Hey there! I’m John Green, and welcome to Mental Floss on YouTube. Today, we’re diving into some fun and quirky facts about desserts. Did you know that popsicles were invented by an 11-year-old named Frank W. E.? One night, he accidentally left a glass with soda powder, water, and a stick outside, and by morning, it had frozen into a popsicle! He even patented his idea in 1924. So, if you haven’t invented something cool by age 11, don’t worry, there’s still time!
Let’s explore where some of our favorite desserts come from. The word “strudel” comes from a Middle High German word meaning “whirlpool.” The oldest strudel recipes date back to 1696 and are kept in the Vienna City Library. Strudel was inspired by baklava, a pastry from Turkey that became popular in the Ottoman Empire.
Cheesecake has ancient roots too! A Greek physician named Aegus wrote about making cheesecake in the fifth century. He also wrote about pulses, but let’s stick to the sweet stuff!
Ever heard of bear claws? These tasty pastries were first mentioned in a 1942 San Francisco newspaper. And the banana split? Two towns, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Ohio, both claim to have invented it in the early 1900s, thanks to college students who loved dessert.
Speaking of college, when I started at Kenyon College in 1995, I discovered I could eat Lucky Charms whenever I wanted. For two months, that’s all I ate!
Did you know the world’s most expensive dessert is a frozen hot chocolate ice cream sundae at Serendipity 3 in New York City? It costs a whopping $225,000 and includes 28 types of cocoa and edible gold. You even get to keep the diamond-studded golden spoon!
In 2013, Texas built the largest gingerbread house, measuring 2,520 square feet and containing 35.8 million calories. But don’t worry, no one ate it!
The word “cannoli” means “little tube” in Sicilian. French macaroons, those colorful sandwich cookies, got their name from an Italian word for pastry. English speakers added an extra “o” to avoid confusion with another type of cookie.
In France, candy apples are called “pommes d’amour,” or “apples of love.” And the éclair? It means “lightning” in French, possibly because of its shiny icing or how quickly it’s eaten!
In the 1960s, Jell-O tried to make vegetable-flavored desserts like celery and Italian salad. If you’re curious, you can try a pickle-flavored snow cone in Texas!
Imagine eating eel marzipan in 16th-century Italy! But let’s move on to something more appetizing: cookies!
Girl Scouts sell about 200 million boxes of cookies each year, earning $700 million. The first s’more recipe was published in the 1925 Girl Scouts handbook. Did you know marshmallows come from a plant called Althaea officinalis, which can help with sore throats?
There’s a fun bike race called the Tour de Donut, where participants can eat donuts to reduce their race time. For every donut eaten, five minutes are subtracted from their time!
Ruth Graves Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie and sold the recipe to Nestlé in 1939 for just $1. And in 1897, a dentist helped create the first cotton candy machine, calling it “fairy floss.”
The first pie thrown in a movie was in 1909’s “Mr. Flip.” Today, there’s a World Custard Pie Throwing Championship in England, where you score points by hitting people with pies!
There’s even a Pie Town in New Mexico, named after a man who started baking pies there in the 1920s. The pies were so good, a town grew around him!
Sprinkles Cupcakes has 24-hour cupcake ATMs that can hold 700 cupcakes. The Beverly Hills ATM sells about 1,100 cupcakes a day!
In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan got a frozen yogurt machine installed in the Supreme Court cafeteria, earning her the nickname “the Frozen Yogurt Justice.”
President Ronald Reagan loved ice cream so much that he declared July 15, 1984, National Ice Cream Day. Now, it’s celebrated on the third Sunday of every July.
In 2003, Jay Leno tasted a 125-year-old fruitcake on “The Tonight Show.” And in 2004, a science teacher in Maine kept an unwrapped Twinkie on his chalkboard for 30 years to see how long it would last. He said it was brittle but probably still edible!
Thanks for joining me on this sweet journey through dessert history. I hope you enjoyed these fun facts!
Imagine you’re like Frank W. E., the inventor of the popsicle. Design your own unique dessert using ingredients you have at home. Write a short story about how you discovered this dessert, and share it with the class. Be creative and have fun!
Choose one of the desserts mentioned in the article, such as strudel or cheesecake. Research its history and origins, and create a presentation to share with the class. Include interesting facts and any surprising discoveries you make along the way.
In groups, brainstorm ideas for a new world record dessert. Consider size, ingredients, or unique features. Create a poster that illustrates your dessert and explains why it would be a record-breaker. Present your ideas to the class and vote on the most creative one!
Explore the meanings of dessert-related words from different languages, like “cannoli” or “éclair.” Create a mini-dictionary with illustrations for each word. Share your dictionary with classmates and see how many new dessert words you can learn together.
Inspired by unusual flavors like pickle snow cones, invent your own unique dessert flavor. Create a recipe card with ingredients and instructions. If possible, try making your dessert at home and bring it to class for a taste test. Be ready to explain your flavor choice!
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to my salon; this is Mental Floss on YouTube. Did you know that popsicles were invented by Frank W. E. when he was just 11? He left a glass containing soda powder, water, and a mixing stick on his back porch one night. The next morning, it was frozen, and he had a popsicle. He went on to patent that idea in 1924. Let that be a lesson to you, Youth of America: if you haven’t discovered something important by the time you are 11, you are doomed.
Anyway, that’s the first of many facts about dessert I’m going to share with you today.
Okay, let’s start with a few more dessert origins. Strudel comes from a Middle High German word meaning “whirlpool.” The oldest known recipes for strudel are from 1696 and can be found in the Vienna City Library. We don’t know who invented strudel; it was probably Mr. or Mrs. Strudel, but we’re not positive. However, we do know that it was inspired by an older pastry called baklava, which became popular in the Ottoman Empire and is believed to have originated in Turkey.
There are even older desserts; for example, the fifth-century Greek physician Aegus wrote about the art of making cheesecake. He was also the first person to write a treatise about pulses. But cheesecake and baklava? These are delicious desserts!
Let’s talk about something delicious like bear claws. American bear claws were invented in the western U.S. The first printed reference to one appeared in a 1942 newspaper article in San Francisco. Two towns claim to have invented the banana split in the early 1900s: Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Ohio. Interestingly, residents of both towns claim that college students popularized the dish, so we don’t know exactly where it’s from. But we do know that apparently, college students like to eat dessert.
Brief personal aside: when I arrived at Kenyon College in the fall of 1995, I discovered that I could eat Lucky Charms in the cafeteria whenever I wanted. So for about two months, I only ate Lucky Charms.
Moving on from dessert origins, the world’s most expensive dessert is the frozen hot chocolate ice cream sundae at Serendipity 3 in New York City. It costs $225,000 and has a blend of 28 cocoas and edible gold toppings because nothing tastes as good as eating gold. Plus, you eat it with a golden spoon decorated with diamonds, which you can bring home with you. Although, if you are really extravagant, you just eat the spoon!
Another world record: the biggest gingerbread house was built in Texas in 2013 and measured 2,520 square feet, containing 35.8 million calories. But don’t worry; no one ate it because this is America, where food is for bragging about, not for eating.
The word for the Sicilian dessert cannoli comes from a word meaning “little tube.” Another word origin: French macaroons, aka the sandwich cookies that Blair enjoys on Gossip Girl, got their name from an Italian word that referred to pastry food. English speakers borrowed this term to refer to an entirely different cookie, one with coconut or almonds. They added an extra “o” to the word, though, to make it less confusing.
In France, they call candy apples “pommes d’amour,” which means “apples of love” because nothing says love like candying your apples. That’s actually my life motto!
A éclair comes from the French word for “lightning,” but no one knows why it got that name. It may have something to do with the glistening icing or how quickly they are eaten.
In the 1960s, Jell-O tried to make dessert much less appetizing by introducing vegetable flavors like celery, Italian salad, and seasoned tomatoes. If that sounds good to you, you should head down to Texas, where you can try a pickled-flavored snow cone.
Well, imagine being a 16th-century Italian who ate eel marzipan! Alright, I’m done grossing you out now, I promise. Let’s move on to something delicious: cookies!
Italians used to eat eel cookies. No, I’m just kidding! Let’s talk about Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts sell about 200 million boxes of cookies a year, bringing in $700 million. Speaking of Girl Scouts, the first time a s’more recipe was ever published was in the 1925 Girl Scouts handbook. Marshmallows are derived from a plant called Althaea officinalis, which has medicinal properties. The leaf and root of the plant can be used to treat sore throats and stomach problems.
But how will we work off all the calories from these desserts? Well, perhaps at the Tour de Donut, a bicycle race that originated in Staunton, Illinois, but has since spread to other locations along the 32-mile route. There are two donut stops; donut eating is not required, but for every donut that a participant eats, five minutes is subtracted from their time.
I’m not very good at math, but I wonder if there’s a way to win the race by just eating donuts! Ruth Graves Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie, sold the rights to her recipe to Nestlé in 1939 for $1. Although to be fair, that’s like $11 in today’s money.
Speaking of inventors, in 1897, a dentist and confectioner teamed up to create the first cotton candy machine. They called their cotton candy “fairy floss.” It doesn’t surprise me at all that a dentist co-created cotton candy. I have a theory about dentists: they want us to get cavities because that’s how they make money.
The first time a pie was thrown in someone’s face on film was in 1909; the movie was called “Mr. Flip.” Bet that guy really flipped out! Speaking of pie throwing, every year, teams compete in the World Custard Pie Throwing Championship in Kent, England. This is how you win: you get six points for hitting someone in the face, three for the chest, and one for the arm. If you miss three times, points are taken away.
By the way, there is a Pie Town in New Mexico. According to the town’s website, the name came from a World War IV veteran who broke down on the side of the road there in the 1920s. He started baking apple pies, and the pies were so good that they built a town around him. The moral of the story is they didn’t have cell phones in the 1920s, so wherever your car broke down, you just moved there.
The store Sprinkles Cupcakes has a few 24-hour cupcake ATMs, which can hold 700 cupcakes at once. The Beverly Hills ATM sells around 1,100 cupcakes a day.
In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan got a frozen yogurt machine installed in the Supreme Court cafeteria, earning her the nickname “the Frozen Yogurt Justice.” It’s like the worst X-Men ever! What’s your superpower? Well, anytime you want, I can give you chocolate soft serve or vanilla soft serve, or a mix of the two.
Another U.S. leader who took dessert seriously was Ronald Reagan. In Presidential Proclamation 5219, he made July 15, 1984, National Ice Cream Day. In the proclamation, he describes ice cream as a nutritious and wholesome food. Now, National Ice Cream Day is celebrated on the third Sunday of every July.
And on the topic of people your dad likes, in 2003, on The Tonight Show, Jay Leno took a bite out of a 125-year-old fruitcake. It was brought to the show by 83-year-old Morgan Ford, who explained that the fruitcake had been passed down from generation to generation in his family. After sampling it, Leno said it needed more time.
Finally, I returned to my salon to tell you another story about old desserts. In 2004, the Associated Press ran a story about a science teacher at George Stevens Academy in Maine. It wasn’t because Mr. Benat had won an award or anything; the AP wanted to know about the unwrapped Twinkie that he had been keeping on his chalkboard for 30 years to see what its shelf life was. Benat told them, “It’s rather brittle, but if you dusted it off, it’s probably still edible.”
Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people. As we say in my hometown, don’t forget to watch Blossom; it was a little stuck in the past, but man, that was a great show!
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Desserts – Sweet foods typically eaten at the end of a meal – Ancient civilizations often enjoyed desserts made from honey and fruits.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs – Learning about the history of ancient Egypt helps us understand their culture and achievements.
Inventions – New devices or processes created through study and experimentation – The invention of the printing press revolutionized the way information was shared in history.
Flavors – Distinctive tastes of foods or drinks – The flavors of spices like cinnamon and nutmeg were highly valued in ancient trade.
Recipes – Instructions for preparing a particular dish, including a list of the ingredients required – Historical recipes often give us insight into the diets and cultures of past societies.
Chocolate – A sweet, brown food made from roasted and ground cacao seeds – The Aztecs and Mayans were among the first to use chocolate in their rituals and as a drink.
Ice Cream – A sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert – Ice cream became popular in Europe after explorers brought back recipes from the East.
Pastries – Baked goods made from dough and often filled with sweet or savory ingredients – Pastries have been enjoyed since ancient times, with the Greeks and Romans making early versions.
College – An educational institution or establishment, typically providing higher education or specialized professional or vocational training – Many colleges offer courses in history and science to help students understand the world.
Cookies – Small, sweet baked treats, often containing flour, sugar, and a fat – Cookies have been a popular treat since the Middle Ages, when they were first baked as small test cakes.
