The instructions heard throughout the Kelly Writers House were clear: “We can’t eat the books yet! No eating of the books!” At least not until they were evaluated by the judges.
Now in its 14th year, the Edible Books party features food creations inspired by books, often involving puns made from the titles.
“It’s a fun and ridiculous celebration of creativity and community,” said Jessica Lowenthal, director of the Writers House.
The entries must be made with elements that are edible, even though eating it may not be the end goal. Most are by Penn students, but anyone on campus and beyond is welcome to participate.
This year featured 30-some creations, presented on tables stretching throughout the first floor of the Writers House and drawing a crowd of 70-plus. Heidi Kalloo, Writers House assistant program coordinator, created printouts of book jackets to accompany each entry, making clear the connection to the novels.
Once the voting was complete, Lowenthal said the eating could commence. “You can eat any book you want,” she said to the crowd. “However, not all books are entirely edible, so be thoughtful.”
The fruit cobblers “James and the Giant Peach Cobbler” and “Pearsuasion” were popular, along with the cookies “The Cookie Purple” and the scones “Cherry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Scone.” Lowenthal’s “Midnight’s Chili” quickly disappeared.
Two judges chose the winners in eight categories. Those attending voted for the people’s favorite, named the “Readers Digest,” award.
“Babka on the Shore,” the hero made of fondant laying on a beach of crackers by a landmass of babka, blue icing waves encroaching, won “Readers Digest” and “Most Architectural.”
Among the other accolades were the “Punniest” to “Matcha Do about Nothing,” green brownies made with matcha tea, chocolate on top; the “Most Literary,” to three cakes with white icing for “The White Book;” the “Most Edible” to a cheese and herb plate, “A Brie History of Thyme”; and the “Best Use of a Single Ingredient” prize to an eight-volume entry involving amusing portrayals with grapes, including “Grape Expectations,” “A Portrait of Dorian Grape,” and “The Grape Gatsby.”
The “Blaziest book” is “the best book, the most exuberant, the most extraordinary,” Lowenthal said, “the one that absolutely needs a prize: Best of Show.” The award honors Blaze Bernstein, who was murdered in his home state of California in 2018 while he was a second-year in the College of Arts and Sciences. A writer, cook, and activist, he was an integral member of the Writers House community.
The Bernstein family established a memorial fund that supports Edible Books, which started in 2011, and other events that focus on food and community, as well as a summer internship in Los Angeles through the RealArts@Penn program, Lowenthal said. The fund provides for the Edible Books prizes as well as T-shirts and as much as $35 for each entry to cover ingredient costs.
The Blaziest this year went to “All Cake on the Western Front,” deemed “quite possibly the largest volume of cake we’ve had for anyone,” said Alli Katz, a Writers House associate director and one of the judges, in announcing the winners. The cake featured a battlefield made of icing, trenches defined by fences of pretzels, chocolate rocks, cupcake hills, and toy soldiers.
The team of three fourth-year students who made the confection are in the College: Lila Dubois from Los Angeles majoring in comparative literature and French; Anna Hochman from San Francisco majoring in urban studies; and Maya Kreger from Miami Beach, Florida, majoring in biology. It was the first time they participated in Edible Books.
The cake was inspired by the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “The vision was that a soldier is looking out from a trench onto the western front, but there's only cake over there, so he’s yelling back to his soldiers, “It’s all cake on the western front,” said Hochman after receiving the award. “We really, really wanted to use the word cake in our cake.”
The three baked all the cakes and met at 10 p.m. the night before to decorate and assemble, finishing after midnight, Dubois said. “It was a fun thing to just be needlessly creative and like just do something very silly,” Kreger said.
