Candy isn’t usually applied to make political or geographical statements, but in this case marzipan, one of the more malleable confectioneries, has been transformed into a map of the European Union (of the EU25 period, before the accession of Bulgaria and Romania). This must have been done without a real map of Europe close by; if you can normally picture the continent as an abstract figure marching west (thanks to Italy’s boot), then this is a drunk abstract figure staggering towards the Atlantic.
The map was sent in by Michael Schrauzer and can be found here, quite aptly, in the Wikipedia entry for marzipan.
The Flag of Luxembourg is acutally bigger than the country itself ;-)
Comment by Fireball — December 18, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
Being a Dutchman it always makes me sad to see my country like this. Same must be for the Danish.
Funny to see that the map is probably made by an Italian. Italy is the only country that looks quite right.
Comment by Jasper — December 18, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
I would gladly have a bite of Spain (with some Portugal maybe).
Comment by plagal — December 18, 2007 @ 10:17 pm
Yeah look poor little Belgium lost its coastline!
Comment by Craig — December 18, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
A very interesting one indeed. Ireland and the UK look pretty spot-on too, may have been made by a Briton (after all, Italy is one of the easiest countries to draw ;) ), or they just started there and got lazy as they went on.
Interesting that the yellow non-EU mass of SE Europe isn’t divided into countries with capitals, yet yellow Russia is separated from yellow Norway clearly (which also has it’s own capital dot), as well as Switzerland, while defined due to the fact that its EU neighbours are, also has a capital dot.
Perhaps the most political statement of the whole map is that Greece and Cyprus are coloured the same colour! …
Comment by David — December 18, 2007 @ 11:12 pm
Actually, this map – as you can see from the label “Szabó” on the right – is made by acknowledged Hungarian marzipan chef (he is Szabó), who generally creates replicas of different art works (his Mona Lisa was far more better). This map is awful in accuracy, but – and now I’m talking from experience – the biggest mistake is you cannot eat it, because the Szabó Marzipan is the best you can ever taste.
And there is no political statement here (he didn’t get Hungary right as well).
Comment by Toymao — December 18, 2007 @ 11:30 pm
I know this is just the EU, but didn’t they leave out Andorra?
Comment by John — December 19, 2007 @ 1:28 am
OMFG. I’m with john @ 7. WTF is Andorra and Leichtenstein? And why is Malta so big?!
Comment by Adam — December 19, 2007 @ 5:25 am
Aaargh! Who stepped on the Baltics, eh? These countries have been unrecognizably deformed!
Nice map-making idea though.
Comment by Madis — December 19, 2007 @ 8:49 am
And Monaco? San Marino? The Vatican? And North Korea?
Comment by Yuval — December 19, 2007 @ 8:58 am
Yeah, Baltic states are the most deformed. Lithuania actually got the shape of Kaliningrad, while Latvia got a common border with Poland – did Szabo used pre-war maps for reference?
Comment by ArCgon — December 19, 2007 @ 9:24 am
I guess this is the perfect map for all those of us who are sweet on the EU. ;-)
Comment by Konrad Talmont-Kaminski — December 19, 2007 @ 11:21 am
A more substantive point – notice that the flags in the top left corner are ordered Hungary-centrically. The first map is Hungary’s own, with the next few belonging to countries which have historical ties to Hungary (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland). Poor old UK and Ireland, that are at the other end of the EU, are left out till the very end.
Comment by Konrad Talmont-Kaminski — December 19, 2007 @ 11:28 am
Some further edible maps:
Of the United States as a whole:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunchofpants/902274/in/set-722092/
Of several single states:
http://sgs170.org/Incredible%20Maps/incredible_edible_maps.htm
and – the funniest – of the world:
http://www.corporatecake.co.uk/corporatecake_images/world%20map%20cake%20large.jpg
(note for example the gigantic new Netherlands/Belgium/Denmark land mass (formerly North Sea), Scandinavia distinctly gone East, Asia Minor practically vanished and most of Palestine, the Arabic Peninsula and the Middle East simply submerged by the Indian Ocean)
Comment by M. Kranz — December 19, 2007 @ 1:35 pm
Cute, but I’m forced to be a bit miffed seeing as my country is missing…Iceland. So is Faroe Islands! It’s amazing how often we’re forgotten. :(
Comment by Dora — December 19, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
Hæ, 15!
Iceland is not part of the EU… Nor are the Faroes…
This is an EU map, not a map of Europe. (Notice the big blue flag?)
Having said that, I’d wish that my own country (Denmark) was missing too… Bloody United States of Europe!
Comment by Bjørn A. Bojesen — December 20, 2007 @ 10:03 am
Norway and Switzerland which are shown on the map with their respective capitals aren’t members, either (as isn’t Liechtenstein, by the way)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_the_European_Union#Future_enlargement_possibilities
but EU opponents will, of course, not be completely happy until the Old Continent’s balkanization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkanization
is complete
http://www.a-e-r.org/publications/tabula-regionum-europae.html
Comment by M. Kranz — December 20, 2007 @ 10:31 am
I surely hope those ships aren’t to scale.
Comment by Pat J — December 20, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
ARGH!
While this map is an interesting concept, the proportions and locations are SO WRONG it would almost be better if it didn’t exist. Besides all the above comments:
* What happened to Gibraltar? Ceuta and Mililla[sic]? All of North Africa?
* What’s Switzerland (Not an EU country) doing there when non of the Balkans are there?
All in all it looks like someone really beat up mainland Europe before taking this “photograph”.
Comment by Lurker — December 20, 2007 @ 11:54 pm
Mmm, Sweden…
(drool)
Comment by Harry — December 21, 2007 @ 4:02 am
Well, for me, Marzipan is the perfect medium for this! I hate the bloody United States of Europe too! So, to have it consisting of Marzipan, which I’ve always found disgusting, making me want to throw up, sounds about right!
Comment by kevmoore — December 23, 2007 @ 2:28 pm
For info – this map is made out of MARZIPAN. Get a grip! Not geographically correct indeed. Jeeze!
Comment by Garfunkal — December 24, 2007 @ 8:49 am
Cute, but I’m forced to be a bit miffed seeing as my country is missing…Iceland. So is Faroe Islands! It’s amazing how often we’re forgotten
Comment by برامج نوكيا — December 28, 2007 @ 6:03 pm
I think #23 above is SPAM or something…
Why is there a white band at the bottom of all of the flags?
Comment by Lurker — January 1, 2008 @ 1:49 am
Looks like Europe is melting. Probably this is a subtle reflection on the far reaching geo-structural effects of global warming. No?
Extra proof of this could be the fact that Europe’s capital – Brussels that is – suddenly seems to be positioned on the beaches of – by then – former-Belgium, of which the Flanders-region clearly got lost in the Northsea. Truly visionary, this one.
Comment by stone morris — January 4, 2008 @ 9:28 am
Is this edible? O.o
Comment by Waris — February 12, 2008 @ 1:36 am
I think the white bands under the flags provide the names of the countries (in Hungarian, presumably).
Comment by Bradley — June 19, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
What happened to the Netherlands? Perhaps this Hungarian chef allready ate it? The Dutch flag is there, but the country isn’t.. Or was this Hungarian chef who made the map so ignorant to confuse Norway and the Netherlands?
Comment by Stadjer — December 16, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Where’s Croatia? France is lumpy! Spain is stretched out! The Czech Republic is too-small and Slovakia decided to grow a bit. Austria decided to swell up. And Greece is totally squished!
I don’t like marzipan anymore.
Comment by trebekkie — January 22, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
[...] The cartography you’ll find at Strange Maps is mostly not of the sort you’d find in an atlas. Sure, the site has some historical maps like the one depicting Spain in 1850. But it also shows maps that could not be rendered on a piece of paper, like the Australia-shaped puddle and the cheese map of Canada. Anyone hungry for a marzipan map of Europe? [...]
Pingback by Cool Blogs: Strange Maps | Spot Cool Stuff: Websites — March 23, 2009 @ 4:11 pm
thank you
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 3:15 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 6:24 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:57 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:21 am