The cakes from the 2009 OSSAS with all the realistic coral reefs... did they just sculpt out of gumpaste and/or fondant or is this done with sugar somehow? I have a cake coming up that I'm gonna need to put coral and I really really want it to look realistic. If it is just with gumpaste/fondant, how in the heck did they do it?

Are you talking about the white/grey stucture or the pieces sticking out of it? I used to make something called sea foam or sugar rocks by mixing royal icing with a very hot sugar syrup and this is what i got. I believe there are different techniques with royal that will create this effect. But I don't see why you can do it with fondant/gumpaste or pastillage.

I did some years ago that came out cool and every real looking. I know it had regular sugar and water in it and then something was added to it to get it to bubble. I wish I could remember the recipe. But I would search on line for it edible coral or something like that, because I'm almost sure there was a website that had it on there.

I'm talking about the actual coral structure. The little pieces I've got figured out, but the actual coral look is what I need. The greyish and white part.

Have you ever made peanut brittle? Just when you add the baking soda to the hot sugar it makes that odd foamy looking texture. I don't know how they get it to go where they want it, but that is what it reminds me of.

Yes Texassugar, that's the same recipe i had. Just sugar and water, heated really high and then added royal icing to it. It foamed up and you poured it into a form or box. But i do know there is another way to get that look.

Chocolate and ice can be used to make coral to, but not with those fine holes in it.

I know the ones I made got hard and were very neat. I'm guessing it was the royal added to the sugar syrup. You can color the mixture or airbrush it to give it different colors.

Oh... and did you see the hard sugar coral Josh made on the vacation cake challenge? I think he did the same thing (I missed that part), poured hot sugar syrup over ice to make pretty hard sugar coral. Sorry, that's off subject.

You can also make your coral, then coat it with the little tiny white non-pariels and it looks just like coral. You can then airbrush to put color on if you want but the white looks very realistic as well. The non-pariels can be purchased from C K Products. I saw someone use this technique last year at the cake show in Austin and it looked unbelievably real...and I know coral - we had a tropical aquarium for years with lots of different types of corals.

I think Chris Rossum used this technique on one of the treasure chest themed cakes he did on Ultimate Wedding Cakes as well.

Thank you all so much!! I will try all these ways and see which comes out best!

I loooooved that coral and treasure chest cake that Chris did. He used white chocolate clay and rolled it in nonpareils and sanding sugar before applying to the wire structure. This OSSAS winner is incredible. Maybe in my next reincarnation I'll have that kind of vision and talent