Got Milk?

Finally, a pareve bowl of cereal and milk! Did you know that 75% of Jews are lactose intolerant? This is an interesting statistic when you take into account the sizable and flourishing Israeli dairy market. Do most Israelis walk around with a stomachache all the time? Are they oblivious to the cause of their discomfort, or do they just love milk products too much to give them up? Or have statistics let us down once again?

This brings me to another interesting conundrum. MSG, often considered the cause of headaches, dizziness and even chest pain, is used liberally in China. Is it possible that 1.386 billion Chinese people are walking around with a headache every day? Chefs and scientists have debunked that theory, yet I suspect that MSG prejudice is here to stay. But I digress.

Anti-gravity cakes create a great impression and are real crowd pleasers. How does the milk carton stay suspended like that? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s a stick, pure and simple. I bet you thought it was done with nearly invisible wire, or repelling magnets, or sheer force of will. No and no. All you need is a really long wooden dowel. Cover it in white fondant to represent the milk. Add a few droplets on the surface because you want your milk to seem to be gushing out of the carton. That way the big milk splash in the cereal makes more sense. Stick the dowel into the cake on an angle and then insert the other end into the carton. Add a little shine so that your milk looks nice and wet, and voila!

Now aren’t you sorry you asked? It’s always so disappointing to hear how a trick is done. Admit it, you really wanted it to be sheer force of will, didn’t you?