Marzipan Frosting Babies Hoax Email
Summary:Message claims that attached photographs show cake-frosting babies made from marzipan (
Full commentary below).
Status:False
Example:(Submitted, December 2007)
Subject: Fw: Frosting? You've got to be KIDding!
These babies are made of cake frosting , but who could take a bite? THIS WOMAN IS DEFINITELY TALENTED....
Marzipan Babies
Thought you'd be as fascinated with these as I. These are made with marzipan....really unbelievable! Every detail is amazing, and they look VERY real.
Marzipan is Almond paste: a sweet paste made of ground almonds and sugar, often with egg whites or yolks, used as a layer in cakes or molded into ornamental shapes.
UNBELIEVABLE!
Commentary:
According to this email, the delightful and incredibly detailed miniature babies featured in the attached photographs are made of marzipan frosting and are used as edible cake decorations. However, this claim is untrue. Although the photographs are genuine, the babies they depict are in fact polymer clay sculptures created by talented artist,
Camille Allen.
The photographs are also sometimes attached to an
inspirational story about a premature baby called "The Smell of Rain" that has circulated via email for a number of years. While the story itself is basically factual, the images of Camille Allen's clay babies were apparently added to some versions of the email later and have no relation to the events described.
Camille Allen's website includes the following
statement about these emails:
If you've seen the "The Smell of Rain" or "Marzipan Babies" ( Or "Sugar Babies") email, you have probably seen some images taken from this website. However those pictures are really of sculptures created out of clay by Camille Allen.
The babies are not made of Marzipan - they were never made of marzipan or sugar or almond paste.
They are not real premature babies.
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©iStockphoto.com/Pietro Romeo
Decorative fruit made from Marzipan
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Marzipan - a paste made from almond and sugar - is indeed suitable for creating frosting models and is often used to decorate cakes with attractive three-dimensional shapes. However, it certainly was not used to create these wonderfully detailed baby sculptures.
More images of Camille Allen's babies are available on her website. The artist creates life-size baby dolls as well as miniatures. While many of the babies featured on the site are now in private collections, some are for sale via the artist's website.
References:
Camille Allen - Artist Dolls and Sculptures
The Smell of Rain
What is Marzipan?
Last updated: 7th December 2007
First published: 7th December 2007
Write-up by Brett M. Christensen
