What’s up with the structural integrity of whipped cream on hot chocolate? December 13, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal , trackbackI was sitting here, enjoying my hot chocolate with whipped cream, when I happened to look over it. I expected the whipped cream to melt, but I presumed it would happen slowly, from the bottom up. Instead, I saw the whipped cream rapidly collapsing on itself after several minutes of maintaining its structural integrity.
I think what happened is that the whipped cream was melting at the whipped cream/hot chocolate interface, but the ceiling of the whipped cream layer stayed intact, leading to a large air bubble (composed of the air originally whipped into the cream) growing just above my chocolate milk. I looked over at just the right time to see the escape of the bubble and the demise of my whipped cream mountain.
Clearly a topic for further research.
Comments»
You can’t get away from your geeky roots…can you?
It’s okay, neither can I :)
Amazing. Simply amazing.
I think it has to do with the temperature-dependent elasticity of sugar.
– robert1
Okayyy you have way too much time on your hands ;)