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!

Thanks for this info, I am trying to make a cake for this weekend, which will need wires and was wondering how to insert them, because I have seen on SugarShack's video where she specifically said do not insert wires into cakes.

Sherri,

Thanks for the head's up and the suggestions..will definitely follow...

Thanks for the information.

Thats great info, thanks

Thanks for the info!! Never can be too safe! love the straw idea.. will do this in the future. Thanks again

Finally!! It's been driving me crazy that people are putting wire into cakes! Thanks for setting them straight.

I bet this is a wake-up call for a lot of people. Thanks

Thank you for starting a thread on this to bring it to the attention of all. I have always made it a policy never to put wires into cakes. I always use posy picks usually the clear ones if available. It has always amazed me how different countries seem to do this but here in NZ it is a no no! Happy decorating everyone.

Thanks for the info...

Thanks for the info, i was going to use wires this weekend for a cake. I'm glad i stumbled upon this thread!

I swear by floral pics, which my local florist sells to be for $0.10 each... but the straws were another great alternative if you didn't have a cluster.

Thanks for sharing... I think this forum will be useful to alot of decorators!!
~ Jaime

I ALWAYS use the Coffee stirrer straws to cover each wire and then sometimes another larger straw over that. I have always had my suspicions about lead being in the floral wire.

I try to use 18 or 20 gauge Jewelry wire when I can find it, it is Copper or Stainless Steel and I was told by my Local Health Inspector it would be considered Food-Safe. But I still insert it into a coffee stirrer straw because it ads stability to the wire.

I swear, there is no wonder why there is so much cancer and other illness in the world. It seems like they stick the most toxic chemicals in things they really shouldnt. I had just received an email from a friend warning not to use the swifter wetjet if you have animals or pets because it contains antifreeze! That means if your baby is crawling on what you think is your clean floor, or your dog walks across the floor, then cleans his paws or you know babys put everything in their mouth. And voila, they can get poisoned. Its just sad that simple things in life have to be be thought twice before using.
Ive always been a drinking straw advocate, but waiting to hear what kind of toxic plastic they use to make those next!
Sad!

I haven't been doing cakes too long so I haven't had the pleasure of putting flowers on wire yet. But I have thought about doing it, but just the idea of sticking wire into a cake makes my skin crawl-- it just sounds nasty to me!!

Great thing you posted this! THANKS!

Thanks for the information! It never occured to me that there might be lead in floral wire, DUH! Fortunately I've never stuck wires in cake or I would now be horrified.

Perfect timing! I am trying a topsy-turvy this week with wires and was wondering about how to get them in since I did not want to put wires in the cake.

And lets not forget what the wires do when placed directly into a fruit cake - - because of the acid in the fruit (yes, even cooked fruit) it reacts with the wires - and voula - you have a cake going bad - very very quick.
Cake picks - the only way to safely go.

thanks for the info! I was going to use wire next month for my nieces 13th b-day cake, gonna figure out something else now!

Even if the swifter thing is a hoax there is a ton of things out there that arent. One was the fact that Claire's boutique that is in almost every mall, selling jewelry to kids had problems with their jewelry containing lead. This was something that was on the news around the same time they problem with the Dora toys from China, etc.
It just makes you wonder!

Here's my question: I put the wire in the coffee stirer. I push the entire thing into my fonant covered cake. That's going to leave quite a noticeable hole isn't it? The coffee stirer is thin but not THAT thin. How would I cover that up so it's not noticed? I see alot of cakes here with wires and I see no tell-tale sign of a hole or anything!

I have used wires on two cakes that I have made so far. (I am a newbie) In my daughter's Dora cake , I stuck the wires to a ball of fondant which was kept hidden in the volcano. For my second one's Pooh cake, I inserted the wire into the lollipop stick. It will go in if you put some pressure exactly at the center where there is a small hole. You don't have to insert it completely, just enough that it is supported. Insert the lollipop stick into the cake. You should make sure these sticks are just to the surface of the cake. It worked great for my bees in that cake.

HTH.

WOW! Thank you all for the important information!

You can purchase wire that is made for this purpose from Cake decorating stores.

Do not use craft wire or wire from hardware. They would not make that wire food safe.

There is some good information for Australians here on wires in cakes

http://www.cakesandmore.org/blog/2008/12/a-guide-to-wires-in-cakes/

For those of you worried about toxicity in your homes. Stop using all those products and open your windows. The average home is more toxic than an industrial workspace thanks to all our 'cleaning products'.

Thank you for the link.

Unfortunately, I have never once seen ANY wire sold to cake decorators as FOOD SAFE WIRE here in the US. The cake supply stores in my city sell regular floral wire.

I appreciate this paragraph, taken from the link you provided:

"The wire used is a wire that has been specifically manufactured for the purpose of CAKE DECORATING. ie. Flower Wire (NOT hardware store wire or scrapbooking wire - it must be wire that is specifically designed for Cake Decorating)."

This is so true. Simply because a wire is made of copper or stainless steel does not necessarily mean that it is pure copper or SS. It may have other metals in it that would render the wire unsafe.

I'm erring on the side of caution and not exposing my friends, family, and clients to ANY wire. Straws, posey picks, flower spikes, and lollipop sticks are all easy, inexpensive, and safe alternatives.