Was reading some posts on here about wire and what not to use bc of not being food safe. what metal are the flower nails people use as heating cores made of. I found some lead free aluminum wire. Wondering if that would be ok.

My general rule of thumb it to push the wires down into either lollipop sticks or coffee stirs and then place these into the cake. Better to be safe then sorry.

My main use for the wire would be for gumpaste figures to hold there form and be able to manipulate there poses. Any suggestions on what to use for that?

^ in that case (assuming the figures are decoration only and are not going to be eaten) then I wouldn't be worried about wires. Unless you run wires through the figurine and down into the cake to hold it in place - in that case I'd just insert the wire into a lollypop stick before putting it into the cake itself.

I know that the "correct" answer is to never put wire into something that's meant to be eaten. But I have to say that I truly don't unerstand the logic if it is an aluminum, lead-free wire. We use aluminum foil, aluminum or tin cans, and as you mentioned, we use flower nails or actual heating cores right in the middle of the cake. So I'd be interested in hearing a rational argument as to why the wire you have is not ok. But that's just me.

Would like to know what other people think about the aluminum wire question...specifically with regards to what I mentioned above. (Sorry, don't know how to use the 'quote' feature yet.) Any thoughts? Just want to know if my rationale is flawed.

If it's not food safe wire... then no. I'm not sure if they even make food safe wire, but that would be my thought on it.

It may be non-toxic, but it doesn't mean that it should be in a cake. It has to be manufactured in a facility that uses food grade lubricants in their machinery and all of that lovely stuff or you could be looking at cross contamination.

I insert into straws and push the straw into the cake. it keeps the wire away from the cake and also gives the figure/number/loopy bow more of a footing.

=]

Seems that washing the wire would take care of the problem, no? Just like you're suppoed to wash anything before you use it the first time?

My thought is that it is best to be safe than to be sorry. It takes seconds to cover the wire ends with a straw, and the straw also gives it more of a footing and makes it less likely that the wire will slice through the cake and shift or tear.