Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie to CC. I am also fairly new to cake decorating. I'm currently taking the 2nd Wilton cake decorating course. However, I have been doing cakes on my own outside of class. I am thinking of making a cake for a friend's baby shower, but I want to do a small test cake 1st. I am trying to do it along with her theme, which is aqua and green turtles. I was going to take the turtle from her theme and do the whole trace and piping gel thing. But I want to also make water for the bottom of the cake. I have seen cakes with the "water" where it looks as if it is flowing and its shiny. How is this method done?? I hope my description makes sense. Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Are you talking about on the cake board? I know if you line your surface with crinkled aluminum foil, and then add your blue piping gel, it gives the wter a more realistic look.

I second the piping gel idea.

I did a turtle, frog, dragonfly pond theme baby shower cake, but I found silicone molds for the turtles and did the whole cake like a pond...it's in my pics.

Piping gel works and I've used blue jello before.

Actually I mean the water directly on the cake..It actually looks swirled around on the cake but shiny...I wish I had a pic to show you guys..

ok i found a pic. This is not my cake but a cake from the website of a very talented lady named Sue. This is the water look I am trying to do.

That's piping gel on the top of the cake.. Just frost your cake and add the piping gel.. swirl it with your finger or something to get the wave effect.

Piping gel...

Do you just add food coloring to straight piping gel? I have been told piping gel tastes really bad. If it does taste bad how do you keep it from ruining the flavor of the cake?

mshoneybrown; Glad you brought this subject up because I have wondered how to make the water in that swimming pool cake too.

Just go to the store and buy the blue stuff if you are worried about the taste. It looks so cool used as water. The little tubes don't go very far though, so make sure you buy extra!

Use the homemade gel NOT the purchased.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2051-0-Piping-Gel.html

I saw on here another swimming cake. Not sure where or by who but she said she tinted her buttercream icing the blue water color and then used clear piping gel to get the ripply effect.

That way you won't have as much of the piping gel on the cake.

Yes, I actually asked my Wilton teacher last night about it. I kinda want the shiny look of the water but with white and blue swirls on the cake. She told me to do white and blue icing and swirl it around to give the water effect (I am trying to make waves, not doing a swimming pool cake), I guess the piping gel can be mixed with the icing as well. That way it won't taste as bad maybe?

As soon as my daughter hooks up her digital camera I can post the pictures of my Caribbean cake. I used the piping jel as the ocean and it turned out great!!! Thanks to all of you who helped me. Try the gel, you can color it any color...just need a little tiny bit of color. You can even combine the 2 colors (i used blue and blue green), butt one up against the other. Good luck

The homemade gel tastes like corn syrup, nothing more.
Those on the thread I read, who had problems with the taste, all used a large amount of the purchased kind...

I mixed BC with piping gel for the retirement cake in my photos and it came out great and didn't taste that bad.

Wow Tiggy2!! That looks great!! What did you do to get the wavy look of the water? Also do you think that I could mix some white in there?

anoldhippy i look forward to seeing that Cariibbean cake! I wish i could find more cakes with the water on them. Anyone have any in their photos??

I just used a small spatula and swirled it then pulled up to make the peaks. I'm sure you could put some white in it and just not mix it in all the way.

OK, I ask my instructor about the piping gel effect for water and she said you simply add color to straight piping gel to get the water look that cake you posted has on it. She said the piping gel doesn't taste bad so I'll try it too. Good luck and post a picture of your finished cake!

I didn't realize it was so easy to make. I'm sure it does taste better than store bought stuff.

Yes you are all right use piping gel,that's what's on the cake in your picture. I have made a few cakes with 4 princesses, if you know the Decopac one it has little mermaid and she's sitting on a pond so after I frost the cake I use clear piping gel and color it myself and let me tell you I wish I had a picture,it looks so real.