A black cake

[EmilyVorpe]

I'm looking to make a BLACK cake... I have no clue on how to do this, and I'd love to not use anything harmful. Anyone have any ideas?

[Chicky2]

Black food coloring? I have some paste kind (I used it for my dh's 40th bday cake). Don't know how GOOD it is for you, but I figure once a lifetime or so wouldn't kill us, lol.

[Aiti]

How "black" does it have to be? I have a recipe for a chocolate cake that comes out very dark brown. I can post it if it would help.

Is this for a significant birthday? Just curious.

[notjustmamie]

I found that just about any chocolate cake made with dutch process cocoa turns out black (think of the color of Oreo cookies).

[EmilyVorpe]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

Black food coloring? I have some paste kind (I used it for my dh's 40th bday cake). Don't know how GOOD it is for you, but I figure once a lifetime or so wouldn't kill us, lol.

I bought the paste at Michael's craft store yesterday but the sales woman said I wouldn't be able to use it in the cake, only the frosting.... maybe I can try it?

[EmilyVorpe]

Originally Posted by Aiti

How "black" does it have to be? I have a recipe for a chocolate cake that comes out very dark brown. I can post it if it would help.

Is this for a significant birthday? Just curious.

I'm just looking for as dark as possible....

My son wants a pirate birthday party for his 5th birthday. We were going to do a black cake with blake frosting and the pirate skull (jolly roger??) ...something simple, but the black is something he REALLY wants....

[LauraLoo]

For the icing - start out with dark chocolate icing and use the icing paste/color to color it darker. It's going to take *a lot* of black coloring, fyi, to get it black so start out as dark as possible.

[MsHiss]

What about adding some pureed blackberries?

[Chicky2]

I've bought black icing at Halloween at the regular ole grocery store.

The mouths of all the kids will look NASTY, lol.

[patrica]

You can use a dark chocolate cake mix... usually I buy the ready made choc. frosting and add drops of blue coloring til I get the color I want.

[EmilyVorpe]

Thanks everyone!
We're going to get a dark chocolate cake and add the paste to it...hopefully that will work. If not, hopefully he won't notice!

[RunnerDuck]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

The mouths of all the kids will look NASTY, lol.

Yeah that. I made my son a fire truck cake for his second birthday and the tires were black and the kids lips and teeth and everything else as well.

*PERSONALLY* I would just go with a dark chocolate cake, I wouldn't try to make it blacker with the food color. I personally don't care much about the health effects of food dye - I think it's safe enough and it's not like you eat it every day - but I think it tastes pretty nasty. The darker the color the nastier it tastes and black is as nasty as it gets. If you're adding enough to make the cake and the icing black I think you're going to taste the dye and it will be nasty. (Maybe I am just weird though and no one else notices the taste??)

I don't exactly know why you couldn't bake with it - if you are doing a light cake the color may not come out as dark as you like but with dark chocolate... I don't know. I had a bright idea that for my son's first BDAY we made the Wilton duckie cake, I thought it would be hilarious to make the cake bright red so when you cut into the duck it would look like it was bleeding - but I couldn't get the cake any darker than pink. It should be safe and all to bake with but I really think adding black dye to a dark chocolate cake is going to be kind of like adding a splash of lemon to a glass of lemonade... why bother? Only since I think the black dye is so foul tasting maybe more like adding a splash of lemon Mr. Clean to a glass of lemonade...

[Shakti77]

I would add lot of mashed blueberries and prune butter in an already dark chocolate cake.

[allnaturalmom]

Use black cocoa powder instead of regular in a chocolate cake recipe. Instant black... think oreos. Use it for the frosting, too.