"white" news and stories

In China, eggs are sold by weight and their sale is often unregulated, particularly at local markets and in areas where the customers by large quantities at a time. Unscrupulous vendors have been known to pass off fake eggs to their unsuspecting buyers.

There are three types of faked eggs. The first are empty or cracked shells that are filled with soil. Since the eggs are sold by weight, a few soil-filled eggs in a crate will make it heavier and go unnoticed until it is too late. The second type of fake egg is the red-yolk egg. Because the redder yolks are considered to be more valuable and of higher quality, some egg-sellers feed their chickens very high quantities of food dyes, which causes them to produce red yolks without an increase in the quality of the egg or in the lifestyle of the chicken.

The most disturbing - though some might say disgusting - faked egg is the man-made egg. 

Source

White chocolate is a great choice for making chocolate decorations because it is easier to handle than dark or milk chocolates. It is mostly cocoa butter with milk solids and sugar. It doesn't have cocoa solids, and does not have the same problems with "blooming" as milk and dark chocolates. Blooming is when cocoa butter appears on the surface of chocolate, contrasting with the cocoa solids and giving the chocolate a whitish appearance. While I have seen a few mentions that white chocolate must be tempered, a technique used to stabilize other chocolates, I have never done so and have never had problems with it.
For the snowflake cake, you can make the whole vanilla cake or decorate the icing of another kind of cake. To make the snowflakes, simply chop white chocolate and seal it into a plastic bag. Place the bag in a bowl of hot, but not boiling, water, until it melts. Cut off one of the corners of the bag and pipe snowflakes onto a piece of parchment paper. The snowflakes can set up at room temperature or in the refrigerator. When they are set, gently press them into smooth, white icing for a beautifully wintry look. The cake will have a slight crunch from the snowflakes, followed by a melting creaminess as the chocolate warms in your mouth.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]