Melting tarts w/out flame or electricity

[Cissy]

I am selling tarts at a festival coming up. They don't have electrical outlets and won't allow flames. I can tell a big difference in sales when I have tarts burning and customers can smell the scents as they walk by. Can anyone suggest any way to accomplish this without tealights or electricity? I know this is a stupid and probably dangerous question, but since I have never used a fondue pot w/sterno before, I'm not familiar at all with them. Those of you who have used them, would it be possible to melt my tarts this way, or would they get too hot and be too dangerous. I don't want to buy or rent one just to find out. Please give me your opinion on this.

[Grumpy Girl]

Sterno has flame too. It's like an industrial gel candle with no wick.

It'll be too hot. They're designed to hold water at a temp around 175 degrees. Even with the lid almost on top of it to keep the flame extremely low, I wouldn't attempt it.

[Cissy]

Thanks, Grumpy Girl

I had a feeling it might be dangerous, but knew nothing about them at all..had no idea what was inside a sterno can, have only seen the sterno and fondue on the shelves and at a couple of parties, etc. but never paid attention as to how they are actually operated. Thanks.

[Jane42]

I was going to ask my son about this, because I know I am going to run into the same situation.

I know you can run things from your car(battery)...dvd players, etc...so why couldn't he hook me up with a small battery or something with an adapter that I could plug a candle warmer into....LOL

Luckily, my son is used to me coming up with these off the wall questions, so we'll see what he can come up with.

[northkountry]

You can use a car battery and then you will have to have an invertor ( I believe that is what its called), we use this for outside shows that dont have electric.

[Cissy]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I will ask around....a mechanic or electrician maybe, to learn how to use the car battery idea. I think it could be well worth the difference in sales to check this out. People do tend to buy more when their noses are stimulated. Some customers stop and buy that would not stop otherwise. Scents wafting through the air is a great attention getter.

[jolsen1973]

I've seen tealights in Michaels and other crafty places that run on a small battery. This would be a perfect solution if there's no electricity and no open flames allowed! Just a suggestion!