Food is the meeting place of left and right brainers: Culinary arts call for creativity, but is also deeply rooted in the What, Why and How of basic science—baking powder vs. baking soda, the rising of dough, the falling of a cake, etc. Below, two plays on left brain principles—the Möbius strip and the law of gravity—both executed with right brain flair.
I can't resist Luxirare's decadent, over the top food tutorials... even when it involves making white chocolate egg molds covered in edible gold leaf and injected with egg nog.
While some parents prefer to preserve an element of surprise upon delivery of their baby, most choose to learn the sex from their doctor as soon as they can. More recently, some are even opting for a more "festive" route: announcement in the form of a "gender party", where the boy-or-girl status is revealed in cake form for the first time—not only to the guests, but also to the parents.
Luxirare, my very favorite, over-the-top, superfluous (in the best possible sense) recipe blog. We've witnessed the Pie-On-a-Stick, and marveled the beautiful Jell-O shots. Now Luxirare demonstrates how to make some exceedingly fancy potato chips. These aren't your typical store bought snacks.
Pie lollipops. The perfect snack. Forget settling on one slice, with the pie pop you can sample multiple flavors. Luxirare posted a beautifully photographed (somewhat) tutorial on how to make your own. Premade fillings, jarred like jam, enable you to make a wide variety in one batch. Check out the amazing photographs below; click through to Luxirare a few DIY text tips.
Geekosystem has generously assembled a handy list of 10 foods you can allegedly make in a coffee maker. Sounds kinda grimy to me, but my own mother passed this link along, so if mom thinks it's kosher, I'll give it a try.
For some reason, hip hop x cooking is a familiar equation in the world of HowTo. Today's "tutorial" comes in the form of a blatant Pepsi advert with Snoop Dogg as culinary host. Sure, the Super Bowl is mere hours away, but not to worry, Snoop doesn't demand much artistry or time for whipping up his "oregano" spiked snack of choice. Just dump a bunch of pre-made condiments on a bowl of chips, and voilà, Snoop's (re: Pepsi's) eight-layer dip.
Somehow delicious desserts in gnarly packaging always warrant a head turn. It's a delightful anomaly: apply extreme culinary mastery to create something that tastes great, but looks like a heap of horror. As we're approaching Valentine's day, here's another example of stomach-churning dessert to share with your sweetie (if your sweetie is the Zombie loving type). Expertly crafted by Helga Petrau-Heinzel, a collection of hyperrealistic human entrails made with marzipan (ew. ew. ew.):
The blood-soaked anatomical heart cake too Hannibal Lecter for you? Then take your basic heart-shaped cookie from G to PG-13. It's brilliantly simple. Flip a your cookie upside down, fill in some frosting, add a line of piping, and you've got edible whale tail, just in time for Valentine's Day.
Much to the chagrin of the National Wildlife Humane Society (and a long list of others), Tuscon restaurant, Boca Tacos y Tequila, will be serving African lion beginning February 16th. For $8.75, patrons can sample the second most deadly animal in the world in a taco. The Mexican restaurant specializes in exotic game; other menu selections include python, alligator, elk, kangaroo, rattlesnake, and turtle. However, the latest addition has caught restaurant owner Bryan Mazon a lot of flack.
A DIY most worthy of the archives: a magnificent skull constructed entirely of Mickey D's fries. Now if only it weren't just some anonymous web image, but a real DIY project complete with instructions. Anyone wanna step up to the plate?
Know the saying, "The inmates are running the asylum"? Well, if the inmates actually were running the asylum, we imagine the asylum might look something like this!
What's better than a little dessert? A lot of dessert! Watch a quick-witted South Korean street vendor wow a set of customers by turning a solitary lump of frozen honey into 16,000 candy strings in a span of two minutes.
For all pickle aficionados, apparently the combination of sour pickles and sweet Kool-Aid is surprisingly delectable. Popular in Mississippi, Kool-Aid drenched pickles are a popular treat coined Koolickles. Sound unappetizing? Don't knock it 'til you try it. The New York Times reports, "[Koolickles] have an arresting color that combines green and garnet, and a bracing sour-sweet taste that they owe to a long marinade in cherry or tropical fruit or strawberry Kool-Aid."
Hard to imagine such a thing exists, but the US Pizza Team is a group of freestyle, acrobatic, dough-tossing pizza makers with truly unreal talent. They represent America in Italy's annual Olympics of Pizza. Below, Nino Coniglio, owner of Brooklyn's Pizzeria del Corso and team member, performs in front of restaurant patrons and it's pretty insane (to say the least).
Planning a trip to Japan? Your basic sushi etiquette isn't quite enough. You'll need to know the right things to say, the right way to kneel, and the right way to consume. Click through for AskMen's top 10 rules on authentic sushi eating.
Amy Wisniewski's Thanksgiving Turkey Cake looks like a yummy carrot cake with fluffy pumpkin pie frosting, but it's not. SO not. Amy's creation may be shaped like a cake, but its ingredients include ground turkey breast, yams, and mashed potatoes.
Yep, that's Michael J. Fox himself (aka Marty McFly) inspecting an 8-foot-long Delorean cake, complete with flaming tire tracks. The facsimile was artfully crafted by cake decorating masters Ace of Cakes for the 25th anniversary of Back To The Future and the Blu-ray releases.
For some reason, McDonald's hamburgers are mysteriously unsusceptible to Mother Nature's inevitable toll of decomposition. Yep, you pretty much have to dip a McDonald's cheeseburger in acid if you want it to decompose. So we're left with the question: Why? Why does a McDonald's hamburger retain its original shape, color and texture after 12 years?
Deb and Alex's Smitten Kitchen is a treasure trove of beautifully photographed, delicious looking recipes. Every recipe is painstakingly outlined, including their recent post on making perfectly cooked, painless pizza. Personally, I have yet to get pizza dough right, so I'm anxious to learn.
It's what every baker needs. If only this were a cake decorating appliance for sale at Williams-Sonoma, instead of a one of a kind art machine showcased at this year's Vienna Design Week, created by mischer'traxler.
I love broccoli. I love cake. I know zucchini bread is sweet and delicious, but savoury broccoli cake? I'll have to take Kitchenist's word for it and give this unusual recipe a try:
What if you had a pizza made up with tons of tiny, little pizzas (20 to be exact!)? For all pizza lovers out there, that would be one magical, delicious work of art. And for all the art lovers out there, if you're looking to get into what makes this piece heady, check out the interview with artist John Riepenhoff.
Ming makes delicious looking cupcakes, cookies and savories, which are beautifully presented in "recipe card" form on her site. Ten I wouldn't mind trying below; click though for more.
Sure, store bought microwave popcorn is cheap. But according to Hoopajoo Labs, you can get 50 bags of popping corn out of a $0.99 bag of kernels! Watch the video below or click through for the Instructable.
Ok, so these aren't exactly "donuts" in the traditional sense. They are beer-battered, deep-fried donut peaches. And my God, they look so insanely delicious! Get the story behind this genius idea at Lunch at Sixpoint. Recipe below.
There are endless deep-fried recipes for disaster (re: heart attack), but this one takes the cake. Abel Gonzales Jr., the inventor of fried Coke and fried cookie dough, presents deep-fried butter, which tastes like a "a mix between a biscuit or a croissant that is just stuffed to the gills with butter on the inside." Gonzales' creation took top prize at last year's Texas State Fair.
Pie on a stick has been good to us, so why not Pop Tarts? (Admit it, Pop Tarts are good- and these are more like yummy pastries without preservatives.) As a tribute to Bakerella, Brooke of Family Kitchen has created a recipe for the latest addition to the lollipop dessert craze.
If you have any little ones in your life (or you're simply a grown-up kid yourself), Just Bento has has posted Maki's Top 10 Bento Rules for Back-to-School. Rules listed below, click through for full explanations.
Instructables user tchitwood's realistic Yoda head cake may leave the most devoted (yet hungry) Star Wars fans feeling slightly guilty. tchitwood says "everyone said it was sad to cut into him, but we went to the dark side that night. :)".
The internet has a fetish for fried food. Actually, scratch that. America has a fetish for fried food. So, if you're gonna dive right in that vat of oil, why not dive deep. Like calories and calories and calories deep.
Here's another jewel from Serious Eats series, The Nasty Bits: yummy cow tongue, complete with that lovely texture we all know so well. Though most us likely have a negative visceral reaction to the idea of tongue, Serious Eats make a compelling argument that it is actually one of the tastiest bits of the animal.
The Gowanus Studio Space Jell-O Mold Competition winners are in, and this year is every bit as impressive as last year. The grand prize goes to Shelly Sable for her piece: "Aspic Ascension-- Tastes Like Heaven".
Sometimes the "nasty bits" are unexpectedly yummy. With a reputation for being both cheap and reliably good, Chichi Wang of Serious Eats describes chicken's feet:
Recently nauseated by toastykitten's post on Fish and Chips ice-cream (via WonderHowTo World, CAKES! CAKES! CAKES!), I was equally grossed out by toastykitten's additional find on the same topic.
Jim of Jim's Pancakes sure does. His site is full of cool pancake creations, all constructed for the enjoyment of his three-year-old daughter, Allison. Love the more elaborate structures (like the amazing ferris wheel pictured below).
Another stomach churning exotic delicacy (previously, testicles: 1, 2). Watch below as National Geographic pays a visit to Korea to check out the art of eating live octopus.
Infographics are lots of fun, so how about illustrated recipes? Recipelook currently indexes 67 recipes and growing. There's a whole range in quality- a selection of my favorite drawings below.
OK, so it sounds a little more complicated than it actually is, but this simple trick by Food Wishes looks pretty yummy to me. Why not put cheese inside and outside your grilled cheese sandwich? Here's how to do it:
Remember Michelle Wibowo, the amazing cake decorator behind the obsessively realistic baby cake? Well, she's back with a video demonstration of her amazing Super Mario Brothers cake. Check out the sugar art master's process below.
