Black food colouring .. doess it exist?

[Twiglett]

and where would I get it from?

DS has decided he wants a black castle for his birthday .... I was going for white

arrrrgggghhhhhh

Message withdrawn

must do somewhere, cos you can buy ready rolled black icing.

there are specific cake decorating shops around which I'm sure will sell it. Our nearest one is east molesey which I don't know is near to you???

I got black food colouring in Safeway last year when I made a ladybird cake for dd (needed it for black spots), however, it took me ages to find red (rather than pink) food colouring, which you think would be much more common!!

I warn you though, it is really hard to make the icing black - you have to add soooo much colour and of course then the icing is going really gooey. It took me hours to make the red and black (and the black was really just grey in the end, although it is darker when it dries). I vowed never to do it again but to try to find somewhere to buy ready coloured icing - haven't asked in the cake shops yet, must do so as it's not so far off the next birthday now)

how about this (scroll down)
here

I agree with Distracted - it doesn't come out black.
The black ready roll stuff on the other hand, is really impressive! You can get it in big Saindbury's etc.
If I baked a castle cake it would be black even before I got the icing on!
It sounds brilliant.

i bought a pott of 'finger paint looking stuff' which is increddibly concentrated....it costs more than the bottles of usual liquid stuf..... i have used a little- but if you 'trust' me that i have not contaminated it (!!!!!) you can contact me and i will post it to you- FREE!(there's LOADS LEFT!)

Nigella talks about needing to use black colouring paste to get something close to back - and even then she suggests adding some cholcoalte to help it get to the intensity your require.

Supermarket will do a multi pack of coloured icing - you get red, yellow, green and black in the pack. I have load of yellow and red left, after a couple of years of making Thomas/Henry/Gordon cakes for ds' birthday. I never get organised enough to order the colouring paste in advance. At least this year I'll be able to use the red - as ds will be 5, so the train will be James .

You can also get "writing" icing in various colours.

you know something .. poo to it .. its only his birthday .. he can have a white castle and lump it

(would love the ready rolled stuff Blu, but ATM need to make turrets out of it so needs to be the icing with gelatine and glucose syrup in it so it sets really hard

I am currently thinking up cheats though so might work out a way round that

If I was attempting such a feat, I would buy those marble cakes, cut them up into turret shapes, and stick cut-out ready roll to them in shape of turrets etc.

And everyone would think it was a pothole, or a coal heap or a crawling yeti....

Pshaw .. surely not

AM thinking of swiss rolls and marshmallows for turrets and crenellations respectively.. have ice cream cones to make the points on the turrets

still think a white castle with maybe green ivy would be far nicer than a black one

Black icing doesn't taste very nice. My brother had a vampire cake once(!) and it was gross.

Happy Birthday to your DS, Twiglett!

LOL at crawling yeti!

My dd (3 next week) keeps telling me she wants a ladybird cake. Reading this has made me definitely decide against it. Not good at cakes per so so it will just have to be a good old sponge with jam and buttercream in the middle with sprinkles and a 3 candle (again!) - she's most insistent about the candle!!!!

Wow - it sounds really impressive.
I do agree with you re a white castle. Castles aren't balck anyway. You could do a dungeon door in black icing to satisfy his 4YO gruesomeness!

Nikki - you can do a ladybird! Round cake, smothered in red roll-out, and then cut out spots from the black roll-out.

My sister used to paint a lot of the details onto cakes, the colours come out quite intense.
What about making it grey though ?, it would really look like stone then, especially if you drew on the morter lines and stippled darker grey too.

If I can find the appropriate colour roll out I might reconsider! How does roll out taste?

No idea! never actually EAT the horrible stuff! And I usually try to magic half of it off the kids plates too, and just encourage them to eat the cake. I think cakes like this are more for the effect, aren't they?

I always though it might be foul and I think that's why I didn't really want to bother Blu. It's not like we're having a big party - just the gparents to tea so probably back to plan A!

What about getting some liquorice (the thick tubes, maybe with a white inside) and cutting it into chunks for the crenellations?

The black icing doesn't taste particularly nice, I have to admit. However, kids don't seem to notice - and I use warmed diluted honey and/or rapberry jam to stick it on.

The ladybird cake is easy -- no need to go for roll-out, just stick liqourice pennies on for spots. (Size your ladybird to the available spots.)

I would definitely not go for the black castle, though, as if you actually let people eat significant amounts of black (or navy blue) icing, they will poo funny colours.

Not seen licorique spots before, any suggestions about where to get them?

Hmmm -- liquorice pennies here are in any reasonably fancy candy display here, usually imported from the Netherlands. I would have thought they'd be easier to get in England, but obviously not. Sorry.

you can get licorice whirls in Sainsbury's sweet counters (well you can in ours) .. which would do

I'd use black writing icing and just draw them on .. or get ready-made black icing (yep I saw it today but he's still having a white castle )

Black and red colouring you get in pots

They look like film canisters

It is very very concentrated consistency of thick toothpaste

It does work though

I think they are called 'Ponetfract cakes' here, and a bit hard to get, these days. (licorice pennnies)