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......

Thats weird i don't know but here's a BUMP i'd like to know how that happened

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.

I have read that you can add milk to buttercream to keep it from turning from purple to blue....can you try adding alittle milk to a sample batch?

If you are not able to make the dried roses again. dust them with purple luster dust.

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