I'm making a 70th birthday cake for my mom. I'm using a sepia toned photo of her as a child, and I want the cake to have an 'old-fashioned' color palette. I've molded buttons (she's an expert seamstress and always loved changing the buttons on my clothes for a new look when I was a kid) and painted them pale colors and used pearl lustre. I want to add a MM fondant hankie drape. My dilemma is colors! How do I look 'antique' without looking like a sickly shade of brown/tan.

Your ideas and input are very much appreciated!

Newbie

some shades of yellows would work, even a pale lavender can still look antique. These colors might help accent the sepia but add a little color

I would go for pale colors like pink,yellow, or purple. They don't have to look brown to look old. If you make the tone vary a little, like ligther in some places it could look faded. Or maybe if you just use liget colors it will look faded. Or, If you are going for an old white hanky, you could use just a touch of the ivory color paste. And then add lustre dust.

you know I have always thought the wilton Ivory color was beautiful, and thought if I were ever to do a wedding/antiquish looking cake I would have to do it in ivory...I even bought the color gel for it, havent used it yet. Then I think the earthy colors, delphinium blue, juniper green, aster mauve may be very complimentary......

I think muted shades of pink and green would be pretty.

I've posted the finished product in the gallery. I like the way it turned out, but somehow it looked alot different in my head. The yellow is pretty but not what I intended - I was going for just a shade over ivory. Color mixing is still quite a challenge for me - only been doing this for about 6 months now.

Still, I'm pleased. Let me know what you think.

Newbie

Newbie...I thought it turned out great ! All the buttons were so pretty.

very nice!

Beautiful!!!

This is high praise coming from all of you. Thanks so very much for your help and inspiration!