Meet Lulwa, also known as the ‘Million Dollar Bride’, a 120 kilogram-wedding cake shaped like a life-size Arabian bride. “She” was created by Debbie Wingham, ‘the world’s most expensive designer’, and showcased at the 2018 Dubai Bride Show, in the UAE.

Wingham is the creator of some of the most expensive objects of desire in history, including a $16 million shoe, a $4.8 million black diamond dress, and the world’s most expensive wedding cake which was valued at a staggering $67 million. With an estimated value of “only” $1 million, the designer’s latest work, the Million Dollar Bride cake was one of her most affordable projects yet. But what the cake lacked in financial value, it certainly made up in style and realism.

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Describing an ice-cream as hot might seem strange, but when talking about the Respiro del Diavolo (Devil’s Breath), it’s actually an understatement. Made using an assortment of hot chillies, the bizarre treat scores over 1.5 million units on the Scoville scale of hotness, making it the world’s most dangerous ice-cream.

Respiro del Diavolo was brought to Glascow, Scotland, by Martin Bandoni, owner of the Aldwych Cafe and Ice Cream Parlour, but he claims the recipe has been a closely-guarded secret among Italian gelato makers for centuries. It has been used as a test of bravery at yearly gatherings among masters of the trade, but Bandoni thought it could become a commercial hit as well, so he put it on the menu of his ice-cream parlour in Glasgow. So far, the response has been ‘crazy’, with people from all over the UK stopping by to try the fiery treat.

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Fruit farmers in Okayama, Japan, have managed to make peeling a banana optional by developing a special variety with edible skin. The peel of their “Mongee Banana” is not particularly tasty, but it is considerably thinner and far less bitter than that of regular bananas, making it 100% edible.

To create the incredible Mongee – which is actually Okayama slang for ‘incredible – scientists at D&T Farm, in Okayama Prefecture, developed an innovative method called “Freeze Thaw Awakening” which involves recreating conditions from 20,000 years ago, at the end of the ice age, when plants would emerge from harsh winter temperatures to grow. They froze banana saplings to -60 degrees Celsius, planting them again as they began to thaw. This apparently activated an ancient part of their DNA, which not only allows the plant to thrive in Japan’s cool climate, but also accelerates its development. While tropical varieties of banana require two years to grow large enough for consumption, the Mongee banana needs just four months.

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An Israeli start-up has introduced an intriguing potential solution to world hunger – fruit fly larvae. The company, Flying SpArk, co-founded by Eran Gronich and Yoram Yerushalmi in 2014, uses fruit fly larvae to make a protein powder (in regular and low-fat varieties) and oil, both of which are odorless and flavorless. These products can then be used to make everything from substitute meat patties to pasta, cereal, and even bread.

Fruit flies have a lifespan of only six days but multiply up to 15 times in that time, making them easy and cheap to farm and harvest. There is virtually no waste created in the process, as all parts of the larvae are used. This gives them an edge over conventional protein sources like poultry or cattle, but also over insects like grasshoppers or crickets, because they have no legs, wings, antennas or eyes. And while, Flying SpArk doesn’t believe its fruit fly powder can completely replace meat, the company hopes that by becoming a part of human diet, it can at least reduce our negative impact on the environment.

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People have been losing their minds over the pumpkin pie created by Simon Davies, the chef at Chicago’s Alinea restaurant, and for good reason. It looks like jell-o on a pie crust, but he insists that it’s an actual pumpkin pie, just not the kind we’re all used to.

Davies posted the first photo of his bizarre crystal-clear pumpkin pie in late September, and people have been talking about it ever since. The general reaction can be described as a mix of surprise, confusion and anger, as people try to wrap their hands around this pumpkin pie that sort of looks like the traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but is totally different, at the same time. Most of them just can’t accept that it’s not simple jell-o on a buttery pie crust, but a condensed distillation of actual pumpkin pie filling that tastes like the real thing.

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If you’re looking for a special treat that captures the spirit of Halloween, how about a bottle of gin made from ingredients sourced from England’s most haunted village and cursed by a professional witch under a full moon?

Described as ‘wickedly delicious’, the limited-edition Evil Spirits Gin may just be the spookiest spirit ever created. Not only is it colored a poison-like green, but it’s made with apples and mint plucked from Pluckley, in Ashford, Kent, known as England’s most haunted village. It’s apparently home to no less than 12 ghosts, including Watercress Woman and the farmer Edward Brett.

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Arctic Apple is the world’s first genetically engineered apple that doesn’t turn brown after being cut or bruised. It was developed by Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits and is already being sold in select grocery stores.

When the cells of conventional apples are damaged, such as when they are cut, bitten into or bruised, an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase (PPO) initiates a chemical reaction that turns the flesh of the fruit brown. Some apple varieties brown faster than others, while others have a lower degree of browning, due to varying levels of PPO, but the Arctic Apple is the world’s first non-browning apple. Its flesh will retain its fresh, appealing color even days after being sliced, which Okanagan Specialty Fruits claims will increase apple consumption and decrease food waste.

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When you think about coffee alternatives, garlic is probably one of the last things that comes to mind, but that exactly the ingredient that one Japanese inventor used to create a drink that looks and tastes like coffee.

74-year-old Yokitomo Shimotai, a coffee shop owner in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, claims that his unique “garlic coffee” is the result of a cooking blunder he made over 30 years ago, when he burned a steak and garlic while aiting tables at the same time. Intrigued by the scorched garlic’s aroma, he mashed it up with a spoon and mixed it with hot water. The resulting drink looked and tasted a lot like coffee. Making a mental note of his discovery, Yokimoto carried on with his job, and only started researching garlic coffee again after he retired.

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The vast majority of nutritionists claim that, if you want to lose weight, fast food is among the first things you should cut from your diet, but one man recently proved that you can actually eat pizza every single day and still maintain a healthy figure.

Brian Northrup, aka “Lord of Pizza” set out to prove that you can still lose weight while eating your favorite foods, by eating one medium Domino’s pizza every day for a 367 consecutive days. The New Jersey native documented the whole project on his Instagram page, posting photos of every pizza he ordered, and on YouTube where he posted videos of himself eating them. At the end of the year-long experiment, Northrup had lost about five pounds and was in tip-top shape. How did he do it? Well, the pizza fan claims that he just burned the extra calories by working out.

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The Carolina Reaper has been the undisputed world’s hottest pepper for over 4 years now, but its days at the top are numbered. There’s a new kid on the block and it’s apparently twice as hot as the Reaper. This is “Pepper X”.

Pepper X is the brainchild of Smokin’ Ed Currie, “founder, president, mad scientist & chef of PuckerButt Pepper Company”, and the same man who created the now world famous Carolina Reaper. Apparently, he started working on this scorching hot chilli some 10 years ago, crossing various pepper variety and constantly upping the Scoville rating, to the point where it now scores a mouth burning 3.18 million Scoville units. To put that into perspective, Jalapenos are rated at between 10,000 – 20,000 units, while the current Guinness record holder for world’s hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper, scores an average of 1.6 million units on the Scoville scale. So it’s safe to say that Pepper X is pretty hot.

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Having trouble deciding between white wine and beer? Thanks to artisan wine maker in Belgium, you can now have both in the same bottle.

49-year-old Filip Decroix, an experienced winemaker from Ypres, has spent the last year trying to perfect the formula for his “Steenstraetse Hoppewijn”, a sparkling white wine with a beer-like bitterness created by combining Chardonnay with Belgian hops. Decroix claims that he set out to create a wine that Belgians, known mostly for their beer, would appreciate and after having it tested by expert sommeliers, he is sure it will be a big hit.

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Ever since Nestlé introduced white chocolate, 80 years ago, chocolate has been available in only three main varieties – dark, milk and white. Well, it’s apparently time to add a fourth type to the list – Ruby pink chocolate.

Zurich-based Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest based cocoa processor, has apparently spent the last 13 years trying to produce naturally pink chocolate out of ruby cocoa beans. This cocoa variety grows in different parts of the world, including Ecuador, Brazil, and the Ivory Coast, but the Swiss company is the first to actually convert it into pink chocolate, through a sophisticated process.

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Nutritionists claim that portion size control is one of the keys to losing weight and staying in shape. Using smaller dishes is probably the most popular way to control the size of your meals, but a couple of London-based art students may have come up with an even more effective one – using mirrors to make tableware look twice as full.

Saki Maruyama and Daniel Coppen, collectively known as Studio Playfool, have come up with an ingenious tableware design that relies on mirrors to trick your eyes into seeing more food than is actually available. Named Half/Full, their recently unveiled tableware set was apparently inspired by the threat of future food shortages on a global scale, and is therefore designed to “future proof appetites”.

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They say you shouldn’t drink and drive, but one meat shop in Irvinestown, Northern Ireland, wants to make “don’t eat and drive” a thing too. It has recently launched a line of sausages infused with popular alcoholic drinks, including vodka and Red bull, or dark rum and orange soda.

Maguire Meats owner Keelan Maguire says that he came  up with the idea for alcohol-infused sausages while talking with his team about new products for the summer barbecue season. Alcohol just seemed like the craziest idea, so they went with that. They launched their vodka and Red Bull bangers last week, and since they were an instant hit, they just added a Captain Morgan rum and Club Orange soda sausage to their line. They’re both selling like crazy, according to Maguire.

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People have been making wine of thousands of years, but in only three colors – red, white and rose. But not anymore. Spanish companies have come up with ways to make all-natural wines in pretty much any color imaginable, from vibrant blue to green and even pink.

It all started last year, when Spanish startup Gïk unveiled the world’s first blue wine. They spent two years working with scientists at the University of the Basque Country and food researchers at Azti Tecnecalia trying to use anthocyanin, a natural pigment in the grapes’ skin, in order to manipulate the color of wine. It became a great commercial success, with the company reporting in January that it had sold over 100,000 bottles in under six months. But competition is ramping up, as other Spanish wineries are using similar technology to create all kinds of unusually-colored wines.

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