This homemade Clear Piping Gel is a crucial help when it comes to decorating some nice watering effect on your cake or helping dry fondant stick to your cookies. This clear piping gel makes my day so much easier when it comes to cake decorating.

The first time when I decided to make fondant, I thought that it will stick to the cookies with no problem. As an inexperienced that time, my fondant dried out until I cut all the shapes out. I know, it took too much time, but as the first timer went everything slower than I expected.
My fondant dried out and didn’t stick to the cookies. So I looked up, what professionals use for this purpose. I did find out that the clear piping gel is the best solution for fondants that don’t stick. It can be used for more purposes but this was a huge help with my fondants.
Ingredients
Probably have all these ingredients in your pantry. The good news is that it’s customizable. If you want thicker gel you can add 1 more spoonful of cornstarch or add how much it needs to get your desired consistency.
- sugar
- cornstarch
- lemon juice
- water
Now, depends on what you want to use it. They have different purposes. The thicker one it’s also great for anything that needs a syrup-like consistency when decorating cakes. For example, if you want to make a swimming pool cake, this gel can make a nice “water” for that cake.
The thin liquid (what I mostly use) is the perfect “glue” for the fondant to stick on a cake, cupcakes, or cookies.
Also, you can add gel food coloring to it to make it colorful if you want. For example, when you do the “water” for the swimming pool, add blue food coloring gel. It will give a nice waterly color.
How to Make Clear Piping Gel
- Combine all ingredients together.
- Stir over high heat until the mixture boils and thickens.
- Make sure it’s cooled down before you start to use it for decoration.
This is the easiest recipe for something that is so helpful and crucial. Literally, it’s ready just in 5 minutes. You’ll get approximately 1 cup of piping gel with this amount of ingredients. Which will be enough for a few times.
How to Use Clear Piping Gel
Alright. Now, you have the piping gel, and you’re ready to use it. But you don’t know how exactly to start with it. Don’t worry. I want to make sure you understand how to use the gel, so I made a step by step illustrations.
This is not the thick version for the swimming pool decoration. This is the thin version, which is used as a “glue”. Learn more about the Piping Gel here!
Make the Cookies
The fondant can be placed on any cookie, but if you look for an idea, you can try the Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies recipe, which can be made in any shape and color.
Make The Fondant
Make the Marshmallow Satin Ice Fondant from scratch with just 3 ingredients. It’s super easy to make, but if you use store-bought fondant that works too perfectly.
Roll out the fondant with a rolling pin and cut the shapes out with the desired shape cutter.
Let’s do it
Brush a few drops of piping gel on top of the fondant shape. Don’t overdo it with the gel, because it will flow down from the fondant and it will get too messy. But don’t be afraid of that either, so it can stick nicely and easily.
Then slowly place the fondant on the cookie with the sticky side.
If you want to add more things to the fondant, for example, on my yellow cookies you can see some of them have decorating eyes. I brush the back side of the eyes and place them on the fondant. This goes to any decorations you want to place on the cookies.
And that’s it.
It is this simple.
Leave the cookies for 10 – 15 minutes on the countertop so the gel can dry and then you can enjoy the fondant cookies.
How to Store the Clear Piping Gel
Store the homemade piping gel in a glass jar or a small airtight container and place it in the fridge for up to 3 months. If you buy piping gel, make sure you go after its instructions.
Homemade Piping Gel
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients together.
- Stir over high heat until mixture boils and thickens.
- Make sure it's cooled down before you start to use it for decoration.
Traci
I’m not one to love piping anything on cookies but this recipe was so simple and easy! Loved it and it worked perfect and was simple!
Liz
This piping gel worked out so perfectly! Thanks for the recipe!
jennifer
thank you for this, my cutouts always have looked a little sad because I didn’t realize I should pipe edges before!!!!
Karen Kelly
We have always struggled to decorate cookies, especially getting the fondant to stick. This was so easy to make and so helpful!
Gina
Had no idea it was this easy to make my own piping gel. This will be a game changer for future decorating!