Hi @Chloezee ,

For some reason I hadn't gotten a notification on this thread until this afternoon, so I am sorry you waited so long for a response. Technically the explore is not food safe. HOWEVER, there is nothing unsafe about it. The blades are made of the same material as an x-acto. Also, your edible surface never comes in contact with anything but the blade. People have been doing this for years with die cutting machines.

Personally, I only use the non-sticky mats (the cricut cake mats) unless I am cutting sugar sheets which have a backing. I wouldn't want the blade to cut through and expose the fondant to the glue.

Sorry, I forgot to say that I stick the parchment to the cake mat with shortening.

Hi JackiSto - thank your enthusiasm - I have been totally unable to get an answer from the Cricut company re the Explore and Fondant/gumpaste foodstuffs. I reckon one lady above is right when she said it's not food safe? You have so many improvisations and it would seem to me that you need an older version to use some of that stuff on the new machine and that under no circumstances did they manufacture it with gumpaste in mind at all? Cheers and thanks again. 

I want a machine that can do the job straight out the box without fiddling with this and that to MAKE it work. And food needs to have something that was intended for it. This company is schtum on everything i ask. In the whole of internetdom you are the only person talking Explore and Fondant in same sentence. :)

How thin does the fondant need to be rolled for use in the explore? I just purchased my first cricut the explore air.

I also agree that being "food safe" is NOT an issue. With the Explore you need to move the rollers out of the way.The problem I have with the EX is the software isn't 100% reliable and you are tied to the internet. Pazzles markets their cutter for dual purpose and they have the pastry package, so can switch. I have the Cake, EX and Pazzles. (Adding a little gumpaste to your fondant help with the cuts. There isn't an exact "thickness", depends on application

So while we're at this subject again. Then surely once can just pour printer food colouring into ANY printer under the sun??? Wld that be so? I wrote to manufacturers of Explore and got a definite answer that it was NOT food safe. sigh...

OK, just to be clear. Any machine other than the "cricut cake" is technically not food safe. Provo craft took the idea of using die cutters for fondant and gumpaste, and added little gaskets to the blade housing to call it food safe. That is literally the only difference. If you use the machine solely for food, it's no problem. It's like my spackle knife. I purchased it from home depot, and it is not "food safe" but I'm not going to spackle my walls with it and then smooth out some icing. It's common sense. You can purchase the mats without the sticky and use the machine with no worries. If you aren't comfortable doing that, that's your prerogative. 

So I finally got my explore  I tried to see if the edible markers worked in it. nope to big  :(    and so I gave up  . I should have read all the posts before to see how to use the machine for my cakes. oh well. unless I clean the crap out of it to make it food safe then maybe I can use it. I only cut cardstock.  also with the cricut cake machine  someone said you can use your own image or did I read it wrong? I did write to the company and asked them to let every machine use the design space. wouldn't see why they can't do that. we already bought the machines we should be able to link them all.. well any feed back good or bad ones will be helpful..

Anyone know the Maxx Zing?? - they claim to be food safe and they're (I think) sort of made for fondant etc. BUT extremely expensive? Or not? I think I should give up on these.  Metweety6 I think you struggled and I don't want to anymore - (struggle that is)... I think JackiSto is a pro by now and those people should use her to show people - (companies would fare well if they looked out for such people but of course they never do), but as for me. sigh..

Oh and btw Cake Central WHY doesn't your "remember me" work? I keep on having to log in from scratch? Cheers

Never heard of Maxx zing and  my baking days are slowly coming to an end. no one wants to pay for a really nice cakes  I'm no cake boss  but  I still put a lot of hours into the cakes and cookies. oh well..     good luck Chloezee !

Tried this exactly over and over again and it does not seem to wok for me :(

Can you tell me your setting on the cricut explore?