Hi Karen, I don’t know too much about piping gel, I’ve literally just made my first batch about an hour ago, but I think you could use a combination of the two to get the effect you want. – Maybe you could use blue butter-cream with a thin layer of gel over the top, that way you wouldn’t have to use as much gel, but, as I said, I made my very first batch of piping gel an hour ago for a cake I’m making this week, but it seems to be working fine so far.
I’m not too sure Karen, you could always try it out on a cupcake first, see how it looks, and maybe you could use Royal Icing as the “Foam” for the waves too :)
Laura Loukaides - Instagram.com/LauraLoukaides