I just covered a fake cake in fondant and it faded in the window within 24 hours. Is there a way to decorate a cake in fondant without it fading? The greens stayed green, but the pinks are now gray. I took a long time decorating this display cake and now it looks so terrible

Does anyone know of any tricks?

thanks,
Ella

Red food coloring is really unstable, so it can fade really quickly. I've had cakes that were lavendar change to blue in an hour.

If it's a dummy you might have to paint it with thinned-out acrylic paint. Just make sure that if you're using that color fondant on a real cake you can replicate it without it fading on the real cake!

It all started 20-25 years ago when they took #2 Red Food Dye off the market. Purples will fade to blue when the red fades away .... oranges will fade to yellow when the red fades away ..... reds fade to pink, or even white, if exposed to the sunlight long enough.

Your green didn't fade because there's no red in green.

A couple of years ago I made some purple gumpaste and set it aside to use that night. When I went to get it, I couldn't find it, and I could only find some blue. So I made some more, went back the next day and I still couldn't find the purple. I had a lot of blue, though. Being an idiot, I kept thinking that I had put the purple somewhere "for safekeeping" and just couldn't find it. I finally figured out that it was just the red dye fading out. (Should this be in the "how stupid are people" thread?)

That's not all, I even made some (probably the third batch) and had my then 6-yr-old daughter and her friend confirm that it was, indeed, purple and not blue. I thought that I was losing my mind! When you have to get confirmation from a 6-yr-old you're not getting enough sleep, or something...

you can try airbushing...
i had the same thing happen to my nieces cake last year.. it was purple teal and pink (my little pny merry g round) and by the end of the party the purple was blue and the pink was almost white, and of coarse the teal was perfect... but no one noticed, other than the cakers (me, and DH, and my dad- the PIMA)

so when i have to make things fade proof i either buy premade fondant colors (red and pink and black - for the most part) or Airbrush...

but i like the acrylic paint idea too

Debi, you and I may be the only ones on here who actually know the long, checkered past of Red Dye #2! I haven't heard that name in years!! Great stuff except for that pesky cancer risk...