15 Minute Black Frosting

These 15 minute black frosting recipes use black cocoa powder and/or food coloring and are a delicious and simple way to make show stoping cakes and cupcakes.

Doesn’t this black frosting look luscious and delicious?! It’s such a beautiful and unique color and it can really can create some show stopping cakes and desserts. And, since it is so close to Halloween, black frosting is, of course, having a moment. But, making a homemade jet black frosting can be quite hard to achieve. 

The problem with simply adding of black food coloring to frosting is that unless you add a ton you’ll get a gray color.  It can also change the consistency of the frosting, and black dye can have a strange taste as well as dye your teeth. 

Because of this there are many different social media and tiktok hacks floating around to get black buttercream, and we’ll go over a few of them in this post. 

But, my personal favorite is my black cream cheese frosting recipe. It is a natural black frosting and a deep, dark rich color, with no dye needed! Why you’ll love it:

• Simple: Not only is the black cream cheese frosting recipe easy, all of these recipe and methods to get frosting black are super simple and easy to make. No boiling milk, no strange ingredients you’ll never use again. It’s just a basic and easy way to get a deep, dark black frosting.
• Versatile: This frosting is not just for Halloween! It’s great for black and white themed cakes, galaxy cupcakes, or show stopping wedding cakes. Even just to top chocolate cupcakes for a holiday bake sale.
• Delicious: Beyond its unique appearance, this frosting tastes just as delicious and traditional vanilla frosting or chocolate frosting. Using black cocoa powder gives the frosting a rich, Oreo like flavor (which makes sense since it is what Oreo cookies use!)

Issues with making frosting black

The main issue when  trying to get a frosting to a deep jet black frosting (especially if you’re trying to color light colored frosting like almond or vanilla), is you need a lot of food coloring. Like, a lot. If you don’t add enough, the frosting will stay gray. But, adding enough black food coloring to get it jet black can cause the following issues:

• The frosting can change consistency
• There is so much dye it can stain teeth, clothes, and hands
• The frosting can have a bitter taste to it from the food coloring

Because of this there are many different social media and tiktok hacks floating around to get black buttercream, and we’ll go over a few of them in this post.  But, my personal favorite is my black cream cheese frosting recipe, a take on my chocolate cream cheese frosting that uses black cocoa powder instead of regular. It is a natural black frosting and a deep, dark rich color, with no dye needed! 

Ingredients

There are two main ingredients or ways to get frosting black:

• Black Food Coloring:  Use black gel food coloring or black powdered food coloring. Do not use liquid food coloring for frosting as it will not get dark enough and can change the consistency of the frosting. 
• Black Cocoa Powder:  According to King Arthur Flour, black cocoa powder is “ultra-Dutch processed, meaning it is treated with an alkaline solution to reduce its acidity. This gives it a smooth texture, dark color, and unsweetened-chocolate highlights.”   It is what they use to Oreo cookies it’s signature dark color, so it has a delicious Oreo buttercream flavor. 

Color Differences (a test)

The on left is made with black cocoa. You can see how when it gets thinner there are brown undertones. The frosting on the right is made with black food coloring and has almost greenish undertones. Depending on the brand of food coloring the undertones can be green, blue, or purplish.

When looking the frosting side by side you can tell the frosting with black dye is a darker, truer shade of black. But, when piped on a cupcakes or frosting a cake, it is much harder to tell:

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And, if you were not comparing them side by side I don’t know if anyone could tell a difference. So, it’s up to you if you want to get a jet black frosting you can use black cocoa powder and a few drops of black food coloring. 

Otherwise, the black cocoa powder alone get a nice and rich dark black color, without any dye! 

Methods of Making Black Frosting

There are are three main solutions or hacks to get dark black frosting without using a whole container of food coloring. They are as follows:

• Using Black Cocoa Powder (with or without added dye) 
• Coloring Chocolate Frosting
• Heating or Microwave Method (for vanilla or light colored frosting)

Method 1: Using Black Cocoa Powder

• Pros: Can have a dark color without any food coloring
• Cons:  Has a chocolate Oreo flavor, not as black as using food coloring

I adore this method. Black cocoa powder is absolute magic and it’s a fan favorite for a reason.  Black cocoa powder is what they use to color Oreo cookies, so it has a delicious Oreo cookie chocolate flavor.   It is readily available on Amazon and adds such a fun flavor to desserts. 

And, it gets frosting super dark without any added food coloring! Check out the test section below and you can see an example. It does have a slightly brown undertone (rather than blue or purple for black dye) but once it is piped it’s very difficult to tell.    And, you can always add a few drops of black dye to get those black undertones if you’d like. 

You can use black cocoa powder in place of cocoa powder in most chocolate frosting recipe that uses regular cocoa powder. My favorite is this black cream cheese frosting recipe. I’m not sure why, I just think it get darker than a black cocoa American buttercream. My guess is the added water content in the cream cheese helps get it a littler darker, as the black cocoa turns very black once wet. But, that’s just a guess. 

Method 2: Coloring Chocolate Frosting

• Pros:  Will have a dark black color, uses less food coloring than if coloring a lighter frosting
• Cons: It helps to make it in advance to give the color a chance to develop, it can still stain teeth, it will be chocolate frosting, which is not always wanted.

This is a very common method of making black frosting – start with chocolate frosting! You’ll need much less food coloring than if you were starting with a vanilla or a light colored frosting.

It’s much easier to get that jet black color when starting with an already brown or dark colored frosting.  It still helps to make the frosting a day in advance to let the color develop, but you’ll still need much less dye than if you were starting with vanilla frosting.

The main drawback is it is chocolate frosting and that might not be the flavor you’re looking for. If that’s the case see the next method. 

Method 3: Heat It Up

• Pros: This will have a true black color and still keep the flavor profile of the original frosting.
• Cons: It helps to make it in advance to give the color a chance to develop, you need to let the frosting firm up after melting, it can still stain teeth, and heating the frosting can change the consistency.

But, what if you want to color vanilla frosting? If you’re making a lemon cake or another flavor that you don’t want to pair with chocolate, this is where the microwave or heating method comes in handy.  

This method works great for coloring vanilla frosting black.   And, while you’ll still need more dye than if you started with a darker chocolate frosting, you’ll need significantly less than if you tried to get a dark frosting by food coloring alone.

The gist is that once you heat the frosting just a bit, it will go from a grayish to a dark black.  There are a few ways to achieve this. Some melt just a bit of the icing and then mix it back into the whipped frosting. Others, melt the entire batch for 10-15 seconds in the microwave (my preferred method).

You can also use an immersion blender, which will give just enough heat to make the frosting darker. It works especially well with Swiss Meringue Buttercream or Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting.

How to Make

Vanilla Black Buttercream (using food coloring)

This is using my vanilla American buttercream frosting recipe, but you can use this method to color any light colored buttercream frosting black, such as lemon buttercream, almond buttercream, champagne buttercream, etc.

Cream Butter:  Using a hand held mixer or standing mixer, cream the butter using a paddle or whisk attachment on medium high until pale yellow, about 4-5 minutes. If necessary, half way through scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing.

Add Sugar and Vanilla:  Turn off the mixer and add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix on low for a minute until it incorporates and starts to look crumbly. Once crumbly, turn up the speed and continue mixing on medium to medium high, about 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add Food Coloring and Milk:  Gauge the consistency. If the frosting is too thick, you can mix in a few tablespoons of milk or cream, 1/2 tbsp at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency.     Then, mix in your food coloring. Add about 1-2 tsp of food coloring. You want it to be a dark gray.

Heat the Frosting: Now, you’ll heat the frosting up. You can use an immersion blender, which adds enough heat to darken the color. You can also heat ½-1 cup of frosting in the microwave for 10- 15 seconds and them mix back into the frosting. Or, heat the entire batch of frosting for 10 seconds in the microwave and then re-stir. If heating the entire batch, you’ll need to let it firm up again for 15-20 minutes in the fridge before using.   

The black color will continue to deepen as it sits, so it’s best to make this frosting and a day ahead of time, storing in an airtight container at room temperature. 

Black Cream Cheese Frostings (Using Black Cocoa Powder)

For this recipe I’m doing a black chocolate cream cheese frosting, but you can also use black cocoa powder in place of regular cocoa powder in chocolate buttercream frosting. The process is exactly the same and you can still add a bit of black food dye at the end if you want.

Mix Butter and Cream Cheese: Using a hand held mixer with a large bowl, or a whisk attachment in a standing mixer, beat softened butter and softened cream cheese until thoroughly combined, about 2-3 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add Sugar and Cocoa Powder: Add in the black cocoa powder and powdered sugar, ½-1 cup at a time. Mix on medium low, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.

Add Vanilla and Salt:  Add vanilla and salt and remix until combined.  You can also add a little bit of black food color if you want a super dark frosting.  If piping, chill for 20 minutes in the fridge to get the perfect piping consistency. Otherwise, it’s ready to use on your favorite dessert.

Variations

Using either black cocoa powder or black food coloring you can make just about any frosting black. Here are some common variations:

• Chocolate Ganache: add black food coloring to chocolate ganache for a rich, black chocolate icing. You can also whip the cooled ganache for a black whipped frosting.
• Chocolate Swiss Meringue or Italian Meringue Buttercream: Add black food coloring to chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream will give it a dark black color. Using an immersion blender on the frosting will make it even darker! 
• Activated charcoal or Squid Ink: If you’re looking for an all natural black frosting, you can add a tablespoon or two of activate charcoal or squid ink to vanilla or chocolate frosting, which are both fairly neutral in flavor.  Just watch out for activate charcoal as it can interfere with some medications. 

Tips and tricks

• Keep ingredients room temperature, such as butter and/or cream cheese so they properly mix and whip up. 

• If using black food coloring, make the frosting a day in advance. The black color will greatly darken as it sits and you’ll need to use much less.
• Be sure to use gel or powdered food coloring to get the darkest black. Liquid food coloring can alter the consistency of the frosting and with not be as dark as gel or powder food dye. 
• Black food coloring can be added to any chocolate frosting to get a black frosting without having to add nearly as much food coloring. 
• In addition to the microwave method, you use an immersion blender or food processor to gently warm up the vanilla frosting and food coloring to get a richer, darker black. This works especially well with Swiss Meringue or Italian Meringue Buttercreams. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Frosting Cakes and Cupcakes

Both of these recipes makes about about three cups for frosting.  In general one batch of frosting will cover:

• 12 -16 cupcakes with frosting piped like the pictures
• 24 cupcakes spreading the frosting with a knife
• 2 layer cake – 6 or 8 inches
• 9 x 13 inch sheet pan cake 

I recommend 1.5 or doubling the recipe if you’re doing a three layer cake, frosting using a turntable, trying to get crisp edges, and/or adding decorative piped frosting around the top and edges. Any decorative piping on a cake will require more frosting.

I’ve found it’s always better to have more frosting and freeze the rest (buttercream freezes really well), then have to make more frosting mid-cake.  This is especially true if you’re using food coloring, as the second batch might not be the exact same color as the first.

Storing and Making Ahead

The cream cheese frosting should be stored in the refrigerator until ready to use and can be made ahead up to a week. The black vanilla frosting, or black chocolate frosting should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container until ready to use.  

Any frosting using black food coloring is best made a few hours or up to a day in advance to allow the color to deepen. 

Frostings can be frozen an a freezer ziplock bag or airtight container up to two months. 

Looking for more unique frosting recipes? Check these out! 

• Ermine Frosting
• Russian Buttercream 
• Peanut Butter Frosting

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