Candy Land

Cake Zines fifth issue, Candy Land, unwraps candys connections to the literal and metaphorical land. Its ninety-six pages of essays, recipes, fiction, and art, including: Conversations with the doomsday preppers prioritizing pleasure at the end of the world by Amy Rose Spiegel An essay by Leslie Jamison on building candy houses to steer her daughter away from the wild woods of restriction. An exploration of raver kandi culture in late stage EDM by Simon Wu A reflection on how climate change is impacting farming for cacao, grapes, and other fruits by eco futurist Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri An interview with flavor scientist Dr. Arielle Johnson on the scientific reasons behind our blue raspberry cravings by Dominique Evans Recipes for dirt n worms tiramisu, crunchy alegra, and crystalline kohakutou by Zoe Denenberg, Fabin von Hauske Valtierra, and Rie McClenny Sweet and surreal fiction by Sana Lemoine, Puloma Ghosh, and Celina Baljeet Basra A timeline of the many iterations of Candy Land (the iconic board game, not the magazine) and how these changes mirror real world events by Elaine Mao Plus a reflection on growing up in Hersheys corporate candy town, a dissection of the contemporary tanghulu trend beyond TikTok, a brief but insidious history of banana candy, a dumpster diving trip for Theos chocolate in the gentrifying Pacific Northwest, an ode to aspartame, and more.