CLPLS hosted a delicious literary adventure

Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System was host to a literary experience unlike any other last week. The books on display were read, in a way, but there was a catch. These books were edible.

The sixth Edible Book Festival was held at the library on April 25.

“What people do is take a book that they love or find interesting, and they take either a character or the title or a theme from the book, and create that in food,” said Mona Vance-Ali, CLPLS Archivist and coordinator for the event. “90% of their creation must be food and it can be any kind of food. You can dye the food or whatever you want, but it must represent the book.”

Entries are set up in the library the day of, and the public comes through, voting for their favorites. The top three entries won gift cards from Friendly City Books.

16 participants entered this year, and newcomer Marilyn Misulia took home the gold with her “Frog and Toad” cake.

“This is the first time I have entered myself or my girls into the edible book contest,” Misulia said. “I homeschool and usually just concentrate on helping my children with whatever project they are working on, but I decided this time I would take a stab at it. I wasn’t in this to win so much as give my girls the experience of competition, and for the fun of being creative with food. And since no one was tasting it, it allowed me to use more variety of ‘edible’ items… for example using uncooked spaghetti rolled in green food dye for reeds, or a piece of rolled bread soaked in melted chocolate for the logs. We had a couple days planning and a full day of baking and decorating.”

The book choice was an easy one for Misulia.

“I chose ‘Frog and Toad’ because I love frogs and toads,” Misulia said. “As a child I would collect frogs while on my rambles and as an adult had a southern leopard frog and a fire-bellied toad as pets. As part of the English curriculum I used, it recommended the ‘Frog and Toad’ books and I helped my eldest read through all of the stories.”

The second place winner was Cooper Goodman, who chose “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

“I made the cake from the first book, from Harry’s birthday, and I made a bunch of candies from the books,” Goodman said. “I was (surprised to place second). There were some really good entries.”

Rounding out the top three was Gabrielle Vasko with her “The Rainbow Fish” cake.

“It was a rewarding experience just to be able to participate in such a unique and fun event, but placing in the top three just makes it that much more special,” Vasko said. “This was our first time participating, last year we had intended to participate but I lost track of timing and missed the deadline to fill out the application.”

The competition gave her a chance to not only flex her creative muscles, but also something to look forward to.

“As a stay at home mom of four children, when day to day plans get tedious, it was something to look forward to and plan out,” Vasko said.

“I planned out our project for about a week as far as what we wanted to do and then the actual baking, creating and decorating took place a good part of the day before the contest. In the planning stages our whole family was involved, however, it was also something for my husband and I to work on together during the actual creation process while the kids were at school. Next year my teenagers have decided they would like to each do their own submissions.”

Her husband was the inspiration for choosing “The Rainbow Fish” because it was his favorite childhood book.

The experience was a positive one for the family and they are looking forward to next year’s competition.

“We have had so much fun participating and we greatly look forward to participating again next year!” Vasko said.