The BBC Has A Warning For You: Do Not Try Melting Gummy Bears At Home

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By  Aimee Levitt

There is something oddly mesmerizing about those wordless how-to videos that show you how to cook delicious-looking things quickly and easily. Toss a few ingredients into a pan or a bowl, stir them around a few times, apply some heat and voila! Dinner!

As with all things on the internet, some of these videos are more reliable than others. Chris Fox of the BBC, with the help of food scientist Ann Reardon, ventured into the heart of darkness—specifically Blossom, So Yummy, and 5-Minute Crafts—to see if any of their unlikely desserts, like Milk Carton Flan and Gummy Bear Jelly, actually work IRL.

Spoiler alert: they do not. Fox knew there would be trouble when he discovered that the milk carton necessary for Milk Carton Flan wouldn't fit into the microwave like the Blossom video promised it would. Nevertheless, he persisted... and ended up with something with a closer resemblance to scrambled eggs than flan.

Some of their dessert fails are funny. Others pose a danger both to glassware and to actual humans, like making white strawberries by soaking them in bleach.

When Fox contacted First Media, the company that runs Blossom and So Yummy, a spokesperson invited him to LA to see how the metaphorical sausage gets made but stipulated that Fox would not be allowed to film what he saw. He declined. So the trick to melting gummy bears remains a mystery.

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