I will probably rot in hell for posting this (or so some of my FB friends might believe), but I was reminded of Candlestick Salad by a comment from Joshua on a Facebook posting by someone else.
I remember seeing the recipe for Candlestick Salad in a Little Golden Cookbook my sister had when we were young children. I was naive. I had no idea. All I knew was that I liked cherries and bananas, and so it looked good to me.
From Wikipaedia,
The recipe for candle salad was published in the 1950 edition of A Child's First Cook Book by Alma S. Lach, one of the first cookbooks written for children. It is also in the 1957 edition of the Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls with the description, “It’s better than a real candle because you can eat it.”
No fooling.
Addendum: my high school friend, Sarah, sent me this link with this graph of mentions of candle salad in books: