Popular Science documents the practice of fueling model rockets with sugary food — specifically Oreo fillings. Check out the boss video.
The energy in food is typically released when, through a complex biochemical pathway, sugars, starches and fats react with oxygen from the lungs. It’s a form of slow-motion burning that, thankfully, rarely involves fire.But you can liberate the same amount of energy in much less time by mixing the Snickers with a more concentrated source of oxygen–say, the potent oxidizer potassium perchlorate. The result is basically rocket fuel. Ignited on an open fireproof table, it burns vigorously, consuming an entire candy bar in a few seconds with a rushing tower of fire. If you could bottle the energy of kids playing and turn it into a Molotov cocktail, this is what it would look like.
Of course, you can’t actually fire a rocket with a Snickers bar; the nuts would clog the nozzle. Oreo cookie filling, however, works very nicely in standard model-rocket engines. (Caution: The Model Rocket Safety Code does not approve of filling rocket motors with highly reactive chlorate-Oreo mixtures.)
(via Make Blog)
Update: Jordan sez, "Sugar isn't only for model rocketry! Here's an amateur group using sugar fuel to send a rocket to space — actually, they note that it's already been done before!"
