How Does a Fortune Cookie Proposal Work?

Cookie image via Shutterstock

My girlfriend loves a good romantic comedy (to be fair, she’ll watch mediocre and bad ones, too). So on weekend afternoons, our TV is often tuned to whatever quirky love story TNT/TBS/USA is running on a constant loop. Usually, these movies will climax with the female lead’s love interest asking for her hand in marriage in some grand, romantic way. More than a few times, these proposals have involved a diamond ring tucked away inside a fortune cookie.

It’s at this point in the movie that I usually have to stop whatever else I’m doing and wonder how the character, for whom there’s usually little other evidence of cleverness, got the ring in there. What’s more, how do real life people do it? Do you need to be in cahoots with a fortune cookie magnate? Have a friend who’s a baker?

Nope. Apparently, you can get it in there all by yourself. While some fortune cookie companies will try and take almost $40 to give you a cookie stuffed with a prop ring, the good folks at fortunecookiesupply.com provide instructions for aspiring Casanovas to rig up their own proposal cookies at home.

Like every other cookie, fortune cookies become malleable if you heat them back up, so all you need to do is nuke one in the microwave real quick, unfold the cookie, swap the fortunes, insert your ring, and fold the cookie back up. Once the cookie cools and hardens again, no one will be any wiser. Then it’s just a matter of getting the lucky lady to pick the right cookie.