Biologist Wanting Recommendations About Candy/fondant Molds

Decorating By jpkelley Updated 14 Apr 2015 , 2:05pm by TheresaCarol

jpkelley Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
jpkelley Posted 13 Apr 2015 , 3:56pm
post #1 of 2

Hi cake enthusiasts and professionals,

I hope this finds you doing well. I am an ornithologist (bird guy) and one of the co-leaders of the Hawaii VINE Project, which examines, among other things, preference of non-native birds and rats for native and non-native fruits. See the Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/hawaii.vine.project

We are planning on conducting an experiment at multiple sites in the forests of Oahu in which we record which if birds and rats prefer certain combinations of fruits with different colors and sizes. To achieve a large sample size, we decided to use some artificial fruits. We are using soy wax for the fruits because this has little or no effect on the birds or rats (and because I've worked with soy wax before for a bird egg experiment). Anyway, I’m wondering if you all have some ideas for solutions. Here are the criteria and my solution (albeit, probably a weak one):

[1] Need to mass produce the fruits, as hundreds will be deployed

[2] Fruits need to be as spherical as possible (little or no “flat back”)

[3] Need to have minimal post-processing of the fruits (i.e. trimming of excess wax)

Many pearl necklace fondant molds seems like a good solution, as they come in a variety of diameters. However, I am concerned about the “flat back” that many of the molds create.

Do you have any suggestions about molds that would be more appropriate for soy wax and provide spherical beads (aka “fruits”)? Any expertise and experience you can share would be much appreciated.

Best,

Patrick

1 reply
TheresaCarol Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
TheresaCarol Posted 14 Apr 2015 , 2:05pm
post #2 of 2

The only thing that I can think of that would come close to what you are needing are marzipan molds (an edible almond based candy).  They are not very mass-producing friendly as there are only three pieces of fruit per mold but they will look like pieces of fruit.  You can find the molds at:

http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/searchresults.aspx?description=marzipan%20mold

Hope this may help in some way.




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