sweets | Pop Goes the Page

Last Saturday, good little children gathered outside the gates of Frick Chemistry Laboratory at Princeton University. They all had a special invitation to meet the marvelous creator of all things sugar and science, Mister Willy Wonka!

Well, maybe not the Willy Wonka, but it was a marvelous morning of hands-on science tables followed by an auditorium show that included, among other things, screaming gummy bears (we have footage later in the post!).

The Cotsen Children’s Library was delighted to collaborate once again with the Department of Chemistry and Science Outreach at Princeton University to bring this free education event to the community. It began with hands-on tables provided by the undergraduate and graduate students of Science Outreach at Princeton University:

Back Row (left to right): Catherine Hexter (UAF graduate student), Alexander Luna, John Woo, Ashton Marnik, Jack Langan, Catherine Arbaugh, Joanna Lin, Davis Hobley, Danielle Burke, Paryn Wallace (Associate Director). Front Row (left to right): Sophie Wang, Tanya Zhou, Anna Buretta, Shalini Shankar, Ria Tomar

The event tables featured experiments with density, buoyancy, Pop Rock inflated balloons, the centrifugal force of cotton candy, gum drop candy engineering, sugar crystals under microscopes, and oozy non-Newtonian chocolate rivers!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The thoroughly sugared audience then moved to the auditorium, where the talented Angie Miller from the Department of Chemistry wowed them with not just chemistry, but her sheer enthusiasm for all things science!

Angie demonstrated the scientific method, neon rainbows, giant marshmallow men, candy-colored flames, exploding balloons, a tower of carbon, annnnnd as promised…SCREAMING GUMMY BEARS!

Did the great candy maker himself make an appearace? Why yes, he did, courtesy of Angie’s brother Tom, and his adorable twin boys. Who incredibly, look exactly like Oompa-Loompas.

Let’s see the full costume…

A fantastic time was had! We would like to thank Angie Miller, Department of Chemistry and Paryn Wallace and the students from Science Outreach at Princeton University for a job well done. Hats off to you!

Mmmm…is there anything more enticing than a cupcake? How about four cupcakes artistically decorated with delightful toppings? Oh cupcakes, you complete me.

We read Cupcake by Charise Maricale Harper (Disney-Hyperion, 2010). One day, a cupcake is born. Topped with a plain creamy frosting top, Vanilla Cupcake is eager to meet his brothers and sisters. There’s Happy-Face Cupcake, Chocolaty Chocolate Cupcake, Pink Princess Cupcake, Rainbow-Sprinkles Cupcake, Stripy Cupcake, Polka-Dot Cupcake, and Fancy Flower-Top Cupcake. At the end of the day, however, only Vanilla Cupcake is left on the platter, completely overlooked. A plain little candle hears Cupcake weeping and can definitely empathize – what with his large and colorful family (there’s Number Candle, Stripy Candle, Letter Candle, Super-Long Candle…). Candle decides that Cupcake just needs something special on top. It’s not pickles, pancakes, peas, or a squirrel. Hmmm…I wonder what it could be?

You’ll need:

1 white paper plate
1 6″ white paper doily (optional)
1 white paper cup
A selection of patterned tape
A 21″ piece of shimmer ribbon
2 toilet paper tubes
4 rectangles of construction paper (approximately 1.5″ x 6″)
4 coffee filters (the standard size, 7.5″)
A small handful of polyester fill
A selection of dot stickers
A selection of iridescent fabric shapes
A selection of mini pom-poms (mine were 0.5″)
A selection of self-adhesive foam shapes
A selection of fabric flowers
A selection of eye stickers
Scissors, tape, white glue for construction
Markers for decorating
Hot glue

Begin with your cupcake stand! It’s very simple. Cut a scalloped edge into your paper plate like so:

Then, flip a white paper cup upside down and wrap pattered tape around it.

Hot glue the paper plate to the top of the flipped cup, and tie a piece of shimmer ribbon around where the cup and plate meet. For extra fanciness, glue a white paper doily to the top of the paper plate.

The stand is done, now for the cupcakes! Decorate 4 construction paper rectangles with markers and patterned tape. We gave kids 4 choices of “cupcake colors.” Namely, yellow, brown, white, and pink. Cut the toilet paper tubes into four, 1.5″ pieces. Wrap the decorated construction paper rectangles around the tubes.

To make frosting, use the markers to decorate 4 coffee filters. You only need to decorate the center of the filter, not the entire thing.

Flip the filter over and drop a bit of polyester fill in the center.

Bunch the filter together around the polyester fill like a little bag. Then trim about 1″ of filter off the top.

Push the gathered end of the bag into a tube and secure it to the interior of the tube with tape.

You now have a cupcake with frosting…

Which you are free to decorate with markers, dot stickers, iridescent fabric shapes, mini pom-poms, self-adhesive foam shapes, and fabric flowers. The final step is to add some eye stickers.