I'm experimenting (thank goodness), I put some random pieces of fondant mixed with tylose on top, like the real "toys" would be, and they're not doing well. I firmed it first in the fridge and I used the Jiggler recipe which has much less water.

Will piping gel do the same thing?

I don't want to end up using blue frosting.

The problem with gelatin is that, eventually, the suspension breaks down, water leaks, and your fondant will melt. Piping gel made with a gelatin base will eventually do the same thing.

Theresa

Is there a specific brand of piping gel that'll work? I'm running out of time and need to know what to shop for.

What I would use is colored sanding sugar. I would melt it in a heavy steel pot or on a silicone mat in the oven, pour it onto a piece of foil the shape of the pool, let it cool, and call it a day. You will have to spray the foil with Pam to keep it from sticking.

Theresa

Playingwithsugar: I'm going to be doing a similar cake in August. Can I just melt down granulated sugar and color it blue - then mold into the pool? I don't want to buy special items for just this little pool.

Thanks for the help!

Yes, you can, but it's a time and temperature sensitive process, and you would still have to buy non-glycerine coloring and a candy thermometer.

That's why I suggested the colored sanding sugar and a silicone mat. The mat can be used for a plethera of things. The candy thermometer - you might never need it again, so it's 20 bucks wasted.

If you want to try your hand at cooked sugar, there are recipes in the Candy Making & Pulled Sugar / Blown Sugar section of the forums tab.

Theresa

My mom makes 'finger jello' which is made differently than jello jigglers - it does NOT melt well unless of course it is in extreme temps. (My moms house is in the 80's as she doesn't care for a/c much)

Does anyone else know what I am talking about? It is made with, I'm guessing, 6 packs of knox gelatin and one pack of flavored gelatin.

One day I will try this soon and let y'all know if it "bled" into the fonadant.

~Raquel

Never heard of it, Raquel. Thanks for sharing that with us!

Theresa

I saw a cake on here somewhere that they used the blue Wilton's sparkle gel for water. hth

Thanks very much everyone...

psychmom...I found this one: http://www.familyoven.com/offsite?r_id=168501&u=http://www.recipezaar.com/111982

Since I have all the ingredients, I'm going to try it tomorrow. I'll post the results.

I did a swimming pool using a layer of piping gel over blue icing and I had some fondant swimmers in the water and they held up just fine

I just made a cake last weekend that was a pool cake. I took buttercream and let it sit for about an hour to harden up and then colored piping gel blue and added that. It worked perfectly but it doenst take all that great so just make sure there is enough cake.

Well this thread came a few days too late. I just did a pool cake last weekend (see my monkey pool cake) and put fondant figures on it and sure as heck they started to dissolve. I pulled them off and just put them on at the alst minute. In hind sight, i wonder if I had put a small layer of frosting on the bottom of the pieces if that would have helped. Just a thought. Cant wait to see your outcome so I know what to do in the future.

Thanks for this thread! I have a pool cake to do in a few weeks and was already planning on making jello for water! I think I'll have to seriously work on a plan B. Can't use piping gel since I don't have any easily available in Germany and really don't want to cover my cake with that stuff - it can't possibly taste good.

jenny

could you just make the pool toys out of modeling chocolate?

Great question...I'm going to try that!

I have a big almond bark bar from Wal-Mart...I was planning to make candy clay anyway to see if I like it better than fondant on cookies to go with the pool cake...

If it works it'll be too late for me to re-do everything, but I'd still like to know for future reference.

If you don't mind the pool being hard and you don't want to try the sugar crystal route suggested earlier, melted Jolly Rancher candies can be your friend. I melt them in a 225 degree oven till they pool up. While they are still hot you can smoosh em around to get the right shape. They dry hard. I used them to make standing flames on a cake actually; I wanted that "transparent" factor. I have seen blue ones used as water on other CC cakes; that's how I knew to do it.

That's kinda cool...who doesn't love the taste of Jolly Ranchers, LOL...but you would need to lift it first to be able to cut the cake, right?

Yes, you would definitely need to remove it to cut the cake! Unless you just kind of crack and hack it with the knife; if you make it thin enough that wouldn't even be hard. The kiddos would probably fight to get a piece of cake with a nice chunk of hard candy on top lol.

Ok...so it looks like jello in any form just isn't going to work if your cake is meant to sit out awhile.

I made a third of the Knox recipe and it set up really firm, but my fondant pieces reacted the same way as they did to the Jiggler one.

I also made 2 small batches of clay...one was too soft, so I made another using alot less corn syrup. Both were sweet and artificial tasting (I should've guessed, 2 bucks for 24oz, LOL)...I won't be putting them on cookies, BUT, the batch made w/ less corn syrup did quite well on top of the jello. After a few hours, all my samples had a noticeable pool of liquid forming around them, except that one.