I want to put stars on a cake tomorrow and have seen Duff and others use wire to attach different shapes to the top of a cake to make it look like they are shooting stars for instance. What kind of wire would be appropriate? I bought 2 different weights of floral (bare) wire at Michaels. Shouldn't I wrap the part of the wire that is inserted into the cake?

It is a heavier gauge wire than floral wire. I remember someone on another forum who uses it on her cakes saying it was a type of aluminum wire from the hardware store, but I don't recall what she called it.

Thanks Shirley,
I did buy some like that from Home Depot but do you think it is okay to insert the wire (bare) into the cake? I would wash it very well first of course but I would love to know what people use.

some people dip the wire in melted chocolate to coat it -for that reason. I insert a cocktail/coffee stirer into the cake-and insert the wire into that.

I just use coated floral wire and it did fine. Here is a cake I did and had not problems with it. However, I like the idea of coating it with chocolate. Might start doing that

sweetviolent - I love the idea of using stirrers. I am doing that for sure.

Fairytale - That is a NEAT cake! Thanks for sharing it with me. I love the idea of curling the wire too.

Thanks to all!

I had a friend use wire and it tore her cake apart? has anyone had this problem? I actually thought to use straws more like normal straws but would the coffee straws keep the wire from "cutting" the cake up? Why wouldn't you use floral wire is it not strong enough to hold heavier accents?

Natt

I was on Lindy smith cakes last nite She sells wire and I think it is 26 and 28 gauge I bought some to nite at walmart from wilton.

I've used floral wire from Micheals on more than one cake, and never had a problem with it tearing my cake up. I do like the idea of coating it in chocolate though!
But, I just stuck it in the cake, no problem! (Cleaned of course...)

It is ILLEGAL to insert wire directly into cakes in Australia. There are lots of thing you can use to save it going directly into the cake. You can use stirers from McDonalds, You can use straws, you can use lollipop sticks, you can use flower picks, you can even use fondant or icing and chocolate is yet another way. I have used florists wire and covered it with stemtex or parafilm but still not directly into the cake.

Nati, I meant stemtex to cover the florist wire not necessarily to put in the cake I would still use a florist tube for that or a straw or a Macca's stirrer. I would probably even use a mound of fondant but at least the wire would be covered. The stirrers are free from Macca's. I haven't seen a hollow lollipop stick but for one flower it would be ok to just put the wire into.

any restaurant supply should have the stirers or a club like sams or bjs too and they are pretty cheap!!