for the last 2+ months i have had hives HEAD to TOE....like awful, horrible, itchy, yucky hives....the only thing that i have been able to pinpoint it to, is that every time i bake, i seem to break out worse. my best guess (i'm going back to the allergist again tomorrow) is that i'm allergic to icing sugar (or more specifically, the corn starch IN the icing sugar).....my question is, has ANYONE else experienced anything like this?...it's not soaps, or detergents, or anything different foods....just wondered if anyone else has had to deal with this, and how they've managed it...

I have suffered an awful reaction to fondant but only on my hands not all over my body. I can over come my reaction by wearing cotton gloves under my foodsafe gloves and keep my arms covered.
Hope you get an answer as to what you are allergic to and get it resolved.

Yes, I too suffer the same when I'm doing a lot of cakes at once. I seem to be OK with just a cake a week, but on those weeks I have 4-5 cakes to do, my hands get really itchy. I think it's a reaction to sugar being in constant contact with my skin, because it happens whether I'm working with fondant or bc.

Corn allergies are becoming more common because of the ENORMOUS amount of corn derivatives in everything. I did a cake for a girl who had a corn allergy, and the list of chemical names that I had to avoid was three pages long. Let me tell you, it wasn't an easy thing to accomplish. So difficult, in fact, that I've now put on my website that I can't accomodate corn allergies.

To test this out, you might want to get some corn-free confectioner's sugar, they sell it at Whole Foods. It's made with rice starch instgead of corn starch. Mess with that a little and if you don't break out that's probably what it is. The problem is that the corn-free powdered sugar doesn't act exactly like the regular kind, so if you do have to switch you might need to experiment with it for a while to figure out how it behaves.

I just recently broke out with hives all over and have been trying to figure out what it is that is causing the reaction and couldn't put a finger on it. Now reading your post I am wondering if I could have the same allergy. I have just recently been working with a lot of gum paste and fondant. I have an appt with a dermatologist today and am going see if they can test for a corn allergy.

Hope you are feeling better these hives really suck!!

Angie