Scrambled Easter Eggs?

When you microwave Black Forest Juicy Oozers Gummy Cracked Eggs, they melt into "scrambled eggs"!
Pink Juicy Oozer eggs, and a white "egg" that we've "scrambled"

The liquid centers melt faster than the harder gummy shell, probably because the center has a higher water content. It melted right through the gummy candy cover and "scrambled" the whole egg!

Easter experiments in article

Candy experiments--and a crazy Cadbury video--featured in this article.

A Little Easter Bunny Carnage

I have been taking pictures of candy all day long--candy in oil, candy in water, candy out of water... Did you know it's REALLY hard to photograph glass?

Here's one that may or may not make the book.

Video showing how Cadbury eggs are made. Watch around minute 4 to see how two filled halves are stuck together to make one filled egg! (You can skip the first part of the video--there's a lot of hair nets and handwashing which, while I'll glad to learn they do, are not as interesting as the candy part.)

How Much Chocolate in a Chocolate Easter Bunny?

In the box, this chocolate Easter bunny looks like way more than a kid needs to eat. But, because it's hollow, this 1.75 oz bunny only contains as much chocolate as this set of snack-sized bars.

Pop Rocks and TemptationCandy.com

I've been exploring lots of fun things to do with Pop Rocks for the new Candy Experiments book, like watching the tiniest pieces bubble and float. Thanks to www.temptationcandy.com for their generous donation of Pop Rocks to the candy experiments cause!

Enormous Gummy Worm Science Fair Project

This was my very favorite science fair project at our school this year--a 26-inch gummy worm put into water to see what would happen. Apparently it more than doubled in weight, starting at 2 1/2 pounds, and absorbing 3 1/2 pounds of water!

 


This is a second giant gummy worm, showing the size of the original (note that the sample below has had several tail segments chopped off for eager tasters.)



They said it didn't actually grow much in length, but they'd only had it in a bucket of water for the afternoon. Wonder what it would have looked like after two days in a bathtub?

Cavity-fighting candy?

In the Dec 27 edition of the week, an article talks about microbiologists in Berlin who are working on probiotic-laced mints that fight tooth decay. Apparently the probiotics used for the candy, like those normally found in yogurt, can "attach itself to and neutralize" the bacteria that turns sugars into teeth-damaging acids. So one day, your candy might actually fight cavities instead of causing them!

Soda Studies and Sponsors

The May edition of the Berkeley Wellness Letter reports that various studies over the past several years have tried to answer this question: "Do sugar-sweetened beverages cause weight gain?" Now, a review of these studies turns up something new: the study's recommendation often depends on who sponsors it.

80% of studies NOT sponsored by food companies found evidence that sugary beverages were associated with obesity. But 80% of the studies that WERE sponsored by food companies, such as Coca Cola found insufficient evidence of an association. That is, if the food company paid for the study, the study usually found that sugary sodas didn't increase weight gain.

So the next time you read about a study in the paper denying that sugary drinks have any effect on body weight, look a little more closely at who did the study and who paid for it. And you might want to avoid sugary sodas.