7 December: National Cotton Candy (Candy floss) Day

National Cotton candy day (candy floss). Why today was chosen to celebrate candy floss, which is associated with funfairs and summer holidays, nobody actually knows. Some think it must be a birthday or an anniversary from somewhere back in its history or that people missed it in the winter and wanted an excuse to eat it. My guess would be it's a marketing ploy by the people who make it, wanting to boost their winter sales!

1. Cotton Candy is what they call it in the USA, where it was invented, but in other parts of the world it's known by other names. Here in the UK, and in New Zealand and South Africa, we call it candy floss. In Australia and Finland, it's fairy floss. In France it's called barbe à papa, meaning papa’s beard. In the Netherlands, it’s known as suikerspin, which means “sugar Spider.”
2. Candy floss is fat free. That's because it is made almost entirely from sugar. It's over 99% sugar with a dash of food colouring and flavouring.
3. Candy floss was invented in 1899 by John C Wharton and William Morrison in 1899. Wharton was a confectioner - no surprises there, but Morrison had what would seem today an unlikely profession to be inventing a sugary treat. He was a dentist.
4. Their product was first sold at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and was an instant hit. 68,655 boxes of it were sold for 25 cents a box. Bearing in mind that in today's money that would be $6 a box.
5. One of their investors was another dentist called Josef Delarose Lascaux, who went on to create his own machine for making what Wharton and Morrison had called fairy floss (because the process of making it looked like magic). To avoid being sued by them he called his product cotton candy and that name stuck.
6. It looked like magic because people didn't understand centrifugal force in those days. Centrifugal force is the physics behind candy floss. The method of making it is basically to heat coloured sugar to a little over 190 degrees Fahrenheit (the melting point of sugar) and as the bowl spins at 3,450 revolutions per minute, the molten sugar is forced through tiny holes in the bowl. As the sugar cools it solidifies into tiny strands.
7. A thread of cotton candy is thinner than a human hair.
8. There is less sugar in candy floss than there is in soda pop. This is because candy floss is actually mostly air while soda pop is a liquid full of sweetening agents. Sugar from a can of pop is absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly than that in candy floss because the stomach doesn't have to break it down. Yet candy floss tastes much sweeter than pop because pop also has Water and carbonation and other additives to dilute the taste of the sugar.
9. In China and Japan, they have turned making candy floss into an art form. Over there, you can buy candy floss shaped into hearts, intricate flowers, and stars. They spin the candy floss onto a stick and while it's still warm and pliable, shape it with Toothpicks and chopsticks.
10. The longest cotton candy was created in July 2009. It measured 1,400m — about the same length as 13 football fields. It took six hours to make.

New!

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Part One of The Raiders Trilogy.

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