#0056 | food coloring rocks

Submitted by Guillaume in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Here’s Guillaume’s story:

“When I was little, I went through a food coloring phase.  I would color my milk turquoise, turn my Dad’s coffee a revolting orange when he had his back turned, make green lemonade… anything that could be dyed was fair game.

One day, I overheard my Mom saying that she was going to bake some banana bread, and you can guess what immediately came to mind.  I wanted to see what red banana bread tasted like!  Of course, my Mom refused - that would take a LOT of food coloring, not to mention ruining her bread.  That was the end of that experiment… or so I thought.

Later in the day, walking into the empty kitchen I spotted two sticks of butter softening on the counter, unsupervised.  Inspiration struck, and I grabbed a bottle of red food coloring, a straw, and the butter, then ran upstairs to lock myself in the bathroom.

I carefully removed a straw-sized plug from the center of each stick, and filled the cavities with food coloring.  I then took a little piece off of each plug and closed the opening, smoothing it so that the seams were unnoticeable.  This way, I thought, there’s no way she’ll notice the food coloring until it’s too late!  I put the butter back and waited.

About an hour later, I heard a scream.  My Mom ran into the garage, yelling “HONEY, THE BUTTER’S BLEEDING!!!”, nearly in hysterics.  After a few minutes of confused inquiries, I explained what I had done.  They were more amused than angry, and the cake was too far done to start over.

We had pink banana bread the next day.”