If you work with fondant–and since you’re reading this you probably do–you’ve likely found that purple fondant quickly fades to a shade of blue that barely resembles its formerly purple self. I was researching the issue and came across this Flour Confections blog post which I read with fascination.
The post begins:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
My purple fondant is fading
Is this happening to you?
When the FDA banned Red Dye No. 2 in 1976 after it was linked to cancer, the FDA-approved Red Dye No. 40 took its place. Compared to Red No. 2, Red 40, as it’s known in the industry, is less stable, more expensive, and requires anywhere from 30%-50% more color to achieve proper saturation. Red 40 is UV intolerant, so any UV light (including bright lights) will cause it to fade. Because purple is a mix of red and blue, when the red fades, the blue remains, and your purple fondant turns blue .
To prevent fading, store purple fondant and gumpaste out of the light, in a dark bag or container and in a cupboard. Keep finished cakes, flowers, decorations, etc. in a dark place for as long as possible. According to Lisa of Flour Confections, cakes that are airbrushed purple do not fade, so consider airbrushing your fondant purple instead of kneading in purple food coloring. You can also use a more stable colorant. SugarFlair colors are more concentrated than other food colors and their Grape Violet contains E122, a more stable red than Red 40. [Note: Sugarflair colors are not FDA approved for food use. I couldn't find them for sale in the U.S., but they are widely available in Australia and Britain.]
Finally, when the pH of your fondant or gumpaste is not balanced, the red can fade out. To balance the pH, you can add an alkali such as baking soda. A good ratio is 1 tsp of baking soda per 1 lb of fondant or gumpaste.
This brings me to my blog post. I wanted to see for myself the effect of baking soda on purple fondant, so I conducted a little experiment.
I used both Wilton’s Violet and AmeriColor’s violet to test whether they fade differently. I colored a small amount of Satin Ice fondant. (I specify the fondant brand because I didn’t test to see if different fondants react with the color differently and fade differently.) The Wilton (on the left) is more of a true purple while the AmeriColor (right) is more of a periwinkle with a strong blue appearance.
I then added 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to 14 grams of each color (a much higher ratio than that recommended by Flour Confections) and left the remaining purple unaltered.
To ensure that the fondant would dry evenly, I rolled each piece to the same thickness using my KitchenAid pasta attachment.
The baking soda didn’t change the Wilton color at all at this point, but as soon as I kneaded the baking soda into the AmeriColor purple, the most fascinating thing happened! The AmeriColor turned from a periwinkle into a true purple. I couldn’t believe it!
I then set them directly in the blazing sun for an hour to see what would happen. (Note where the shadows from the food coloring containers are. These areas did not fade as much as you will see in the final photo.)
After an hour (give or take–I kind of forgot to time it), these are the results.
The unaltered AmeriColor purple (far left) actually retained the red (and remained more purple) than the AmeriColor with added baking soda. The Wilton fondant with added baking soda (far right) remained more true to color than the fondant without baking soda. For both brands, the fondant that was in the shadow of the food coloring containers held up way better than the fondant in the direct sun, demonstrating the importance of keeping purple fondant away from UV light.
Conclusions. Keep purple fondant away from UV light to prevent fading. Always do a test strip both with baking soda and without to determine the best way to retain the purple color. Note that other brands of fondant might react differently with purple and might fade differently. Know that some fading is unavoidable. And, of course, hope for the best!
Thanks so much to Lisa and Flour Confections for doing all the research and for allowing me to paraphrase their post. Their efforts have helped countless cake artists.
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I read the same post from Flour Confections too. Since I had a purple wedding cake to do, I tried adding baking soda to Fondx fondant. As a result, the Fondx fondant didn't fade or change to "blue". I was happy with the result.
Fascinating! I'll be testing my fondant this week! Also, I have had 2 experiences airbrushing fondant purple and the color faded to blue in both cases.
Wow that is very interesting. I would assume this would hold true for pinks??? How does the baking soda affect the taste of the fondant?
I had the same ? as Lisa. Does this work w/ other colors?
It worked with fuschia. No it didn't seem to affect the taste. I sampled a small piece to make sure.
I am confused by the instructions. In one place baking powder is mentioned and in another baking soda is mentioned. Is is baking powder or baking soda that is added to the fondant?
Hi Linda,
I can’t believe I didn’t catch that! It was so long ago I don’t even remember which I used! I’ll need to revisit this. Thanks for your sharp eye.
Best,
Erica
This is internesting from my own experience I thought that fat might also have something to do with it. Of the true violet purples (Sugarflair is an aubergine color) the Americolor regal purple has the strongest staying power. I have noticed the following: One cake with strong purple royal icing piped border on a display cake left out on a table (not in direct light) for six months no fading evident. Same color used to color fondant fades within a couple of days. Same color used to ice some italian meringue buttercream cupcakes. Cupcakes were piped and placed immeditaly in a box with a solid lid (no no light) box opened 12 hours later and significant fading had taken place.
Huh! That’s really interesting. Fondant has very little fat though. I would expect it to behave more like royal icing than buttercream if fat were the issue. I wonder what else it could be.
I made americolor 122violet gumpaste roses, had them out of direct light at all time, but they still faded to blue in a matter of 3hrs. My quess is the temp has a lot to do with it. We,re having 40+ Celsius ATM. Where as I never had a fading problem in winter. (I’m from Australia)
Great info!,wondering if same thing works with buttercream and royal icing.