Clear piping gel can be tinted with paste or liquid food colors or you can purchased pre-colored piping gel. Piping Gel is great for writing messages on cakes,cookies and candies. But I wouldn't recommend using it by itself for borders,etc. - for that it is best to incorporate it with frosting. Below are some suggestions in how to use piping gel:
Crumb Coating: Before icing cake, heat gel to a boil in a double boiler and add flavoring(vanilla,almond,etc.). Remove from heat. Take a pastry brush and brush heated gel on cake and let dry fully before going to the next step of icing the cake. Crumb coating seals the cake layer so as to counteract having crumbs in your frosting and also give you a smooth surface to ice and decorate upon. It is also a great way to prepare your cake before putting on fondant.
Writing Messages: Either use clear gel and then tint with your desired shade of paste or liquid food color or use pre-colored decorative gel when writing your message on a frosted cake or cookie. If you want your writing to have a 3D effect then pipe your message first with icing and then re-write on top of the icing message with gel.
Glazing Fruit and Baked Goods: Mix two parts gel with one part water. Mix until both ingredients are well incorporated . Add fruit and stir until fruit is thoroughly covered. For fruit the glaze helps seal in their natural juices so it will look & stay fresh longer. On the baked goods it will give a glossy sheen that looks nice for presentation.
Icing Borders,Leaves and Vines: Take an icing spatula and stripe the inside of your decorating bag with piping gel and then add your frosting. If you just want to give it a sheen then use clear piping gel. If you want to have actual stripes of gel then use colored gel(either tint it yourself with paste or liquid food color or use pre-made decorative gel). For example perhaps for a Fourth of July cake you may want to stripe your decorating bag with red and blue gel and then add white frosting and you'll have a red, white and blue effect. Or perhaps you want to add some dimensions to your leaves and vines - you can stripe the inside of your decorating with a green gel colored some shades darker than your green leaf color and you will have a distinctive stripe. Or what I like to do when I do flowers is to place coming off the leaves some vine tendrils and then some cascading vines done in a deep green colored piping gel(use a fine to medium round tip - like a writing tip for this). It adds dimension and interest to the flower design.
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