Ok, so today is my Grand Opening (yeah!!!!!). I am not able to have as many dummies in the window as I had planned because as soon as I put one in the window, it faded within an hour!

What can I do to keep the dummies from fading? The entire front of my store is windows, so blinds is a no-go. is there something I can put on the dummy? Its such a bummer. I had such a pretty pink one and it turned white in an hour. My blue one(which is 1 year old) took two days, but still.....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

my shop is all west facing windows too, lots of direct sun. i never use colored icing on my dummies for this exact reason. i always iced them in white, and then use various colors/types of ribbon, silk or sugar flowers and piping. i only use color on things that are easy to swap out (like ribbon borders/flowers) if they fade.

another word of warning, i wouldn't use any black ribbon on your dummies. i found out the hard way that with constant direct sun heating the black ribbon it melts the icing. i walked in to bubbled, fondant goo on one of my dummys just along the ribbon border. i re-did the dummy and used blue ribbon instead and its perfectly fine.

I sprayed mine with spray paint and then used other paints and nonedibles to decorate it. It's a dummy so no one is going to know either way. No fading either.

oOOOh!! GREAT IDEA CakeForte!! And if you use that fake fondant for dummies it could last for ever... you're so smart...

lol..thanks. But I actually had the same problem as you. One of my really nice dummies (that I took to a show) faded in a month. I was sooo upset! I spent a lot of time on it and the colors faded. So that's what I came up with.

I wonder if you can use acrylic craft paint on fondant. It dries quickly to a plastic-like finish that doesn't fade, and it's water soluble and easy to clean up. Plus, you can get a million different colors for about $0.50 a bottle.

I think you could also simulate piping gel by mixing the acrylic paint into craft glue that dries clear, like Elmer's.

Hey folks,
You are on the right track. My storefront faces south and is a wall of windows. We struggled with this for years. One day I decided to color the royal icing with acrylic paint...the little plastic jars in the crafts and hobby. It works great for pastel colors...kind of breaks the royal icing if you try bolder colors like black or dark blue, etc. You can still use that icing for scroll or something...but never flowers, etc. It does not fade. We have had a pink cake on display for two years. I have used it to color fondant for display cakes also. That is a fun sticky job!

I have glass cases for most of the cakes and even the flourescent lights fades the cakes quickly.

This has been the best thing I have found so far. We have actually painted a few things on the cake, but it is hard to be accurate and I don't want the cakes looking painted. It works, but be careful in the workmanship.