Misadventures in Black Cupcakes

I was at the store the other day and on the spice isle I saw BLACK food coloring.  My birthday is coming up and I thought it would be fun to make some black cupcakes.  Also I love to cook with my kids.  So I purchased a CUPCAKE MIX in Vanilla, and a Dark Chocolate mix.  I figured I had so much  mix....I could experiment.  I added the black coloring to the Dark Chocolate cake mix it didn't really change it at all. 

I really loved the results of the Dark Chocolate cupcakes flavor and all.  No food coloring needed.

For the white (french Vanilla) cupcake mix instead of adding water, I substituted Beet juice.  YES Beet Juice.  One can of beets does the trick.  My grandmother did it when I was a kid and I thought It would be neat.  It turned the batter pink, Like pepto... yucky pink.  My daughter thought it was neat so I made her 4 pink cupcakes and she LOVED THEM....After I made 4 for my daughter I added a few drops of black die the cupcakes turned Black, Black, Black.

I took 4 table spoons of cream cheese and added black food coloring.  It was freaky.  It was so cool until we decided to eat them.  The icing stained our mouth, teeth and tongues. Dark CK frosting is the best bet if you want Black or dark icing.   

As you can see from the photos it stained my hands.  I was careful and it barely touched my hands.  It will not wash off even with my husband's (car hand greese soap). 

BLACK FOOD coloring is banned in our home. It is not really needed even if used carefully.  I am sure it has it's uses with fondant.  Next time I want to make vampire cupcakes, I will stick to dark chocolate, and red velvet.   

The Beets were a huge sucess