I am making a graduation cake for this weekend. I am doing stars all over it. I cut out stars in 2 different shades of blue and then cut out some white fondant stars that I want to paint silver. They have been drying for over a week. I bought the NU Silver and mixed it with a little voldka and started to paint them last night. It just won't work!! They look like I spray painted them with watered down gray paint!! I have used the gold before and it was beautiful...why won't the silver work?! Is is because I let the stars dry before I painted them? Any hints and help would be much appreciated.

I noticed that before about painting white fondant silver...it works when you start with gray fondant but when you start with white, it just makes it look grubby. I was using wilton's dust, but it sounds like you ran into the same issue I did.

You might have put too much alcohol in it. You just need a drop or two of alcohol and then just a little bit of luster dust. However, I do think it's easier to start with gray fondant.

Ok...well I am going tonight to get more silver dust. I might try painting it on dry for those I have already painted. If that doesn't work, I guess I will have to start all over and make some new mmf and tint it gray. I hope they have time to dry before Friday!

i use nu silver all the time, on white cause i'm too tired by that stage to color and it works well. i really just think that your vodka/paint ratio is off, being diluted too much. if you've put too much alcohol in, just walk away for a minute and do something else while some of the alcohol evaporated down. also, keep stirring alot, since the dust seems to always want to settle to the bottom.

if it's a small accessory that hasn't been attached to the cake yet, and i don't run the risk of getting paint on my cake, i use the paint and vodka seperate. once small portion cup with vodka in the bottom, my thing of dust, both sitting on a paper towel. i dip my brush in the alcohol, get off the excess liquid ont he paper towel, then dip into the dust and get a small blob on the brush. this results in a heavier thicker coat of paint and will give you the shine that you need...just be careful when carrying it over to stick onto the cake, since it can come off on your fingers.

btw: i lovelovelove the silver and gold "highlighter" dusts"...most people don't eat accessories anyway, and boy do you get a high gloss look!!

I tried again last night and it was just the ratio of alcohol to silver mix. I used A LOT less voldka and it worked great! Thanks for all the tips!