I am donating a cake for my friend's Relay for Life event...... I decided to make a cap with the logo on it after seeing a stunning cake done by Sweeterbug1977..... Well I made the "bill" part of the cap several days ago out of a rosey/violet MMF dipped in a little Gumpaste and dusted with Petal dust. Yesterday I see it is not drying so I make another using the same batch of MMF. mixing even more gumpaste powder.....fine, thata one seems to be drying much quicker......then today as I am working on the cake I check the bill and both have turned a pale,peutrid pink 
- I'm definately no master of MMF or gumpaste but I have never had THAT happen before.....What happenned??? Now I'm mixing up a batch of pure gumpaste to try and re-do the bill......
Americolor will fade too if left in direct sunlight. I had my Monsignor cake w/ fuschia accents on the table all day while i was at work and the light from the window turned it grey! 
Pink and purples are notorious for fading. gels and only gumpaste, should get better results.
It all started 20+ years ago when they removed the #2 Red Dye from the market. All reds after that don't hold color as well. And since purple is blue + red, it affects that color, too. I've had flowers change from purple to pure blue when exposed to the sunlight.
Yes, the sun!!!! I had been drying them in my sunroom!!!! and it WAS like a greyish pink-yuck!!!! Plus I only have Wilton colors(that's aall AC Moore here carries) Then I made a gumpaste one and was SO proud of myself that I matched the color of the cap SO well---then it started to fade right away!!! So poor hubby calls to see how my day's going and "AAAAAAAHHH!!< blah!blah! my cake!!! Blah!!!" so he's headed to AC Moore for me for more petal dust!
I have to say, in the past 2 weeks, this is my fourth cake and the other 3 were surprise gifts,.. one B-day and 2 mother's day and I was very happy with the way THEY came out,..then there's this lil 
....the one that's expected and being counted on-from start to finish it has given me nothing but grief 
..... Oh well... hopefully it will come out ok--thank you for all your help! 
I am sure it will be great. Take a deep breath. I use a lot of chalk for coloring which I buy from an art store. They have so many wonderful colors, just scrape the chalk with a Xacto knife & use as petal dust. Can also add alcohol & paint with it.
What kind of chalk? Just sticks of chalk, like Crayola sells? I assume you wouldn't use much or things would end up tasting, well, chalky. Could you explain a little, I've heard mention of this, but I'd like to here from someone whose done it.
Thanks SO much to everyone for their help on this cake-- I had a lot of last minute"incidents" but managed to pull it off in the end---I guess that's what it's all about... 
I can't seem to post this in my gallery but for some reason I can post it here
Looks beautiful hun. Now just keep it out of the sun. LOL!!
K on the note of the pastels or chalks......make sure that they are certified non toxic. There are some pigments out there like cobalt and the cadmiums and lead white which aren't good for ya. These are considered toxic and you really need to be careful and read the MSDS on these things. (MSDS= Material Safety Data Sheet). You can google MSDS and you should be able to find the gov. website where they have all the data you need. It'll tell you the toxicity, flammability, and other important things about the pigments used in artists pastels and chalks. Also some of the binders they use aren't very appetizing either. Rabbit skin glue for one.
Wow!!! You sure did pull it all together!! It looks fantastic!! 
Well, it turned out just great! Nice work.
Wow, you did an awesome job on that cap!! Hopefully you'll win the war of the fading cap.
Not too long ago I posted something very similar. I made a pillow and tiara cake in shades of pink and purple (Wilton pastes) and those colors faded on me, too. The thing that really got me though was that the leftover batch of MMF turned back to white!! There was still some pink only on the bottom where the (plastic wrapped) bottom of the MMF mound touched the table. This happened three times. And the last time I avoided sunlight!
Hope you do better than I did.
I guess the chlorine theory is possible, but I do use filtered water in my MMF. My hubby thinks I'm a little paranoid because I use the filtered water, unless I'm in a real rush, even in the coffee maker. Next time I do pink or purple I'll give the bottled water a try.
I know we don't have chlorinated water but that is definately something for other folks to consider-good thinking!!! 
I'll definately keep my future work out of the darn sun!!! 
.and use Americolor, I guess...does anyone know if Michael's carries it... I've never been to Michael's but there's one about 45 min away and this gives me a reason to go!!
Olana11, I LOVE your cap! You did an awesome job! How did you do the arch in the bill?
Thank you As instructed by several of the great folks on here,...I wrapped a real cap's bill with Saran Wrap and laid the gumpaste over it......
Speaking of Gumpaste,... I had a small crack in it but had no time to make another one,,.. for the future,,how does one fix cracks in gumpaste?? Besides throwing it on the floor and stomping on it
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