Hi there, novice question here. My daughter has requested a Dora at the beach cake for her birthday which I am going to make, but I want to use piping gel with the water. I have never used it before, SO, do I just colour the piping gel blue, or do I use blue buttercream and then brush the piping gel over top?? Thanks

Also, for the beach part, what would you reccomend as the best choice for beach, I know there are a lot of different methods of doing it.

Thanks so much caking experts, lol!

Either works. I like blue piping gel over blue buttercream.

How about light brown sugar?

Color the gel to your desired color and put it on the cake over your already iced in BC cake. For the beach, I would prefer crushed up graham crackers. Others use brown sugar. HTH!

I like finely crushed sugar cookies for the sand. I also heat the piping gel for a few seconds in the microwave. It makes it more liquidly to pour or brush on and will stiffen back up when it dries.

I used crushed graham crackers for the beach. That's what I used for my beach cake...I think it looked pretty good...

Thanks everyone! I will post pics when it is done. I decided to go with graham crumbs mixed with a little fine cane sugar. It will be done tomorrow. I am excited to do this one, its going to be fun!