I've been decorating tiered cakes for our bakery store display, one at a time, switching it out monthly. The last one I did had pink fondant flowers and it sits in the window at the bakery so it faded big time - which I've come to understand that it happens, especially to pink fondant.

The next cake I'd like to do would be covered in fondant completely, and I'd actually really like to do each tier in different shades of pink. Is there any hope in doing this?? Should I choose a different color? Or should I forget fondant altogether? I COULD ice it with Buttercream in the shades of pink if I had to, but I was really wanting to use fondant on this one.

Is a fondant display cake hopeless?

sunlight does fade most colors of fondant. Cant you do a white cake with colored ribbon or something.

What about RI accents, I dont think it fades as fast, maybe someone else knows?

I dont think RI will work for this design. I'm trying to attach a mockup of the design I'd like to do and see what you all think.

I could get by with BC icing, but I think the accents would need to be fondant.

I love the design. Sorry, I am not any help with the fondant issue.

darkchocolate

I thing you're fighting a loosing battle. Colors will fade in direct sunlight. The pic of the cake design is really cute though.

Does gumpaste fade like fondant? Would that be a good substitute?

I love the cake design. It's so beautiful. That would make an awesome cake in pinks. Of course pink is my fav. I am assuming that you are using cake dummies? If so, can I ask if the fondant adheres good to the dummies? Do you use buttercream underneath the fondant or spray the dummy with water? Have you ever done a dummy with buttercream? Do you have any hints on how to do dummies that you can share? I am doing some dummies soon and have no clue where to start. Thanks.

I have never done this - but if you test a piece first, this might work. There is a clear spray used on painters canvas after the picture is finished. It has a UV protectent in it so the colors can't fade when a painting is in a bright room, near a light, or in direct sunlight. Since no one would be eating the cake, it shouldn't matter. Not sure what you think of this. We had a pink display cake fade, so we airbrushed it a different/darker color and reused it!

Hope this helps! Great design by the way!!

We have this same problem! At work we have around 24 cakes on display and all in fondant. We are forever re doing them due to this problem... I dont think there is really anything that you can do... We now have most of our cakes in plae colours so they dont need to be replaced asmuch... But wehn we have time we have to re make most of them haha Its a shame... Royal icing cakes dont fade as fast as the fondant tho... anyways all the best if you find a way let me know! hehehe

What about dusting it with pink dust? Would it still fade as fast? Maybe you could do it in pink fondant and when it fades just dust it with the pink to brighten it up again.

I've heard that if you dust the cake with super pearl or spray it with a preval sprayer (super pearl + extract) it makes the colors last longer. I know the dust is an extra expense but might be worth it. HTH.

You could try one coat of confectioner's glaze which wouldn't make it very shiny but may protect it.

Or howabout looking into a UV filtering window blind? I've seen a clear sticky-back-plastic on clothes shop windows here in UK?

http://www.cscwindowfilms.co.uk/index.htm

Thank you all for your suggestions!

I don't have any of the luster dust on hand (something I NEED to get desperately!) - I think I may try doing them in white and airbrushing them, and see how that works... I'll do a couple tests first.

If that doesn't work, I think I'll try the UV coating spray that someone suggested, that doesn't bother me using that on the display cake... it'll take some testing I guess.

A UV blind - how smart of you!! That would just solve all my problems! I'll have to look into those and see what they cost and if they would look alright.

Sunflowerfreak - I've done only a few dummy designs. I use Styrofoam cakes, and prior to this one, I've always just done buttercream. I don't do anything to the cake before icing. I did have problems with my 1st one, that the Styrofoam kept moving as I was trying to ice it because its so light, so the next one, my husband and I created a 'clamp' device to hold it down in the middle. It works pretty well, the only problem is with the top tier, I have to take it off the clamp and then fill in the gap - which tends to be tricky... but I believe the clamp is well worth it.

I'm not sure how to do the fondant covering - I don't really want to sand down the edges of the Styrofoam to have softer edges because I keep reusing these... So I may cover in buttercream first and then fondant... we'll see how it goes.