I'm not a professional and don't have many tools. I would like to make the coral which looks realistic. I saw some people use Royal icing, but how do you make it look rough and so realistic? Can I make Royal icing myself. Thanks for your time.

I haven't done it yet, but in the past I read on one of the forums that someone dipped grape stems into royal icing and let them dry. Apparently you pull the grapes off, and let the stems dry a bit. Then you pick a branch you like and dip.

If you take some fondant and brush it with water and then roll it in the sprinkles that look like little white dots and it gives you the effect your looking for.

The white coral on my little mermaid cake was made by dipping grape stems in white chocolate. The orange coral I just made with fondant. The coolest way do to it would be by boiling sugar, making it the colour you want and then pouring it over ice. I watched Buddy do it on Cake Boss, didn't look hard at all!

The most realistic way would be to heat isomalt and pour over ice. Beautiful results. and as the previous poster said, Buddy on cake boss does it all the time.