Does anyone know why this would happen? My buttercream has little white dots and the color has changed since yesterday. The roses have a green cast to them now.

The last pic is of how it looked yesterday. The other three are how it looks today!

It looks kinda gross. Is it safe to eat?

Roxanne,

It looks to me to be chunks of powder sugar. Could it be that? Take a piece of the white stuff & taste it. I bet it is powder sugar. The roses were on top of the green leaves right? That is probably why they are turning green. They might be absorbing the green. It is darker so it might absorb.

If it isn't the powdered sugar it could be the butter/Crisco, that wasn't mixed in completely! Whatever happened it definitely has played havoc with your pretty cake! Janice

It could be powdered sugar or crisco or butter, I'm just not sure. I just tasted a spot and it tasted fine. I mixed the icing on high speed a long time, so I don't understand why it would separate like that...also, the top has turned blue where the sides are still purple. I think was I was mistaking for green on the roses is actually the blue discoloration. I don't think it's bleed through from the leaves because it's on the top of the roses, not a layer that is touching the leaves. I dunno, it's weirding me out!!

I have had this problem with purple and lavendar several times. I've been told 2 things: a little milk instead of all water will help, and definitely make it a day in advance and re-mix before you use it.

See the article here on coloring your icing.

http://www.cakecentral.com/article2-How-To-Color-Your-Icing.html

I hope this helps - your work is so pretty you don't want anything to take away from your hard work. Good luck!

Newbie

I have to agree with you, it is really weird! How is the cake below? Is it getting oily or moist? If it is the b/C it will probably show up in the cake getting soggy soon.

I made practice roses a couple of days ago with green bc that was half and half b/C, from some I had left over, and the color has changed from a light green (from the April showers cake photo earlier this month) to a green that would be okay for Christmas decorations! I've had colors deepen before, but this is ridiculous!

Let us know if you figure it out! Janice

I'm not going to help here, sorry, just say that I've gotten into the habit of coloring my icings the day before so they can darken if they're going to before I use them on my cake. I've had some weird coloring problems so I try and let them set for several hours before using. That practice also cuts down on the stress for me. I'm glad this was the just because you made for your hubby, wasn't it? I'm sure it's delicious still and I know it was a beauty in it's original colors.

If there's a chance it 's the color leaching up from the top of the cake maybe we should experiment with making varigated roses using this interesting technique Marknrox has come up with. Maybe yellow roses with a red/orange base. Like I said, I didn't figure on actually helping, I'm stumped here. Ü

This happened to me when I first started cake decorating. I think it was because I was using crisco and butter. Now I use crisco and wilton clear butter flavor or clear vanilla. It has not happened to me anymore. LOL keep my fingers crossed that it wont happen to me again. GOOD LUCK!!!
MC

This happened to me when I first started cake decorating. I think it was because I was using crisco and butter. Now I use crisco and wilton clear butter flavor or clear vanilla. It has not happened to me anymore. LOL keep my fingers crossed that it wont happen to me again. GOOD LUCK!!!
MC

I have seen this with about 90% of the purples i've used. (Premixed for home, Premixed in a bakery, and homemade mixed) Was the cake out in the light? Any form of light i've found tends to change the purple to the blue.

Don't quote me on this, this is my recollection of someone explaining this to me. Purple's main base color is blue. For some reason Light makes the purple fade, but not to a lighter purple, to the base color blue. I have also seen this happen with a peach and coral that were mixed to the color. They faded in the light (and I mean very little light) to a yellow color. If I make these colors I just make sure they are covered with something to keep the light out. Even if it is just a little bit of parchment paper covering the top of the cake over the box or Clear wrapping.

I hope this helps, and these suggestions might help you also.

Leily

That happened to me with lavender also. I was told that it should not be exposed to the sunlight, it was in filtered sun. Also about the milk thing, I did use milk and yet it turned color. It is not leaching, but rather a reaction to the air and sunlight. I'll try what one person suggested, to mix the day before and remix before using. Hope that works. My cake was a little girl's Tinkerbell cake and it looked pretty gross in grey.

It is the light that makes it fade. All red color (unless specified no-fade) will fade in light. Purple is made of red and blue. The red faded and left you with blue, red will fade to pink, peach to light orange, etc...

Hello everyone ~

I have had problems with small bleached areas on cakes before. The trouble was that I was adding the dash of salt that my recipe calls for directly to the icing. Salt dissolves slowly in fat, so each grain that dissolved after my cake was iced bleached out a small area around it.

Salt is a flavor enhancer so I never omit it. Now I just dissolve it in my liquid ingredients.

~ Sherri

Sherri- Try using popcorn salt. The grains are so fine that they don't affect the color and you don't have to worry about any salt not dissolving.