How To Use Clear Piping Gel For Cake Decorating
Cake Decorating Techniques and Effects With Clear Piping Gel
Have you ever heard of Piping gel or used it in your cake decorating? It’s a fun medium to use to enhance your bakes and impress both your customers and loved ones.
When it comes to cake decorating, every tool and ingredient in our arsenal can make a significant difference. Piping gel is one such versatile medium. This translucent gel is often overlooked, yet it can transform your cakes from ordinary to extraordinary. Whether you are a professional baker or an enthusiastic home baker, understanding and utilizing clear piping gel can open up a world of creative possibilities. In this blog post, we will delve into what clear piping gel is, its various uses, some techniques to achieve stunning effects on your cakes and a recipe to make your own.
What is Clear Piping Gel?
Clear piping gel is a versatile, translucent gel used primarily in cake decorating. It is made from a combination of water, corn syrup, and a gelling agent, resulting in a smooth and glossy consistency. The gel is tasteless and can be colored and flavored as needed, making it an incredibly adaptable tool for decorators.
Techniques and Uses of Clear Piping Gel
Creating Water Effects
I love using it to create a range of water such as rivers, ponds, and oceans. Clear piping gel is perfect for mimicking water on your bakes. To create a realistic water effect you can either paint it clear onto of colour fondant or tint the gel with a small amount of blue/green food colouring and spread it over the desired area. For a deeper water effect, you can also layer the gel.
Adding Depth: Use a combination of blue and green tints to give a sense of depth and movement. Apply the gel with a spatula, and use a toothpick or a small brush to create waves and ripples, it’s actually really fun to create a range of styles.
TIP: You can also use piping gel as an edible glue - Using it to attach decorations acting as an excellent adhesive for fondant and gum paste decorations. Simply apply a small amount to the back of your decoration and press it onto your cake. This works well for heavier decorations that need a strong hold.
Glitter and Sprinkles: To add edible glitter or sprinkles to your cake, brush a thin layer of clear piping gel onto the surface where you want the decorations to stick.
Shiny Surface Finish: Adding Shine For cakes that need a glossy finish, like those covered in fondant or buttercream, a thin layer of clear piping gel can provide a beautiful sheen. Use a pastry brush to evenly apply the gel over the cake's surface.
Gory: You can also use it to enhance gruesome Halloween Designs bakes with little red food dye! I’ll say no more lol
Highlighting Details: Highlight specific areas, such as flowers, leaves, or other intricate designs, by dabbing a small amount of piping gel to make them stand out adding dimension to your bakes.
Writing and Lettering
Decorative Text: Clear piping gel is ideal for writing and creating decorative lettering on cakes. Transfer the gel to a piping bag fitted with a fine tip and pipe your desired message or design. For better visibility, you can colour the gel with food colouring. Then leave it ti try over night.
Elegant Swirls: Beyond writing, you can use the gel to pipe elegant swirls, dots, and other fine details, adding a delicate touch to your cake.
There are a range of brands you can get I personal prefer the PME and Wilton brands. I have added them to the AMAZON SHOP for you.
Mixing with Food Colouring:
Custom Colours: One of the best features of clear piping gel is its ability to be tinted any color. Mix a small amount of gel with food colouring to achieve your desired shade. This allows for endless creative possibilities, from vibrant hues to subtle tints its really fun to play with.
Creating Gradients: For a gradient effect, blend different shades of coloured gel on the cake surface, transitioning smoothly from one colour to another creating an ombre effect.
TIP: Always invest in good quality cake decorating brushes in general but more so for using piping gel as you don’t want bristles coming out in your food! Imagine using clear piping gel and you see little strands of hairs?! These are my favourite brushes
Get 10% off with ‘LB10’ at checkout as well.
Creating Glass Effects: Stained Glass Designs: Clear piping gel can be used to create beautiful stained glass effects on cakes. Outline your design with black piping gel or royal icing and fill in the sections with different colors of clear piping gel.
Windows and Mirrors:For cakes that feature windows or mirrors, use clear piping gel to give a realistic glassy appearance.
Stabilising Whipped Cream: Maintaining Texture: Adding a small amount of clear piping gel to whipped cream can help stabilise it, allowing the cream to hold its shape longer and withstand warmer temperatures.
Tips for Using Clear Piping Gel
Consistency: If the gel is too thick for your liking, you can slightly warm it to make it easier to spread or pipe. Then if it's too runny you can pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to thicken.
Application: Experiment with a variety of tools to apply the gel for a variety of effects.
Storage: Store any leftover piping gel in an airtight container to keep it from drying out. It can also be refrigerated to extended it’s shelf life.
Drying:
Piping gel is quite sticky initially but leave your designs to dry out.
Very thin layers can dry out completely if you leave them overnight.
Thicker layer swill remain soft for a few days but eventually dry out.
Learn a variety of Designs you can apply piping gel to with 4 Online beach classes…
If you're already a Online Lady Berry student you will know you can learn so many cute new designs from home with the online video classes.
There are 4 Beach themed summer holiday classes you can enjoy creating and add piping gel to these designs to enhance them.
Have fun learning some new summer skills that your loved ones and customers if your run your own baking business will love!
Keep those orders coming in with new designs!
How To Make Your Own Piping Gel:
You can make your own with a few simple ingredients
Ingredients:
¼ cup /90g light corn syrup
¼ cup /60g)cold water
4 teaspoons /10g corn flour , you can add more if you want a thicker consistency.
½ teaspoon of clear vanilla or almond extract - optional
Directions:
Mix all the ingredients over high heat until boiling, keep stirring gently.
Cool the mixture before using.
Don’t forget to have fun colouring it for the sea, blood, liquids and a shiny surface!
I hope this blog post has been helpful and inspired you to try using piping gel in your own cake decorating. Clear piping gel can be a game-changer in the world of cake decorating. Its versatility allows us bakers to explore and create a wide range of effects as I mentioned from realistic water in baths, lakes, tropical oceans scenes to elegant lettering and shiny finishes. So by taking the time to learn a few techniques you can elevate your cake decorating skills and add to your portfolio of designs for your clients and loved ones enabling you create stunning professional cakes that are going to impress.
Have Fun!
