"edible gifts" news and stories

The first of many seasonal catalogues from Saks Fifth Avenue just arrived at my house. There are only three words of text on the cover: Better Than Fruitcake.

And so it begins, the ritual insults of the gift that time forgot, the humble yet seemingly inedible confection called fruitcake.

There are gag fruitcakes like this inflatable one ("The fruitcake they'll actually want to get!") and corny fruitcake jokes -- there's even a Society for the Preservation and Protection of Fruitcake.

But when did fruitcake become the punch line to a hundred jokes (and not Borscht Belt stuff either: a Jewish friend of mine assures me that fruitcake is strictly for the goyim)?

Food historians suggest that fruitcake -- any cake in which dried fruits and nuts do battle with the batter -- is older than Moses. Ancient Egyptians entombed fruitcake, while Romans carried it into battle, probably for the same reason: Fruitcake is built to last, and did, well into medieval times.

Bucking standard zoo practice, the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is urging its visitors to please feed the animals.

The zoo has assembled a Christmas wish list of supermarket items for its residents, who are hoping to celebrate the holiday with Fruit Loops and animal crackers. Now it's up to generous zoo-goers to provide them.

General manager Kate Raymond says the zoo launched the program in 2002 because it "didn't have extra money to do anything special for the animals."

Raymond's daughter had the idea to erect an "angel tree" hung with souvenir ornaments, each featuring a picture of an animal and a list of what it wants for Christmas. This year, the monkeys are asking for pudding pops, the bears are angling for Vienna sausages and the lions are looking for roast beef.

Erin Meister trains baristas for North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee and sporadically maintains the blog Meet the Press Pot from her home in New York City. This is part of a series for the caffeine-addicted.

Speaking as a coffee person, I can tell you that buying holiday presents for beanies can be difficult -- we can be very persnickety about what we like ("Oh, gee whiz, thanks for this... tub of pre-ground snicker-doodle-flavored coffee."), and many of us have everything ("Wow, thanks... another set of No. 4 cone filters.").

Read on after the jump for some suggestions to make your French-press fanatical loved ones happy this holiday season.

'The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook'
Recipes by Tarek Malouk and the Hummingbird Bakers
Photographs by Peter Cassidy
Rylan Peters & Small -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Once a journalist, London-based writer Tarek Malouk forsook his career to indulge his love of American desserts. As visions of cupcakes, pies and brownies pranced in his head, he enrolled in baking classes in New York and returned to London, eager to open a restaurant to showcase his cherished treats.

Though one might typically be hard-pressed to picture a hard-nosed journalist convert to cooking and create such a loving, warm cookbook, Malouk successfully conveys his love and appreciation for the range of American desserts in "The Hummingbird Cookbook."

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Shaping fruits and vegetables as they grow on the vine is nothing new. John Czeski, an Ohio farmer, was harvesting pumpkins with human faces in the 1930s. But these adorable baby Buddha pears take playing with food to a whole new level.

A Chinese farmer been tinkering with modified pears since 2003, and this year he's reportedly grown 10,000 edible Buddhas. But are they too cute to eat? Tell us what you think in the comments below!