Corn Smut

For the record, I personally wouldn't recommend looking at the picture while eating; though in Mexico, corn smut is known as huitlacoche and is considered a delicacy. I found this in my dad's garden and took it home with me to try and identify. It wasn't difficult. A search for "corn fungus" turned up a lot of entries. The Wikipedia article was quite informative and included a link to a more detailed site. Looking at the stuff, I'm hard pressed to imagine trying to eat it, though it sounds like it's used sort of like a flavoring agent. *shrug*