For Those Who Are Making Their Own Topper And Stick Wires In Cakes

neneromanova

I found this on another site and hope it will help people making their own cake toppers:

Just wanted to give a heads up to those people (and you know who you are) that stick wires directly into cakes:

There is a floral wire recall that comes in a school project kit because the wire contains excessive amounts of lead and should not be handled by children. I have used this same craft kit for one of my son's school projects and it's regular floral wire that is in them.

This is the SAME floral wire that we all buy at crafts stores.

DO NOT PUT WIRES DIRECTLY IN CAKES!

Some people advocate dipping wire in candy melts or chocolate. I do not. If the wire flexes, the chocolate breaks off. Can you be sure that no lead leached into the chocolate that remains in the cake?

Some others advocate wrapping the wire in floral tape and then sticking it in the cake. Do not do this either! Floral tape contains latex, and many, many people have an allergy to latex, which if ingested, can cause anaphylactic shock. Do not stick tape into cake - gross!

Please use posey picks, flower spikes (even Wilton makes these), or straws. There are straws with different diameters: very narrow ones that are typically used as bar straws or coffee stir-straws, your regular everyday drinking straw that you can buy at any grocery store, and bubble tea straws, which are large in diameter and can accommodate many wires. Place your straw in the cake, trim so it is just inside the icing, pipe some royal icing in the straw, then insert your wires. The royal icing gives you some working time so you can arrange the wires and then it dries, so your wires stay in place.

If anyone else has food-safe alternatives for anchoring wires in cakes, please share the info. Key word: food-safe.

Happy and SAFE caking to all!