Sorry guys but I could not resist this, even though it is not Friday. Mythbusters take note.

According to an interview the Queen was saved by the intervention of a Jelly Technician at the worlds largest kids party. The plan was to have a jelly in the shape of Buckingham Palace but four days before the event a Jelly Technician (I kid you not) intervened claiming that a rise in ambient temperature would cause the jelly to melt and drown the monarch. To punctuate my laughter Jimmy Osmond, he of long hair and Liverpool, then interjected with the elf and safety comment. Who says H&S is boring!!

Radio 4 last Wednesday (31 Jan 13) Midweek programme with Libby Purves. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01q8qpn

According to the interview (2.55 mins from start of recording) the proposed palace-shaped jelly at the party was to be about 18ft square and 4ft high. The intention was that the Queen would arrive and take a spoonful from it.

Though it's a nice story, I admit to being sceptical about the susceptibility of jelly to heat. If the proposed edible edifice were to have been made of ice cream, then the story would have much more credibility! Are there any forum users with superior knowledge of jelly who can comment?

Also, it's a shame that apparently no OS&H professional was involved to suggest ways of continuing with the giant jelly rather than cancelling it for fear of endangering the Queen, e.g. reducing its size, controlling its temperature, providing an elevated walkway for the Queen to approach it and/or enclosing it with some sort of bund. Has anyone got any other suggestions?

Another cynical thought is that the jelly project was actually abandoned on food hygiene grounds (hot summer weather, lots of flies buzzing around, children liable to use unwashed fingers instead of spoons, etc.), and that perhaps "elf n safety" was cited as the reason!

The gravity of an object depends upon the mass. So the larger will obviously have greater mass and so have more gravity. I put this in over simplified terms. Have a look at http://planetfuraha.blog...matters-but-so-does.html

Would be curious if 18ft square and 4ft high – 81 cubic feet – of jelly could support itself under it mass and force of gravity? Seems more possible that it would have collapsed.

The only reference I can find to the World Biggest Jelly is

Made in July 1997 at Blackpool Zoo, with the help of the Army's Logistic Corp. It was almost one metre tall and seven metres wide, and took about 12 hours to set with a blast chiller. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/694881.stm .

That’s 22ft 11 (19⁄32) in x 3ft 3 (3⁄8) in. These measurements would at least superficially indicate that it would be possible to make something which is 81 cubic feet. But, the jelly mix may be different to that normal jelly to provide it with more density.

By no means is this is a bid to become a Jelly Technician but if anyone could fill in the technical blanks on this then I would be quite keen to know.

If today was Friday I would say I was dis-custard by that pun. But it isn't so I wont

As an attempted antidote to the flurry of puns afflicting this thread here's some information about the nature of edible jelly based on dim recollection of O Level chemistry at school plus some internet delving:

Like many other common substances jelly is a colloid which is a general term for substances comprising solids, liquids or gases suspended in (as opposed to being dissolved in) gases or liquids. To be precise jelly comes within the gel category of colloids comprising mainly water and fine particles of gelatin powder plus colouring and flavouring agents. Various other foodstuffs such as tomato ketchup, milk and mayonnaise are also colloids. Those which involve water are known as hydrocolloids.

Fog and mist are liquid aerosol colloids (liquids in a gas) while smoke, i.e. particles of combustion products in air, is a solid aerosol colloid (solids in a gas). Whipped cream and shaving cream are foam colloids (air in a liquid). For those interested in learning more, try doing an internet search for 'colloid'.

Now back to the main subject of this thread. If edible jellies are prone to collapse if subjected to heat and/or vibration, perhaps the jelly technician feared that ground vibration caused by vehicles passing nearby (perhaps also underground trains) might induce the giant jelly for the party to suddenly lose its structural integrity.

On a related note, remember how frustrating it can be to persuade tomato ketchup to come out of a bottle without applying a fair degree of vibration/agitation to make it liquid enough to flow. This demonstrates the property of thixotropy by which some fluids and gels which are thick (viscous) under normal conditions become less viscous and can flow if shaken, agitated or otherwise stressed. By contrast some fluids are anti-thixotropic and become more viscous or even solid if subject to shaking or mixing. For those who delight in using new words the adjective for anti-thixotropic fluids is rheopectic.

Chris G - to continue in the culinary vain, how about custard powder and milk mixture or cornflour and water mixture. Liquid if stirred or agitated but solidify if left to stand.

Oops, reliably was meant to have !! after it ....

Eaten.... sorry Eton ;)

Yes, Matt, as custard powder is just coloured cornflour.

LB