When you think of marshmallows, most people think of soft, puffy, pink and white pillows of sweetness. What’s more, marshmallows are very versatile. You can eat them straight out of the packet, roast them over the fire, melt them in the microwave, turn them into a type of sticky, chewy toffee or add the mini variety to your hot chocolate. In fact, there are countless uses for marshmallows when making sweet treats.
Marshmallows have a long history, which apparently dates all the way back to the ancient Egyptians when this confection was used for medicinal purposes. Who knew? Sweet treats to soothe sore throats – now that sounds like my kind of medicine! One of the ingredients in these early marshmallows came from the roots of the marsh mallow plant, which is used in herbal medicine and typically grows in – yes, you guessed it – marshes. However, modern marshmallows now contain gelatine instead.
So, while marshmallows may no longer be medicinal, they are still a fun, delicious treat… well, most of the time anyway.
When I was about twelve years old, I went on a holiday camp with a friend. On the second night, we were sitting around the campfire when one of the camp leaders announced that we were going to play a game called “fluffy fluffy bun bun”. This sounds like a pleasant enough game on the surface of it, but little did I know what was in store.
Instead of asking for volunteers, the camp leader randomly selected three people from the group – and I unexpectedly found myself being called into the middle of the circle along with two boys.
Having chosen his unsuspecting victims, the camp leader then proceeded to explain that the game involved marshmallows – a big bag of marshmallows! We were told that we basically had to stuff as many marshmallows into our cheeks as possible while still being able to say the phrase “fluffy fluffy bun bun”. At no point were we allowed to chew or swallow any of the marshmallows. Whoever could fit the most marshmallows in their mouth and still say “fluffy fluffy bun bun” would be the winner.
As the camp leader explained the rules, I couldn’t help thinking, “Oh my word! Why did you have to pick me?”
However, I’m always a good sport and so I eagerly took on my two male competitors.
The competition began… Each competitor took their first marshmallow, popped it into their cheek and easily said, “fluffy fluffy bun bun”. We were then given a second marshmallow, which went into the other cheek and we all said the mandatory “fluffy fluffy bun bun”. This continued one marshmallow at a time until our cheeks were so full of marshmallows that we looked like greedy hamsters with big protruding cheeks who were mumbling over all the marshmallows in our mouths.
To my surprise, I managed to outlast one of my male competitors, but I was ultimately defeated by the other guy who clearly had a much bigger mouth than mine. What can I say? I’m just not cut out for competitive food sports, which is probably a good thing, because there’s nothing less attractive than a woman stuffing her face.
By the time the game came to an end, I was starting to feel slightly nauseous from the excess of sickly sweet mallow in my mouth. In fact, I had so many marshmallows in my mouth, I couldn’t even chew them all and I ultimately had to run off to spit them out.
It was a rather unpleasant end to the “fluffy fluffy” marshmallow game and I’m afraid to say that I could never quite look at a marshmallow in the same way again… not for many, many years anyway. I guess that just goes to show that too much of a good thing is never healthy and even marshmallows are not necessarily as harmless as they look.
So, next time you’re sitting around a campfire and someone brings out a bag of marshmallows, you’d better grab a stick and roast those gooey globs before anyone can convince you that it’s fun to play with your food.
Audrey Whyte 
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