Fondant Roses Fading! What Am I Doing Wrong?
Decorating By SheilaF Updated 9 Sep 2007 , 6:06am by SheilaF
I'm doing a wedding cake for this weekend for a friend. I told them, I'm not a professional, but I do know how to match colors. The fondant is the exact shade they want when it's wet, but when it dries, it's practically cyanotic! I don't know what to do to stop this from happening. I don't have an airbrush, so I cant' even change the color. It's 50/50 fondant/gumpaste roses. Any advice? Idea's? Here's a photo with wet flowers and dry flowers. the color card is on the table that they gave me to match up to...... 
Blues and lavender shades fade in any kind of light. You could try placing them in a box until needed. If completely dry , I dip mine in Kirsh mixed with airbrush color, shake off excess and place upside down for a minute or two. Make sure to spear the back with a pick so you can plunge a couple of times to make sure color gets into the center. Work quickly! This works really well with pre-made gumpaste flowers. I can get several different shades by starting with the lightest and adding more color as I go. Looks a lot more natural and gives a bit of shine to them. Hope that helps, but do try it on one to make sure it works well with your flowers. If they are not completely dried out , I don't know what the result will be.
Do you dry your roses in a brightly lit place (especially direct sunlight or some types of fluorescent light)? Many food color pigments aren't light-stable and will fade if exposed to bright light for more than a short time. Particularly bad, it seems are some shades of pink and purple. (Pink turns white, and purple turns a lighter shade of blue.)
If that is the cause of the problem, I think the only way to prevent it is to protect the fondant from light.
When I was at the ICES Convention in Dallas last year they said to color your fondant with powders, they will not fade. I had the same thing happen to me, but it has never happened since.
Thank you for all the input! I have never used powder coloring, but I guess I should try to find some for the future! There is no direct sunlight in my kitchen as I have the mini blinds and shutters over all the other windows. I do have florescent lighting. I didn't realize the colors would fade like that. I might try a few of the idea's there. Thanks. I'm microscopically slow making the flowers to begin with. Takes me about an hour to make 4 roses.
thanks for all the input on this problem. The wilton violet color spray is actually a few shades darker than my target color, but it was certainly better than the cyanotic color they changed too! So I sprayed them and the finished cake is now posted in my photos. My first paid wedding cake. Kind of exciting 
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