"Distressed" Blogger Sues Food Network, Says It Copied Her Holiday Cupcake Video

A lot of silly—and occasionally not-so-silly—food lawsuits come across our desks. Lawsuits about too much air in chip bags. Lawsuits over too little candy in candy boxes. Even lawsuits about whether jelly beans contain sugar.

That last one still keeps us up at night.

But while those sort of lawsuits have relatively low stakes (depending how strongly you feel about deceptive food packaging) a recent lawsuit from a food blogger against Food Network has quite a bit more on the line.

PEOPLE reports that Salt Lake City food blogger Elizabeth LaBau and her website SugarHero have filed a lawsuit against Food Network, alleging that the company stole, and recreated, a DIY recipe video for one of her signature crafts: Gelatin Snow Globe Cupcakes.

If that name confuses you, the basic premise is that you melt clear gelatin, mold it into a hollow ball, and use the clear sphere to build a tiny snow globe on top of a cupcake.

It's holiday-tastic, it's clever, and honestly, it’s pretty effing adorable.

What's less adorable are the claims from LaBau that the Food Network not only stole the idea for this craft from her, but created what she says is a video that's essentially a shot-for-shot remake of her own. Food Network posted its own "Edible Snow Globes" video about three weeks after SugarHero's, says the lawsuit. To make matters worse, the suit claims Food Network has refused to remove the video, or even offer credit to SugarHero, causing LaBau "severe distress." (Food Network has declined to comment so far.)

Though it will be up to a California court to decided if that distress is worth the $150,000 the blogger is seeking in reparations, you can make your own call by watching LaBau’s original video on her website, and comparing it to the Food Network version below.

Bah, humbug.