? Does anyone else have this experience? I’m guessing now that I should’ve ordered the darker green so I wouldn’t have to use so much. We also ordered the Electric Pink and Electric Yellow for a different cake, and now I’m a bit worried about using them, particularly the pink as red dye is known to cause bitterness. How many drops would you suggest for an average cake batter? Thanks!
Thank you @ Stella! I can’t speak to the bitterness experience personally, and apologize, but I also can’t help with how much to put for your cake batter, as I haven’t tried it. =( Hopefully someone else can help!
Sorry if this is answered already, I looked back at old comments and didn’t find the answer to this: is there a drawback to putting royal transfers in the fridge to make them dry faster? Thanks so much. And I absolutely LOVE your blog and design style.
Thanks, @ Alma!
Yes, the drawback is that the moisture in the fridge will hamper the drying process and possibly also cause colors to bleed.
If you like, I have a video on how to dry (cookies or transfers etc.) royal icing. It’s on my YouTube page, which you can find by clicking the little yellow YouTube sign at the top right of my page.
Good luck!