FDA: Black Licorice Could Be Bad for Your Health

Just in time for Halloween, there's a new warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about the dangers of black licorice. If you’re 40 or older, eating two ounces of black licorice a day for at least two weeks could cause an irregular heart rhythm or arrhythmia.

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Stracciatella Ice Pops

Another ice pop post? The frozen treats seem to be turning up everywhere this summer, and, yes, here's one more pop paen.

The edible appeal of ice pops is obvious, but they're also easy to make. Unlike homemade ice cream, you don't need to keep an ice cream machine insert pre-freezing in the freezer, and (for most recipes) you don't even need to pre-chill the base. This is expecially true of fruit pops. Except for the freezing time, they're an almost spontaneous treat.

I've been making a number of fantastic ice pop recipes from Fany Gerson's Paletas, including lime-infused watermelon pops, blackberry pops, and almond-enriched Mexican chocolate pops.

Delivering Chocolateness with Less Chocolate

With cocoa prices spiking, food manufacturers are coming up with solutions like "micro-size" chocolate drops that deliver "chocolateness" with less chocolate content in goods like muffins and baked foods.

Chocolatier as "Shock-o-latier"

Belgian "shock-o-latier" Dominique Persoone will rock your chocolate world.

Royal Cake Deets Revealed

The royal wedding will feature two cakes: the official one will be a traditional multi-tiered fruit cake (decorated with edible flowers -- an English rose, a Scottish thistle, a Welsh daffodil and an Irish shamrock -- per the bride), and an unbaked chocolate biscuit cake, a childhood favorite of the prince's.

Department of Maps: Gangs and Cupcakes

Edible Geography points to this map, created by UC Berkeley student Danya Al-Saleh, which delineates bakeries in San Francisco's Mission district and how they overlap with with Norteño and Sureño gang territories (PDF).

According to Al-Saleh, "Cupcakes, gangs, violence, and sugar are perceived to exist in separate worlds. This dividing boundary is structurally reinforced, whether by the police, culinary reviews, or our education system.... Next time you bite into your cinammon horchata cupcake, reinterpret your surroundings."

Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten on Gummy Bears

"A secret food I really love is gummy bears. I can eat a jar every day."

Dawn of the Interactive Cake

According to tech blog Gizmodo, Disney has been awarded a patent for so-called "interactive cakes," cakes equipped with miniature projectors that can produce simulations of landscapes and, naturally, Disney characters.

Sweets or Cocaine?

According to a new study, when given a choice between sweets and cocaine, male rats prefer sweets, while female rats would rather have cocaine.

In Defense of Candy

Is candy evil or simply misunderstood?