Hello everyone:

I am submitting a cake to the state fair. It has to be a "water feature"? Otherwise the decoration style is open. I have a light pink lotus, two green lily pads, a lovely light blue damselfly with gelatin wings for the top. Sea grass and gray/blue candy rocks for the bottom. It is an two-layer 8" cake on a 10" board following their rules.

Here is my issue……I especially hate the idea of blue icing for water mixed into buttercream. I would rather have just plain white buttercream with the gum paste features.

If you were a judge what would you think getting a white cake with the above gum paste decorations? 

Ai would think, 'why isn't this icing blue?' or really, why wasn't the icing colored to support/enhance the beautiful handwork --

y'know you could go with green too

Have you seen the 'spackle' method? (I really don't know what the cool kids are calling it, sorry).

I think that would look amazing for a water theme, without the typical flat blue.

Warning, two gorgeous cakes coming up :)

https://www.facebook.com/YumaCoutureCakes/photos/pb.110414962322245.-2207520000.1408077767./740432189320516/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/sbcakedesign/photos/pb.218888231641948.-2207520000.1408078024./245367372327367/?type=3&theater

You can totally play around with it, make it almost all blue, with just some whtie peaking thourgh, or multiple shades, etc.

I think having it a bit textured, with a really light blue, would still give you a great canvas that doesn't take away from your pieces, or look too boring.

I agree with you - an entirely blue cake doesn't sit well with me either.

What I could see being beautiful and classy is having white/off white sides - perhaps with a rustic buttercream effect (the kind that has something dragged through the icing horizontally) then some sort of water effect icing on top to sit the lilies etc on so that the sides of the cake act as a frame to the water feature part of the cake.

I am figuring all the other cakes will be blue. Such an odd overall color for a cake - IMHO. I remember when I was just starting out in cake decorating that Blue Roses were highly frowned upon. Now I know all those rules no longer exist, but I still am old fashioned.And I would like my cake to stand out from the rest.

Oh my Scrumdiddlycakes those cakes are gorgeous! I am sitting here trying to figure out just how to accomplish this without pulling off all the icing of the cake…..

Does anyone know how to get that effect as I could live with that style. (So very pretty!!!!!) 

Ok here is my stab in the dark... I love the idea of water running over rocks, so if it were me I'd make the waterbed a mottled light brown/grey, and then look into finding a clear piping gel or similar to be the water. Make a nice rippling/texture in it to make it look like it's flowing. Just a thought :)

AAZcouture explain how to do the "watercolor" effect in an other post not so long ago. Here's what she said:

"This is the easiest style I do.

I call it watercolor buttercream, for lack of any creative (silly) names. Smooth icing, then spread on colored icing on top once the smooth icing has chilled firm to avoid dinging or dents. Can't do this wrong if you tried!"

Here's the link, it's the 8th post on this tread. Hope it helps!

http://www.cakecentral.com/t/777069/pictures-of-simple-cakes-for-a-beginner

Thank you so much Laetia! I tried the Hombre technique but hated it and scraped it off.  It was just too busy.

I worked the frosting and cake so much that now I am re-baking them  Gonna try YumaCouture Cakes "Spackling" style next.

It worked and IMHO so much better than an all blue cake.

- thanks so much everyone.