Water Water Everywhere

Moisture is the enemy of fondant. Stick a decorated cake in the fridge overnight and chances are that when it reverts back to room temperature, all your work will have run into a gooey mess.

Yes, I learned that lesson the hard way.

So it was with a little trepidation that I began work on a swimming pool cake. Obviously I wasn’t going to fill the pool with water since not only would the fondant run, the cake would be sodden. Nevertheless I clearly needed some solution. The first time I made the cake, I opted for solid blue icing – a bit of a cop out, in retrospect.

Now, as a rule, I really resent having to make the same cake on more than one occasion. I realize that it’s the prerogative of the customers to choose a cake from the photo gallery on this site but I often manage to convince them that something new and original would suit them much better! In this instance, however, I was happy to have another go at it.

The water the second time around was made of aqua-tinted piping gel. Its transparent quality allowed me to paint lane lines on the bottom of the pool to make it more authentic. Only in hindsight (about 5 minutes after the cake was done) did I realize that I should have made the lines wavy since you were supposedly looking at them through water. Well, there’s always next time.