Just in time for spooky season
/I recently went on a deep dive into the world of black buttercream. Truly black buttercream.
For anyone in the know, it’s very difficult to achieve black buttercream without it looking dark grey or even green, and then there’s the issue of turning everyone’s tongue black. Not a great look.
So why is making black buttercream so difficult?
If you think about it, you’re working with two very pale ingredients – butter and icing sugar. These will always be working against you.
The obvious answer is to use lots of black colouring (gel colour is always the best option) but using too much can affect both the taste and texture, and of course cause the dreaded black tongue.
After much research, the key to achieving a true black is using black cocoa powder. Using very dark cocoa powder reduces the need for as much black colouring. Black cocoa powder is essentially what is used to make Oreo cookies. It’s very bitter but with the amount of icing sugar in this recipe, it makes a delicious tasting buttercream.
This buttercream is perfect for those who don’t like buttercream that’s too sweet. If you find this recipe too bitter though, you can replace half the amount of black cocoa powder with standard cocoa powder. You may not get as black a buttercream but you can play around with the ratios to find the best option for you.
This buttercream is great for creating a striking celebration cake and pipes really beautifully (check out my Lambeth-style piped cake below). It’s also perfect for topping cupcakes for any Halloween themed bakes coming up. Personally though, I love a dark cake and recently used this recipe to mask an entire 3-tier wedding cake so in my view, it’s a year-round recipe.
Where to find…
It can be tricky to find black cocoa powder. You don’t tend to see it in supermarkets, not even the larger ones. I used Black Velvet Cacao Powder by Weirdo Good and found this on the Cake Craft Company. You can find it on specialist cake decorating websites and also Amazon.
I use Sugarflair Black Extra gel colouring (this is also the brand I used for my Red Velvet cake) as you don’t need much to get a really intense colour. Again, this is available from specialist cake decorating websites. You can use other brands but please note you may need a different amount to get a good black colour.