I am doing a graduation cake with school colors light blue and navy. I have been trying to get it with mixing navy w/ white fondant(never used fondant before) The color is kind of gross and if I touch it blue everywhere!!! Would I be better off with chocolate fondant and maybe make it black? Or would it be easier to get navy in buttercream? Frustrated newbie, I'd love any help!

Have you tried adding black to the Navy?

To make any dark color you need quite a lot of it and the color will ripen and darken with time so keep mixing and kneading the fondant. Try taking just a small amount of fondant and work in the color to see if the kind of color you have is going to get the desired result at all in small scale. If it does then just keep adding color to the big batch till you get what you want. If it doesn't turn navy maybe a diferent color brand would be better. Some will say to add this color and that color to get it darker. I don't like that because each color is a combination of primary colors in different amounts. When you run water over a drop of black in the sink you see green and blue but a lot red. So I wouldn't add black cause it might make it more purple then navy. I am not sure about the chocolate start either. I would just try to add more color and see if it gets there.

Have you tried painting the fondant straight with the blue food coloring with a paint brush. I use this effect with my flowers to get a richer color and it really gets that deeper color. I know what you mean though navy is very difficult to make. This is what I do to get those darker colors though and it does work.

I had good luck getting navy with a LOT of Royal Blue and a little black

I had to make navy blue bows once for a cake and I started with blue Satin Ice fondant and then using Royal blue coloring I added an entire jar to 2 lbs of the fondant and it came pretty dark, it was dark blue. After they were dried I used the Wilton Color Mist cans and lightly sprayed black over top of that, and they were perfect! Dark Navy Blue!

Thanks for the help I will keep trying. I also tried painting petal dust? with alcohol. It was a better color but seemed to appear crackled?

Your best bet is Americolor Navy Blue... which is probably not a lot of help right now. It is a very true navy. Otherwise, royal and black --but it takes a lot of color to get the deep tone you need. Before Americolor, while making the fondant, I'd add bunches of royal blue to the warm mixture, proceed with the rest of the process, then add the black as I worked with the fondant to get it to the right shade. It was laborious, but worked better than starting with white fondant and trying to get it navy from there.