(Photo: Nutella)

Last year, baking genius Dominique Ansel invented the groundbreaking food product known as the cronut. It's a donut made of croissant dough. Human existence instantly improved in a way that will be noteworthy to historians a millennium from now.

Ansel is back with yet another innovation: cronut holes stuffed with Nutella. He's worked with the company that produces the chocolate spread to develop this treat. They've made 2,000 of these magical orbs and will give them away at Ansel's bakery in New York City between 10 AM and 2 PM on May 19. So the time to start queuing up is right now.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

Wine is fine, but cake is quicker. Or something like that. My point is that if jello shots are fun at a party, think about the potential for an entire cake made of them. Pixy of Offbeat Home presents the recipe for this eye-catching cake composed of intoxicating colors. It uses gelatin packs, yogurt, and 3 cups of either vodka or rum.

It takes a long time to make, since each layer must congeal one at a time. Pixy says that she gave each layer 10-15 minutes in her refrigerator, which adds up. But the result is lovely.

(Photo: rcp_1nn)

Parfait construction is becoming very competitive in Japan. Some are made with raw tuna and others come with entire slices of cake on top. I don’t know which restaurant makes the most extreme parfaits, but the Cafe Olympic in Nagasaki is surely a contender. It specializes in huge parfaits, the largest of which, named the “Nagasaki Dream Tower” is nearly 4 feet tall. It’s a combination of ice cream, ice cream cones, cakes, cheese cakes, jello, whipped cream, corn flakes, and more. It’s so huge that eating one (or more, I suppose, if you’re still hungry) requires the use of a special spoon, which is pictured below.

(Photo: piyopicco)

Playing with your food is an act which is frowned upon by our parents when we’re young, but as we grow older and gain the privilege of eating whatever we want come mealtime those of us who like a bit of fun with our food enjoy playing with our food whenever possible.

Artist Noah Scalin has made food play into an artform, and he was recently asked to make food faces with the meals he was served at eight restaurants participating in the Broad Appetit food and art festival in Richmond, Virginia.

His clever linework via leftovers really shows off the character of each meal, and may inspire others to try their hand at creating a plate portrait the next time they're eating out.

-Via Laughing Squid

Australia pic.twitter.com/Pkqo8lIn65

— alix (@alixmcalpine) May 8, 2014

The caption is simple: "Australia." That's all you need to know.

You might object, saying, "Wait, I need to know where in Australia I must go to acquire this culinary wonder." That's because you misunderstand. In Australia, these things are as common as hamburgers are in the United States. Every restaurant has them. You can buy them from street vendors and vending machines. Parents make them for the lunches of their preschool children. Because Australia.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

Imagine heading to an outdoor market to grab some lettuce, a new pair of sunglasses, some bootleg DVDs and a lucky bamboo plant before heading home to make it a night to remember.

You grab all the things on your list then hunt down a head of lettuce on the way out, but the only lettuce you can find is this clever lettuce shaped folding umbrella by Japanese retailer Koncent called the Vegetabrella.

Your dinner party is about to be ruined, but as it starts to rain you realize that finding the Vegetabrella was a stroke of luck, and now your bootleg DVDs won't get wet! Who needs leafy green vegetables when you have the Vegetabrella?!

-Via DesignTAXI

The assemblage works of Cristina Burns are guaranteed to be the cutest skeleton based art photos you’ll see all day, unless you subscribe to a site called Cuddly Calaveras, in which case you’ve seen enough cute skulls to last a lifetime!

The Italian artist and photographer has a knack for combining cute and morbid visual elements in a manner pleasing to the eye and appealing to the tastebuds of sugarholics like myself.

Cristina's brightly colored candy and skull assemblages would look right at home on the ofrenda table during Dia de los Muertos, and the usage of fresh flowers, candy and plastic skeleton parts makes for a fun photo series with an infinite number of comical and colorful combinations.

-Via Dangerous Minds

Are you going to spend your evening Netflixing? You don’t need to get up to put away your snack bowl. You can just eat it if you follow the instructions provided by Beth Jackson Klosterboer. She made a popcorn bowl that is itself made of popcorn.

You could use glue to hold the bowl together. But Beth sensibly used white chocolate candy melts as an alternative. She lined a bowl with a mixture of those candy melts and popcorn, then refrigerated it.

Beth filled hers with her special recipe of peanut butter Twix bites popcorn, which sounds a lot better than plain butter and salt. I suggest topping it with chocolate sauce and queuing up Season 4 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

(YouTube link)

John Green has a delicious topic for this week’s mental_floss video. He’s talking about regional foods, and if you haven’t lived in those places, you probably don’t know how good they can be. Then again, if you’re talking about chitlins, or what John calls “chitterlings,” you can count me out. Hoppin' John is heaven, but the Garbage Plate is what I call the plate we put all the scraps in -right before it goes in the compost bucket. I might need to try the Spam sushi, however. The comments at YouTube are full of dishes that are left off the list, but this one is priceless:

Also, lutefisk is supposed to be steamed post-lye and served with butter. Theoretically it's flaky and delicious. My family commonly says that the last Minnesotan who knew how to properly make lutefisk died 100 years ago.

I have a bone to pick with the title. Frito Pie may be best if eaten in Texas, but it's good wherever you eat it. Which of these is your favorite?

(Photo: Calgary Stampede)

Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo and cultural festival in Calgary, Alberta. Like some state fairs in the United States, it’s noted for exotic and innovative foods. When it is open this year from July 4-13, visitors will be able to taste at least 32 new foods, including this pizza covered with scorpions. That’s great because spicy food should sting you a little bit.

Other foods include Polish poutine, fried pickle pizza, deep fried Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and crocodile sliders. Yummy!

-via Nerdcore

(YouTube link)

In Australia, a grilled cheese sandwich is called a jaffle. Jafflechutes is a project to deliver jaffles by parachute. Really. The team sets up pop-up restaurants in various locations in Melbourne, and takes orders by internet, money by PayPal, and then you are instructed where to go to receive your melted cheese goodness floating down from above. A cheese and tomato jaffle is $5 and cheese and ham is $6 (Australian). Read more about Jafflechutes at Fast Company. -via mental_floss

The Kentucky Derby takes place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, today. Although the event is a horse race, it’s not just a horse race. The Derby has quite a few traditions that must be carried out, and one is the imbibing of mint juleps: mint leaves, crushed ice, sugar, and Bourbon. The Bourbon will be flowing fast today, and the price varies.  

Churchill Downs estimates it sells about 120,000 of them each year for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks for fillies and Saturday’s Derby. At the track, they go for $11 with a souvenir glass on Friday-Saturday (up from $10 earlier in the week).

For the ninth year, Woodford Reserve, official bourbon of the Derby, has mint juleps at steeper prices. It is offering 79 of them at $1,000 each and another ten at $2,000 each. The engraved cups this year have a gold-plated medallion of a horse and a garland of roses. Woodford says proceeds benefit the Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center for former race horses and that more than $354,000 has been raised with the program.

Read more about mint juleps at USA Today. Learn more about Old Friends Farm in a previous post. -via a comment at Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Richard Crowley)

People around the world enjoy eating bugs- they’re a good source of protein, a renewable and plentiful resource, and there are enough flavor varieties to keep even the most jaded foodies coming back for more.

But Americans in general haven’t really embraced the concept of eating bugs, except for the occasional worm at the bottom of a bottle of tequila, but edible insects are a culinary delight that should be embraced, especially since so much of the pre-packaged food out there can’t compare to the vitamins and nutrients found in bugs.

Entomophagist Daniella Martin is the author of Edible: An Adventure Into The World Of Eating Insects, and her take on why we should all eat more bugs is enlightening and may change the way you think of those snacks that go squirm in the night.

-Via Stuff

The Moonblush Baker is the kitchen genius responsible for the maple pecan cupcakes with buttermilk pancakes on top. She hasn't stopped there. For Easter Monday, she made this amazingly complex cake with multiple layers of sweetness.

It's designed to loosely resemble a Mars Bar. The inner core is salted caramel. It's surrounded by yellow cake donuts, which are themselves surrounded by a thick frosting that tastes of honey and nuts. Then the entire concoction is wrapped in a layer of vanilla butter cream frosting. Then she topped it with dulce de leche and pieces of Mars Bars.

-via NotCot

Some people love anything associated with unicorns. Two years ago, I linked to a recipe for cookies made with unicorn poop. It got quite a bit of traffic, despite the disgusting theme.

Well, far be it for me to look down upon you unicorn weirdos--so as long that sweet blog traffic keeps rolling in. Let me satisfy your craving for unicorn gastrointestinal products with this recipe for unicorn barf by Instructables member Danger is my middle name.

Because I don't judge you--at least publicly.

You'll need butter, large white marshmallows, and small cereal marshmallows, as well as whatever else you've been able to coax out of your unicorn's stomach.

-via Foodiggity