Incredible Things Crafted From Chocolate

Chocolatiers all over the world turn chocolate into an art form. For them, it's simply not enough to create a bar of the sweet delight, or a set of truffles. Though they do that very well too, of course, they instead revel in the making of masterpieces. Impressive 3D creations are becoming increasingly easy to come across, from chocolate replicas of famous landmarks such as Stone Henge, to record-breaking sculptures and even entire rooms made of the stuff.

Let's take a look at some of our top picks...

Suite Life
As part of his collaboration with ice-cream makers Magnum, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld created a chocolate suite complete with a man lying on the bed, who was modelled on his muse and regular catwalk-walker, Baptiste Giabiconi. It was chocolatier Patrick Roger who made it happen, by using a whopping 11 tons of Belgian chocolate. Doesn't it all look fantastic? We're pretty fond of the bed's headboard, which simply looks like a huge bar of chocolate. Delicious.

Kick Back and Relax
In 2009, Mars' Galaxy started a reading initiative called 'Irresistible Reads'. And what better way is there to celebrate than with a chocolate sofa? With actress Emilia Fox sitting on it accompanied by a good book, the 'studded' quilted panel looks sumptuous, while the silky smooth dark chocolate cushion ticks all the boxes. Combined with the slogan 'Melt into a good book', it's no wonder the campaign was a rip-roaring success.

Game of Roulette
More recently, Ladbrokes Casino has created a chocolate roulette wheel in partnership with Suffolk chocolatiers Artistry in Cocoa. Made up from over 18,000 large chocolate buttons, the creation is a real work of art. There are 438 individual pieces, which have all been crafted with moulds that took an abundance of calculation. The plywood moulds for the outer and inner rings were designed mathematically in sections, before being filled with plaster of Paris to make two masters which were then used as the patterns to vacuum form plastic moulds for the chocolate. Confused? We are too. But it looks seriously fantastic!

Catwalk Couture
If you're looking for a strapless dress made from chocolate, then take inspiration from this design. Known as Eternal Diamond, this fashionable number was made by Lauren Smith with the help of the Lindt Master Chocolatier over a two week period. We're impressed by just how stylish it looks. Though we can't imagine it'd last very long when next to all that body heat...

We hope our favourites have inspired you to make chocolate sculptures. You don't have to create an entire room, but smaller scale projects couldn't be easier with some moulds and, of course, the chocolate itself.

Would you give it a go?

* https://missuniversessk.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/10-beautiful-things-made-of-chocolate/

** https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/g/16416477/chocolate-sofa/16416485/#8

*** http://www.incrediblethings.com/food/cocoa-couture-chocolate-dress/

Pure Clickbait: Danica Patrick's New Sponsor Is Nature's Bakery

Courtesy IndyStar.com / Associated Press

I'm not much of an opportunist, but I'll try to be one here in a big way with this post that is PURE CLICKBAIT.  If you haven't seen the news hot off the presses, Danica Patrick has gotten a new sponsor for the 2016 NASCAR season and that's Nature's Bakery.  Their website is already well on its way to crashing from the overload in traffic from the news, as you can see:

Anyway, in case you were wondering, I've done a few Nature's Bakery reviews here (thus the clickbait):

Nature's Bakery Stone Ground Whole Wheat Blueberry Fig Bar

Nature's Bakery Stone Ground Whole Wheat Raspberry Fig Bar

Nature's Bakery Stone Ground Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Fig Bar

What I find most interesting about this sponsorship is something that Darren Rovell posted in one of his tweets:

Wow.  Obviously GoDaddy wanted to be known and get their name more out there, but they certainly had the revenue to absorb the sponsorship costs and then some.  Nature's Bakery is a drastically smaller company, so this sponsorship takes quite a chunk out of their bottom line.  This is purely a way for a small company to introduce themselves to a broad audience, so I applaud them for that, although their webmaster and hosting company are probably cursing them right now.  I'm not sure their income statement will applaud them though because it not be able to absorb these costs and still maintain a decent bottom line.  Only time will tell, I suppose.

So there you go...pure clickbait and purely a way to show up in Google search rankings if people are curious about Nature's Bakery.  Just showing that I've got no shame and just watch me rake in the advertising revenue now!

Infographic: 14 Bizarre Ingredients Hidden in Your Food Labels

I often get contacted with random emails asking to insert content into the blog.  Some of it is useful and other times, it is completely bizarre and I have no interest in presenting it.

Recently, I was contacted about a topic that I find interesting, especially since I so often mock ingredients on the labels of the products that I review for this blog.  The infographic below from FoodPackagingLabels.net points out some of the bizarre things that you can find in food products and some of them are borderline terrifying.  I often told myself that I never wanted to work in the food service industry because I didn't want to know what went on behind the curtain, so to speak, because it would ruin the experience for me.  Even though I knew a lot of these already, this infographic has helped me come to the conclusion that I never want to work in the food manufacturing business either.  Ugh.

Either way, enjoy (or be repulsed) by these tidbits of information after the jump!  For the record, the only one that truly makes me queasy is #1.

News: Crazy Food Dude Is A Celebrity!

Okay, I'm definitely not a celebrity, BUT I did get interviewed for the blog at FoodyDirect.com and the here is the interview for you to indulge in should you so choose.

As a side note, I guess I'm revealing my real name by linking this interview on the blog, but who cares because I'm a celebrity, right?  Ha.

Enjoy!

Site Update

I got an email asking what had happened with posts this week.  Well, I've been battling a minor health issue all week (I'm fine) and that's the reason for the lack of posts as I've depleted what was once a plentiful queue of reviews!  I'll be back next week, so you'll just have to wait for more quality content until then (that's sarcasm, by the way).

And ncgirl, thanks for checking on me!

News: National Ice Cream Month / Ben & Jerry's Week!

For those of you that don't know, July is National Ice Cream Month.  Basically, for gluttons like myself and some of my fellow ice cream related blog brethren, this is the best time of the year.  In celebration of that, I'm going to spend the next week posting a new daily review of a product from one of the most known ice cream purveyors in the United States as I hit on a different Ben & Jerry's flavor every day.  One caveat though is that not every single review will be of one of their ice cream products.  They've been churning out some frozen Greek yogurt products recently, some of which I've already looked at, so I'll be mixing in a couple of those review in as well.

Also, expect to see a lot of different ice cream/dessert related reviews this month as I try to celebrate this great month in style.  Hope you enjoy!

Site News: Another Dessert Week!

Last week, I posted a bunch of healthy reviews with granola bars, fiber bars, etc.

Upon reviewing all the posts I have in draft status, I realized that I have a lot of unhealthy reviews of desserts out there that I haven't posted yet, so why not have some fun this week?

This week, I'm going to post a review of a dessert-related product every single day.  There will still be some "healthy" stuff on certain days, but I'll go full-out unhealthy for every single day.  I mean, why is live worth living if you can't have fun sometimes.

Enjoy all the treats and thanks again for reading!

Site News: General Mills Week

I've been noticing recently as I've been burrowing through reviews that I have been typing up a lot of reviews of General Mills products, specifically Nature Valley and Fiber One products.  Because of that backlog of General Mills products that I've built up, I'm going to spend the next week posting a review everyday from Monday through Saturday of a General Mills product.

Hopefully you enjoy and thanks again for reading!

Site News: Kellogg's Special K Week Coming Up!

If you've spent any time in the store recently, you'll see that Kellogg's and Special K are really pushing their Special K Challenge and also a plethora of new Special K products via sales, coupons, promotions, etc.  Since I'm a sucker for all those things, I've been picking these products up like crazy and have quite a queue of review of them stored up.  Because of this, I'll be dedicating this entire next week to throwing out one review of a Special K product each day.  I'll have a couple of other non-Special K product review, but you'll  predominantly be seeing reviews related to the challenge each day.

For those of you that aren't ware of what the Special K Challenge actually is, it is basically a meal plan that allows you to drop a six pounds (or a jeans size) over a two week period by substituting Special K products for your normal foods.  If you are interested in more info, check out the link on their website.

Thanks again for reading and I look forward to bringing you a Special K review each day this week!

Site News: Richard Nixon Week!

With the United States presidential election coming up, I've been getting all geeked up on politics and I figured this week was just as good of a time as any to celebrate one of our most commonly misunderstood presidents with a tribute to Richard Nixon.  Sure he had the Watergate thing, the White House recordings thing, the China thing, etc., but he really wasn't a bad guy, so we should celebrate him.

Okay, I can't take this joke any farther.  This week really isn't going to be a celebration of him, but instead of something that he was.  For those of you that didn't know, Richard Nixon was a Quaker and this upcoming week, I'm going to post a review from the manufacturer that has the most reviews on this blog in Quaker Oats.  See how I drew the correlation between the two there?  Yeah, I'm pretty sharp and witty.

Anyway, I've been encountering a lot of their products out of their enormous product catalog recently and have been trying them left and right (mostly Muller yogurt, which Quaker is the parent company), so I'm going to put up a Quaker-related review every day next week.  Hope you enjoy!

Sponsored Post: Dr. Design's Home Remedies

Dr. Design's Home Remedies Web Site Link

This is one that is close to me as I have used their services to have work done in my home.  I've been very satisfied with the services and designs that have been done and everything that has been done actually makes my home look like a human being could live there.

As you can imagine based on my reviews and the design of this site, I'm not exactly the trendiest or most design conscious person in the world, so making something nice out of nothing takes a lot of work and this company was willing to go the extra mile in order to help me out.  They primarily service Central Indiana via on-site services, but are also willing to consult via the internet and also via phone.  If you have any question or are looking for some interior design help yourself, give Dr. Design's Home Remedies a look.  Also, if you do contact them and mention you found them via the web, you get a 10% discount on hourly fees!

Here's a little bit about the company from their "About Us" page:

"We are a staff of professional Interior Designers with locally and nationally published works.  We have done numerous Indianapolis Monthly Dream Homes, Decorator Showhouses, and showcased models.

Years of experience has taught us economical ways to create luxurious environments.  Our clients' abilities factor into how much money they can save on their home.

We have an extensive list of contractors, but if you have the inclination to do your own work, we will help make that happen.

To get more information, contact us via phone, e-mail or form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible!"

Site News: Yogurt Week Next Week!

So, I do a lot of bar reviews here on the blog and I do a lot of yogurt reviews here on the blog as well.  Those yogurt review combine both Greek and regular yogurts, so I cover a lot of bases.  That said, I'm going to try something new here on the blog next week and instead of having another Bar Week, I'm going to have a yogurt week where I review only products that involve yogurt.  Those products could be regular yogurt, Greek yogurt, yogurt bars, Greek yogurt bars, yogurt smoothies, etc.

Basically, it's all yogurt, all the time, so check back tomorrow morning for the first review!

Site News: Bar Week, Part III!

Perhaps you've noticed if you've spent any time on the site or even taken a glance at the blog archives, but I have reviewed a heck of a lot of protein/nutrition/energy/whatever bars around here in the past.  In fact, when I look at my blog archives for an actual review count, I've already done over 130 of them and absurdly, I've got another FORTY (yes, 4-0) saved up.  That's a joke.

Since I've got so many of these reviews in stock, its time to dust off the third bar week starting next Monday.  I'll be posting two reviews a day on most days, just like the old days of early 2012, and some of the bars will be from manufacturers that you've seen and others will be from manufacturers that have never been reviewed on the blog before.  Hopefully I can help you find something tasty or avoid something awful in the process.  Either way, it's going to be fun and I very loosely define fun.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoy next week's reviews!

Site News: Ice Cream/Frozen Dessert Week Next Week

Who doesn't love ice cream?  Well, if you don't, you are un-American and you'll see why as you keep reading.


For those of you that don't know, July is the best month of the year.  Okay, maybe not the best, but one of the best and it's not because it seems to be about a billion degrees outside, no matter where you are.  Instead, the reason why it's one of the best months of the year is because July is National Ice Cream Month. That's right, there's a whole month dedicated to ice cream and there's even been a presidential designation by Ronald Reagan that says so.  That's how awesome ice cream is and as this blog as shown, I'm quite a big fan too.

Because of that, every review next week starting tomorrow is going to be dedicated to the frozen treat itself (or other ice cream-like treats).  We'll have a mix of some new and old manufacturers, so maybe you'll learn about something you've never heard of before or have always wanted to try.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and try to stay cool in this summer heat!

Sponsored Post: Penna Gourmet Olives

Just a little FYI on Penna Gourmet Foods, so if you are an olive lover, you may want to check them out!

• Penna Gourmet Foods is a grower, packer and processor of gourmet olives

• Penna Gourmet Foods olive processing incorporates old processes improved upon and made safe by modern microbiology

• Penna Gourmet Foods  has been in business since 1979

• Penna Gourmet Foods provides fresh olives to cure at home for the people who enjoy the art of home processing and canning

• Penna Gourmet Foods site at GreatOlives.com offers recipes for  home curing techniques , including the wonderful Mediterranean Partida Style as well as the Lye Process

• Penna Gourmet Foods Fresh Olives are available starting around the middle of September (weather permitting)

If you are interested in any of their products or a free coupon for their products, visit their website at:

Penna Gourmet Foods
Fresh and gourmet cured olives, gift baskets, olive oil and more!
.

Time Waster: Candy Math Equations

Much like my post a while back about Cereal Math Equations, this could just as easily be applied to several candy products out there that have "kin" under the same brand name as well.  Some manufacturers make a wide variety of products under the same name like Snickers, M&M's, etc.  So, without further delay, here is another list of equations, this time focusing on candy.  Obviously I'm missing some flavors, on M&M's seasonal flavors especially, but one guy can only eat so much!

Candy Math Equation #1:  Mars M&M's
Peanut M&M's > Almond M&M's > Original M&M's > Pretzel M&M's > Peanut Butter M&M's > Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's > Dark Chocolate M&M's > Coconut M&M's

Candy Math Equation #2:  Mars Snickers Bars
Peanut Butter Squared Snickers > Original Snickers > Almond Snickers

Candy Math Equation #3:  Mars Twix Bars
Twix PB > Original Twix Bar

Candy Math Equation #4:  Reese's Peanut Butter Products (kind of a stretch, but bear with me)
Reese's Pieces > Reese's Sticks Wafer Bar > Reese's Fast Break Bar > Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Candy Math Equation #5:  Hershey's Kisses
Hershey's Milk Chocolates with Almonds > Hershey's Milk Chocolates filled with Caramel > Hershey's White Chocolates > Hershey's Milk Chocolates > Hershey's Milk Chocolates filled with Cherry Cordial Crème > Hershey's SPECIAL DARK Mildly Sweet Chocolates

Just like cereal, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to candy.  One thing you'll notice too is that all of these involve some sort of chocolate as I mostly only eat candy that has chocolate, nuts or both, so I kind of limit myself.  I'd love to see some other suggestions on chocolate/nut products and/or sweeter candies like Nerds, Twizzler, etc. if anyone wants to chime in.  I'd especially love to hear the thoughts of some of the candy bloggers out there as they are the subject matter "experts."

Time Waster: Cereal Math Equations

I'll be the first to admit that I've recently developed a really bad habit that I'm trying to rid myself of.  My bad habit that is that I've started buying boxes of cereal and then just eating them dry by the handful like they are potato chips.  If I was just eating one handful every now and then, this wouldn't be that big of a problem, but I'm eating multiple handfuls at multiple times throughout the day/night in addition to what I would normally eat.  Not exactly healthy and while it may not be potato chips, it's just as bad.

Anyway, during one of my binges the other day, I was looking at the back of the box my Cheerios and was just astounded by how many flavors of Cheerios that there are.  Throughout the course of my bad habit and also my life, I've managed to have just about every one of their flavors, so having done that, I came up with a fun game in my head called Cereal Math.  What I mean by cereal math is that I want to write a mathematical "equation" rating each of the Cheerios flavors in order.  This would only apply to those flavors that I've actually had as I'm missing a couple.

I didn't limit my "fun" game to just Cheerios either as there are several other cereals out there that have "kin" with the same name brand, but just in different flavors.  If you want to think of it this way, think of it like Coca-Cola with original Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, etc.  Basically, the equations are limitless if you spend some time in your cereal aisle at the store because I don't know about you, but the aisle at my store seems like it is about a mile long.

So, here we go...

Cereal Math Equation #1:  General Mills Cheerios Flavors
Peanut Butter Multigrain Cheerios > Chocolate Cheerios > Honey Nut Cheerios > Original Cheerios > Multigrain Cheerios > Apple Cinnamon Cheerios > Oat Cluster Crunch Cheerios > Dulce De Leche Cheerios > Frosted Cheerios

Get where I'm going with this?  I think Peanut Butter Multigrain Cheerios are the best followed by Chocolate Cheerios and then all the way down in descending order to Frosted Cheerios as the worst.  There's obviously some missing flavors in there that I have not had, but let's try some more that are much simpler.

Cereal Math Equation #2:  General Mills Toast Crunch Flavors
Cinnamon Toast Crunch > Frosted Toast Crunch

Cereal Math Equation #3:  General Mills Cocoa Puffs Flavors
Brownie Crunch Cocoa Puffs > Original Cocoa Puffs

Cereal Math Equation #4:  Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch Flavors
Peanut Butter Crunch > Original Crunch > Crunch Berries

Cereal Math Equation #5:  Kellogg's Krave Flavors
Double Chocolate > Chocolate

Cereal Math Equation #6:  Kellogg's Crunchy Nut Flavors
Golden Honey Nut > Caramel Nut > Roasted Nut & Honey

Cereal Math Equation #7:  Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares
Honey Nut > Cinnamon

There's obviously countless other cereals out there, so I'd like to see if anyone else has an opinion on this.  If you think I'm nuts, let me know.  Also, feel free to add your own and hopefully some of the cereal experts that read this blog like Marvo at The Impulsive Buy or Adam at Option Pitch and Waffle Crisp will chime in with some of their thoughts if they happen to see this post.  I'm curious to see what everyone thinks.

News: fullbar Contest Giveaway Winners Announced!

You can check the comments section of the original post and if I could get a response from the winners that I've responded to by them sending an e-mail to me at indianapoliseater@crazyfooddude.com, I can send you the directions on how to redeem and we can get you your prizes as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Site News: Feel The Burn

If you follow my Twitter feed at all (if not, I encourage you to do so), you may have seen this post recently:

Have got a 3.5 month backlog (posting daily) of content in queue at CrazyFoodDude . com. Maybe I eat and/or write too much?LOL.
— IndianapolisEater (@IndplsEater) February 17, 2012

Yeah, it's true.  I have a three and a half month backlog of posts in my queue of material that I've already written and need to get posted before I can even address the at least two month backlog of products I've got in my cabinets and refrigerator at home that need to be reviewed (full disclosure: most products are energy/nutrition/protein bars).  When I started this site, I never thought I would have so much material so fast, so I didn't do the world's best job of planning.

Because of my foolishness, this is going to end up being a benefit to you.  Well, that's depending on how you view it.  Because I want to burn through (see how I tied the title of the post to this; I'm pretty clever) some of this content that I've already written and also provide more material for you to read, if you so choose, I'm going to continue on my daily posting schedule with one addition:  on certain days, I'm going to post two reviews.  What a bonus (I write that dripping with sarcasm)!  This will probably happen at least three times a week and will most likely happen between Monday and Friday since that's when most people visit the site.  This will all start next week.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know the change in plans (if you care) and let you know that I'm going to be around for a long while to come.  Again, thanks for reading and I hope everyone enjoys the increase in content!

Site News: Jump off a CLIF (Bar) Week

Quick Blog Status Update:

It's time again for this month's protein/energy/nutrition/etc. bar week and this week, I'm sticking to products manufactured by CLIF and their various product lines.  When I say manufactured by CLIF, I include both CLIF Bars and also LUNA Bars. These will supplement the reviews I've already done, so we'll have quite a bank of CLIF products here going forward (and it will continue to grow).

So, starting tomorrow and continuing for the next seven days, this is what you'll be seeing on the blog.  I know I'm pumped and I'm sure you are too!  See you tomorrow morning with the first review!