Celebrate a summer pool party or birthday with a swimming pool cake. These cakes also make a splash on a cold winter day when guests are longing for the sun and warmth of summertime. While a homemade cake allows you to start decorating from scratch, save time by purchasing a ready-made cake and adding frosting and candies to create your swimming pool cake. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Water
Create the appearance of pool water on your cake with blue-tinted icing. Both liquid food coloring and paste food coloring in shades of blue added to white or off-white icing renders pool water-colored icing, but paste food coloring creates brighter and more vivid shades. Mix a small amount of the food coloring into the icing at a time until you are satisfied with the color. If you desire a more realistic water appearance than you can achieve with icing alone, consider adding a layer of blue decorating gel over the icing to give the water a slightly translucent appearance. Another option is to carve a cavity into the cake and fill it with blue gelatin. For best results, freeze the cake before you attempt to fill it with gelatin, and allow the gelatin to cool to room temperature. Warm gelatin poured into a warm cake may dissolve the cake and create a mess on your kitchen counter.
Pool Walls
Covering the sides of your pool cake with frosting is definitely an option, but if you are creating an above-ground pool cake, you may want to add more detail to the outer walls of the pool. Press graham crackers, rolled wafer cookies or strips of fondant onto the frosted sides of the cake to form pool walls. This not only adds more visual interest to your cake, but it also adds extra flavor for your guests.
Pool Toys
Decorate your swimming pool cake with various edible pool toys. Miniature doughnuts become lifesavers when placed on a cake. Customize the colors of your lifesavers by pouring melted frosting over plain miniature doughnuts. Cut colorful licorice ropes to the appropriate size to represent pool noodles. If you are making a competition pool cake, divide swimming lanes with rope licorice studded with miniature marshmallows. Roll soft taffy candies flat with a rolling pin, and cut rafts out of the taffy with a knife or scissors to float on the pool cake.
Swimmers
Crafting edible swimmers is probably the most challenging aspect of making a swimming pool cake. Your cake will still look impressive if you choose not to make swimmers, but if you wish to tackle this project, keep a few tips in mind. Swimmers in the pool only have portions of their body visible above the surface of the water so you do not need to worry about making a full figure. If you are new to cake decorating, form heads and arms with fondant, and arrange them on the pool cake or place them on top of one of your lifesavers as if the person is using the flotation device. Those actively swimming only need a head with two feet a short distance behind them. If you are experienced in decorating techniques, try piping figures directly onto the cake with icing.
Tags: pool cake, cake with, food coloring, pool cake, swimming pool