How do I make a black cake?

[virgil]

I am making a darth vader cake for DS1s birthday tomorrow. I have some black food colouring but am worried it'll end up greyish. Am I best to start with chocolate cake which will be a darker base to start from or will the food colouring do the trick on its own?

I'd do a chocolate cake, with some food colouring Rhein in for extra measure.

Or just burn it?

**Disclaimer: I am not a master baker, just a novice. Betty Crocker is my friend.

Rhein = thrown!

I would do a chocolate cake. Surely you just want to cover it in black icing? Does the inside colour matter? You will only see it when you cut into it.

Problem with covering it in icing is that the tin is in the shape of darth vader and I'm
Worried that if I ice it the detail will get lost and I will end up with something that looks like a flat oval blob. My icing skills are not up to much!! So plan had been to cook the black cake and just try to add a little bit of detail onto it with a little bit of icing and some sparkly black sugar crystals. Can see this becoming a bit of a disaster

Plus had a rubbish day at work and so already half a glass of wine down which isn't going to improve my icing skills

Do the cake with the highest chocolate content you can find. Nigella does a good one.
Cover with chocolate icing (or ganache)
Roll out black icing and use a paper template to cut into the shape of vader's head. Lightly draw on the lines working the picture with a blunt knife.

Could you use the cake mould to cut out a template for DV's figure in ready roll icing?

Just seen that you have a fancy tin.
In that case make the chociest cake you can. If you add the colouring to a light cake you're likely to end up with grey.
Wait and see how the cake comes out before making your icing plan. (I suspect that a thin layer of dark choc ganache would be ok.)

Black gel/paste colouring, I have made black bat cupcakes using them.

This is a very chocolatey chocolate cake, esp if you put in 6oz chocolate rather than 4, as I did. I used Tesco's 85% Ecuador chocolate, reduced the sugar by about 25% as the recipe calls for unsweetened chocolate, and used half baking powder, half bicarb to avoid too much bicarb saltiness. Comes out very, very dark, like a Pret a Manger chocolate fudge, and it's really nice.

You need black food dye gel. That will give you proper black cake. Nigella has a recipe for Guineas cake which is nearly black, but possibly not suitable for a baby!