I am making a sculpted bass fish cake and I am sort of worried about the coloring aspect of it. I don't have an airbrush so I thought I could use dry petal dust and layer the colors for more airbrished look. Would that work or do I need to go another route? Is petal dust edible?
Also, I have seen people use piping gel to make the cake glossy. I thought this will look good on a fish so it can make it look wet sort of. Any thoughts on this?
Thank you!

I did a fish out of fondant and just used the wilton luster dusts. They also gave it a little sparkle.

I use a mixture of 50/50 corn syrup and alcohol to get the wet/shiny look. You can see it on my poinsettia's in my pics. For painting, you can use the dust or mix your color gels with the alcohol and paint with a paint brush.

I did a bass fish cake (in my pics) and used lots of different gel colors and luster dusts. The key is blending them well. It does help to dilute the dusts or gel with vodka.
I also used piping gel to get the wet look. (helps to microwave it a 5-10secs so it's a bit more liquidy and easier to work with.

Thank you everyone!
Kello, your bass cake looks awsome! Can you give me some other pointers....things you figured out the hard way In what order did you use the gel colors and luster dusts? Also, how did you apply the piping gel on? I want to make sure I don't smudge the colors.

hollys_hobby, did you dilute your luster dusts?

I also did a bass cake (inspired by Kello's cake - thanks!). I hand panted it using gels mixed with vodka. I found if one area was too dark I could dab a bit of vodka on that section to lift some of the color off. Once the fish was dry I also lightly painted the whole thing with a silver luster dust/vodka mix to give it a bit of sheen that fish have. Finally, I put "water droplets" on the cutting board with piping gel. HTH!

Sweetsurprise, thanks! I don't know if I can remember now......I re-painted that fish about 3 or 4 times! lol I think I started with the base and bottom of the fish, with a very light yellow and then did the top with different greens. I basically just kept playing around with it until I liked it. You want to kind of build the colors.....and like cakeaholic said, I could add a bit more vodka to lighten areas up. (btw, your fish looks great!)
I did the darkest green (stripe and dots) last. I think I just used the gel color straight for that.
I too went over it with a pearl sheen at the end. I let it dry an hour or so before I put the piping gel on. Heating it up a bit made it easier to use a wide brush and just brush it on. Don't forget the eye too.
I googled a picture of a bass and kinda used that as a guide for the coloring.
HTH.

Thank you all so very much! Your cakes look amazing! I will be happy if mne looks half as good as yours Thak you again for your help!

When adding piping gel, we thin it a bit by adding just a little bit of tonic water to get to the consistency we want. It not only allows us to get the consistency, but it also makes it taste MUCH better. I don't care for the taste of either piping gel or tonic water, but put them together and it has a good flavor.

Thank you! This is a great idea! I love tonic water