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Books & Bites: “Edible Folios Contest”, an Edible Book Festival

by Bridget Voltz on 2023-04-23T00:00:00-04:00 | 0 Comments

Books & Bites: “Edible Folios Contest”, an Edible Book Festival

By Jenna Bossert

“If music be the food of love, play on. Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting; the appetite may sicken, and so die.” – Twelfth Night

Love’s labor was not lost at a recent event, “Edible Folios: Cakes and Confections Contest” hosted by our Special Collections and University Libraries here at West Chester    University (WCU). In this case, love’s labor means dessert. Instead, they were savored by members of the WCU community.

Students, staff, and faculty came together for this “Edible Folios” event on April 11. This event was loosely based on the library tradition of Edible Book Festivals, where communities make treats inspired by literary works and judges evaluate them before everyone gets to celebrate by eating the contest submissions (a bunch of tasty treats)!

We tied our Edible Book Festival event into Special Collection’s A Great Variety of Readers exhibition and the Fortnight of Festivities programming happening at our University Libraries and on campus. Because of this, we required all submissions to be Shakespeare inspired. The rules were minimal: submissions had to be Shakespeare inspired or themed in some manner, the submissions had to be edible, each baker could only submit up to two desserts, and of course, the submissions needed to be delivered by the day of the event. The winners of the contest for first and second place would receive a $100 and $50 gift card respectively, as well as some WCU swag. We expected creativity and tasty treats, and our bakers definitely delivered on that!

Our event had six bakers participating, including WCU students Ania Hawkins-Williams, Lauren Leever, and Ally Magerr, and WCU employees, Kelli Billings, Jenna Bossert, and Bridget Voltz. WCU employees Ainsley Hume, Bobby Kirkner, and Kelly Shea agreed to be our judges for the event. There were seven submissions, and our three judges had a difficult task ahead of them – to try the desserts before everyone else AND evaluate them. The judges rated submissions based on the following criteria: originality and creativity, skill and construction, visual appeal, and tie-in with the literary work being depicted.

The desserts in question include the following:

  • French Vanilla Cake (Ania Hawkins-Williams)
  • Yellow cake with buttercream frosting and confetti sprinkles (Lauren Leever)
  • Rosewater cupcakes with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting (Ally Magerr)
  • Blueberry muffins (Kelli Billings)
  • Matcha chocolate chip cookies and double chocolate cake with a sugar cookie skull (Jenna Bossert)
  • Mossy velvet cake/cupcakes with marshmallow buttercream (Bridget Voltz)

The judges said they had a very tough choice as all the desserts were very good! In first place, Bridget Voltz won with her “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” cupcakes. Ally Magerr won second place with her “A Rose by Any Other Name” rosewater cupcakes with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. Shortly after, WCU community members got in line to try the treats themselves.

The winners from left to right: Ally Magerr (2nd place) and Bridget Voltz (1st place)

The winners from left to right: Ally Magerr (2nd place) and Bridget Voltz (1st place) | Members of the WCU community choosing what to try.

 

To learn more about what inspired this event, please watch the following video from 6abc News about Special Collections’ A Great Variety of Readers exhibition below and visit the Fortnight of Festivities website.


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