<p>Ceramic-reinforced polymer composites have been fabricated with bioinspired microstructures to achieve excellent mechanical properties. However, these bioinspired materials are often lacking the presence of water, unlike their biological counterparts. Here, hydrated microstructured ceramic-reinforced hydrogel composites are made using magnetically assisted slip casting (MASC) with <i>in situ</i> polymerization, to study the influence of water on the organic component that affects the overall mechanical performance of the material. It was found that the samples displayed different improvements in mechanical properties when varying the polymer composition. However, these effects disappeared in the absence of water and suggest that water plays a role in allowing the hydrogel matrix to participate in the stress transfer between ceramic reinforcements. Manufacturing hydrated microstructured ceramic composites with controllable mechanical properties allows tailorability to target specific applications like in the biomedical field.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>