I was tight on cash, and took a last minute cake job (2 days notice). The client turned out to be a nightmare! She finally approved the design at 9 pm the night before. Then called me back to see if she could change the filling, after I filled it! (of, course, I did say no to that) I had a full day planned the next day, so I stayed up late to decorate the cake so I wouldn't have to worry about it the next day. So, I had the cake finished, it was pink and white stripes on one tier and pink and white dots on the other. I set it in the shade in the kitchen, without thinking of the movement of the sun through the skylights. I came home that afternoon (cake delivery at 5 pm) and HALF of the cake was SOLID WHITE! The pink was completely bleached out of the buttercream. The client didn't actually need the cake until the following morning, so I called her and re-did the entire thing! So much for making extra money!

Oh no..... I'm so sorry that happened to you. You were such a good sport for taking a cake on 2 days notice. It sounds like you had a great design too. I'm not sure I'd be so patient with someone about approving the design with that kind of notice! It sounds like you did a great job in the end. Good for you!

Bleah! What a bummer! I didn't realize this was a problem for bc too -yikes! The first time this happened to me it was on a little fondant bunny. I too had him near the window but in the shade, and didn't consider the movement of the sun. I was astonished that it took less than 1/2 hour for the pink fondant to go white ! Now anything I make with red in it (i.e. pink, purple, orange) stays in the dark . This, by the way, has something to do with the way they reformulated red food dye after the Red Dye #2 scare way back in the 70's.

OK, I'm dating myself a little, but what Red Dye #2 scare?

Is it you who is dating yourself, or me? I do remember it as a child, because it was the reason they stopped making red M&M's lol. Some researchers determined that that particular dye caused cancer in lab rats, so they took it off the market and had to come up with new ingredients to create a red food dye. Whatever those ingredients are, they don't seem to be as stable as good ol' cancer causing RDN2.

Cheers to your patience with the customer's demands! and patience to re-do the entire thing again. I too had an experience like your's once but with tiny fondant elephants.. I left them by a window to dry and didn't realise the sun would beat it from thet window...my poor little grey elephants turned a weird greeny-grey and they looked like they were sick! But the parts that the sun didnot fall on were still grey.