Dreaming of 3D Food

We've written on the concept of a chocolate printer, and others have produced candy objects, and perhaps even eaten them. But blogger Andy Skeleton goes quite a bit farther, as he ponders various possibilities offered by 3D Food Printing. Among his perhaps not-so-crazy ideas:

• Print ice cream in layers containing messages, such that the "eater" would reveal a new message as each scoop of the delectable ice cream is consume
• Print a birthday cake by fusing the cake batter as it is extruded, again containing hidden messages within
• Inflating tiny heated balloons to mimic bubbles within baked cakes (yes, they are retracted after backing completes!)
• Flavor printing, whereby the eater would encounter vastly different flavors as they proceeded through the 3D food

Our favorite comment:

Structure printing (creating, say, a frosted yellow cake in the form of the Statue of Liberty) brings up an important consideration: the physical properties of the food. Where are the compression strain diagrams of yellow cake? What is the tensile strength of frosting with and without coconut? How best to anneal the chocolate rebar?

Excuse us while we head to the kitchen for some rebar...

Via Skeltoac.com