April showers bring May flower-covered cupcakes. Yes, spring is in full swing, time for the ultimate in stunningly beautiful, impress-all-your-friends-with-little-effort cake decoration: sugared flowers.

Martha Stewart has an instructional video on how to candy flowers, definitely a Good Thing. Start with pesticide-free edible flowers, such as pansies, marigolds, roses, dianthus, violets. Mix egg white or meringue powder in water and brush onto the petals with a clean paint brush, then sprinkle front and back with extra-fine sugar. Dry on a rack for two to four days until completely dry, then use to make adorable cupcakes like the ones in the picture.

Bacon is that wonderful, ever popular breakfast meat. There have been lots of bacon related items floating around online lately, from cups to bras to chocolate bars, but have you ever wondered how it's made? Check out this video to get the inside scoop.

If all of Jonathan's excellent step-by-step instructions weren't enough to convince you that you too can cook up corned beef at home, then watch this episode of Fork You from last year so that we can walk you through the steps in live action. As an added bonus, the episode also includes a recipe for Irish Soda Bread (which was excellent but it doesn't keep well, so plan on only making the amount that you and your brunch/dinner guests can eat in sitting).

Have you ever wondered what those PLU (price look up) codes mean on the stickers that come affixed to your fruits and vegetables? The folks over at Sprig.com have put together a video that walks you through the basics of how to read the codes. When the code is printed with just four digits, it means that you are holding a conventionally grow product. Organic products have a five digit code that always starts with the number nine. Genetically modified produce also has a five digit number, but it always starts with the number eight.

Now you can tell with just a glance if the apple you just picked out of the bin is conventional, organic or GMO. This is particularly handy for those times when the display has gotten a little messy and you can't tell exactly where one pile ends and another starts.

I eat a lot of tofu, not because I'm vegan/vegetarian and have to eat some sort of protein, but because tofu tastes good to me. (My being Asian and eating tofu all my life might have something to do with this, too.)

Now, it is just way too easy to pick up several blocks of tofu from the market for ninety-nine cents each, sometimes less when it's on sale, but if you have some time on your hands, you can make tofu at home, per the above video above from Cool Hunting. All you need is 150 g of dried soybeans, calcium sulfate, and the foresight to start soaking the dried soybeans the night before.

Yes, I know how much we all love Rachael Ray. Or hate Rachael Ray. The fact of the matter is, one way or another, we all have a strong opinion of her. Though I feel bad for her recent marriage troubles, I do find her wildly, annoyingly over-perky. Then again, I could be just jealous of all her success.

Whatever your feelings, this minute-and-half video on YouTube of Ms. Ray making all of her tell-tale sounds of joy while eating is pretty funny.

And annoying.

To promote their new blender, the Total Blend, Blendtec decided to try and prove exactly how powerful it is. Instead of making the margaritas, smoothies or other crushed-ice concoctions that are normally favored by the blender industry when demonstrating functionality, Blendtec is using iPods, lightbulbs, coke cans and golf clubs to prove their product's superiority. By blending them.

Their Will it Blend? website has a huge collection of videos of the stunts that host Tom Dickson has attempted in the lab. Some of the top rated videos include whole oysters, Thanksgiving dinner and Cochicken.

Since the average person isn't - and shouldn't be - using their blender to chop up golf clubs, there is a section of videos that demonstrate safe blendings to try at home if you get the urge to blend after watching some of more extreme videos.

[thanks elise]

Most sour candy seems to be marketed at kids and I'm willing to wager that at elementary schools around the country, perhaps around the world, kids still have contests to see who can out-sour their friends by eating extremely sour candies. I never went in for the sour candies because, to be honest, they don't usually taste very good. The overpowering sourness gives way to an almost burning sensation and you wonder if you are ever going to regain the use of your tastebuds even after you have spit the candy out. But they're fun to eat, right? Isn't that why people subject themselves to them in the first place? I have no idea, but I can say that the people eating the sour candies in the Sour Death Balls video, where they seem to be trying to keep the candies in their mouths as long as possible, above don't exactly look like they're enjoying every moment of the experience. For us viewers, on the other hand, the faces they make are pretty funny, though.

[via growabrain]

At this point, we all know what happens when you combine Mentos and Diet Coke, but what about combinations of other sodas with other candies? Will they produce similar, or perhaps even more spectacular, results? Thanks to a video linked to by Brian, from Candy Addict, we now know the answer to this subset of life's little mysteries. These film makers bravely tested the following combinations in the name of science: candy corn and root beet, Sweetarts and Sprite and Toucan Toes and milk. Check out the video above to see their results.

I think we'll all sleep a little better tonight, although not quite as good as I'll sleep once I learn where I can get some of those Toucan Toes....

It is easy to get into a breakfast rut. Cereal, fruit and toast are so ridiculously simple to prepare that even on weekends it seems like doing anything else is a bit of a pain. But foods that take slightly longer than opening a box of cereal are also much tastier than cereal, so what we need here is some motivation to get our culinary juices flowing on this morning. The above video is a well put-together music video of pancake making, complete with a pancake-making song that could very well have you singing along as you cook. The pancakes are the thin crepe-like British style of pancake and are served in multiple - tempting - variations that will definitely get you craving a plate of them yourself.

It doesn't include a recipe, so you might want to try out one of our eight favorite pancake recipes or some crepes, so you can experiment with different fillings as they do in the video.

Of course, if you're content with cereal for breakfast, you might just want to skip the video and go pour yourself a bowl right now.

TurnHere is a media company that has videos that try to capture the real essence of their subjects, which range from "insider" tours of neighborhoods around the country and the world and tips on activities and restaurants. Basically, they're short films on where to go, what to do and why you would want to do it.

The restaurant and food videos are particularly interesting (of course) because video review/tour of a restaurant can show you so much more than just a photo or written review can. Many of the restaurant videos include interviews with customers, chefs and shop owners. Some of the videos are sponsored and some are not, but even the sponsored ones seem much more "real" than anything you'd see on the Food Network. For a preview, check out a guide to the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley, a look at Canter's Deli in Los Angeles and the all-dessert restaurant ChikaLicious in New York.

The 64-second video clip above showcases a very appealing looking burger from all angles as it rotates on a mirrored table - the video equivalent of our regular food porn. You wouldn't think that watching a burger would be all that interesting, but the clip is sort of addictive, especially if you're hungry. The actual point of the video is anyone's guess - part of a commercial, something done just for fun? It seems possible that it could be a commercial clip, especially because the poster also has a clip of a burger with flames in the background. Either he does some work for Burger King, or he's just a really big fan.

Any other guesses? Put them in the comments!

Mentos may once have been known as "the freshmaker," but we now know them best for the reaction that occurs when they are submerged in Coke. To cash in on their newfound glory, Mentos has created the Mentos Geyser contest, where entrants will compete to see whose homemade geyser reigns supreme. The videos must be no longer than 2 minutes and have to feature a regular Mentos (not sugar free) being dropped into "a plastic bottle of a carbonated beverage of any brand." There is a video tool kit available to contestants, which contains the Mentos logo, jingle and other graphics that might be useful. Entries must be submitted to YouTube by September 30th, 2006.

Prizes include up to 1000 iTunes downloads, a year's supply of Mentos (320 rolls) and various Mentos merchandise. Not to mention that everyone will have the chance to watch people making soda fountains of their own.

May the best geyser win!

Sarah may have wanted to attempt the Taco Town Pizza-Crepe-Taco-Pancake-Chili Bag that was made famous in a memorable SNL sketch, but it looks like someone beat her to it. Over at a guy named Drew’s MySpace blog, he and his friends documented their entire process of making the “taco” for Drew’s birthday. Layer upon layer was stacked up, pinned together, dipped in batter and deep fried. Since they didn’t need to take it “to-go,” they skipped the past step of trying to put it in a bag in favor of simply digging it. It actually looks like it wasn’t bad, though the guys don’t look like they felt all that well afterward.

The original SNL sketch is after the jump.

Since you can't take the television set with you when you're shopping at the market for ingredients to make Ina Garten's faaaaabulous croissant bread pudding, now you can take a video with you on you iPod.

Podcasting isn't new, and video podcasts certainly aren't earth-shattering either. However, the food world is just introducing themselves by offering videos that you can download to your iPod of chefs demonstrating things like pan-searing a salmon steak or whipping up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Currently, it seems like it is manufacturers who are using the technology to do demos that feature their products (Sub-zero and Wolf Ranges, for example), but it won't be long, I'm sure, before you can take Ms. Ray right along with you as you try to spend less than $40 a day in her favorite city.