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Desserts

Some say the dish can be traced back to logging camps at the beginning of the 20th century, but others cite chili and cinnamon rolls as a once-essential part of their school lunch programs. 

What’s Up With the Pairing of Chili and Cinnamon Rolls?

Why kids across the western United States came to find the unlikely combination in their school lunches

Neolithic people may have cooked predecessors of modern mince pies on stones heated in a fire's embers.

Stonehenge’s Builders May Have Feasted on Sweet Treats

Excavations near the iconic English monument revealed traces of fruits and nuts

The cake may have been baked for a Palm Sunday celebration.

Cool Finds

WWII Bombing Raid Eerily Preserved This 79-Year-Old Charred Cake

Researchers discovered the blackened hazelnut-and-almond dessert in the ruins of a German house destroyed in March 1942

SpongeBob on a stick is the closest we come today to the forgotten fad of molded ice cream.

The Lost Art of Molding Ice Cream Into Eagles, Tugboats and Pineapples

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ice cream makers used metal casts to create fanciful desserts

Doritos are cake.

Why It’s Unsettling That Anything Could Be Cake, According to Science

Psychologists explain why the disconnect between expectations and reality is both amusing and uncomfortable

The third president evidently had a love of vanilla ice cream.

Make Thomas Jefferson’s Recipe for Ice Cream

The co-author of the Declaration of Independence also drafted a radical recipe

As innovations go, the ice cream truck might seem merely nutty. But summer would never be the same.

How the Ice Cream Truck Made Summer Cool

As innovations go, the Good Humor vehicle is as sweet as it gets

The proof is in the lack of pudding.

Why You Won’t See Pudding on the Thanksgiving Table

The once-classic American dish has been widely replaced with the casserole—thanks in part to anti-immigrant sentiments

Pumpkin spice has become completely divorced from pumpkin pie.

Even Colonial Americans Liked Pumpkin Spice

A recipe for pumpkin (or rather, “pompkin”) spice appears in America’s oldest cookbook

Pharmacists once used chocolate syrup to mask the bitter flavor of their remedies—and make a little money on the side.

The Unlikely Medical History of Chocolate Syrup

How the sundae staple went from treatment to just treat

Astronaut Sunita Williams enjoying ice cream the last time it was sent to the International Space Station in 2012

ISS Astronauts Get a Sweet Taste of Real Ice Cream

The latest shipment to the station includes some frozen goodness for the crew

A 50-pound batch at Shriver’s makes about 2,000 pieces.

What Makes Salt Water Taffy the Perfect Summer Candy?

The first families of the sugary treat stir up another season of making history by the bite

An undated box that originally held Eskimo Fudge Pies.

The Weird, Brief History of the Eskimo Pie Corporation

It was America’s first chocolate-covered ice cream bar, patented on this day in 1922

How did this double 'r' become so prevalent?

It’s Sherbet, Not Sherbert, You Dilettantes

The frozen treat has been mispronounced by generations of Americans

Trending Today

I Scream, You Scream: A Vanilla Ice Cream Shortage Is Looming

Just in time for the summer

Making Sugar Twice as Sweet

An Israeli startup has invented a process to coat inert particles with sugar molecules, tricking the tongue into thinking food is sweeter

A Lost Chapter From Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Was Just Released

The chapter was removed after being deemed “too wild” and subversive

The Donart

Afraid to Go Back to the Cronut? Here Are Five Pastries That Could Take Its Place as the Pastry of Choice

Satisfy your sweet tooth with these delicious treats

Is Drinking Chocolate America’s New Cupcake?

When one trend falls by the wayside, another one must take it place. This winter, take advantage of this beverage on the rise

Buddha's hand sliced where all the fingers are splitting off the main fruit.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

What the Heck Do I Do With a Buddha’s Hand?

Yes, you can eat this thing

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