Today was Columbus Day, so my library system was closed and all the library employees met for Staff Day, an all day training event. To make the day more fun, everyone had an opportunity to enter a book-themed cake or dessert in the Edible Book Contest. I thought it sounded like fun, so I decided to make an entry - golden snitch peanut butter balls. Originally I was going to make cake balls, but I don't really like them, and they are a ton of work to make, so I thought peanut butter balls would be easier and tastier. Peanut butter and chocolate are the perfect complementary pair, in my opinion. Can't go wrong with that combination.
And they turned out great! They were still a lot of work though. I didn't get any prep pictures because I was too busy putting them together. Basically I made peanut butter balls, dipped them in chocolate, spray painted them with edible gold paint, piped out some wings with Wilton's candy melts, and stuck them to the sides. Unfortunately, some of the wings broke, and I didn't feel like making 100+ of them for my 48 peanut butter balls, so only about half of them had wings. I actually think it looked better that way.
Here's my one and only picture of putting them together.
Jamey helped me make the Quidditch goal posts - mason jar rings glued to wooden dowels and set in a styrofoam block that I covered in black paper. You can't tell very well, but I covered the bottom of the pan in maroon and yellow stripes, and set the snitches in little gold paper cups. I also made a little Gryffindor crest to finish off the display.
Closer...
Closer... I seriously had to resist eating them all in one sitting.
Although these were really fun to make, I'm not sure if I would make them again. Peanut butter balls, yes. Any day. But the gold spray paint came off if you so much as touched it, and the wings kept falling off the sides due to the softness of the peanut butter filling. I was afraid they wouldn't survive the car ride. Thankfully, they all stayed together pretty well, with only a few wings coming loose. Unfortunately, as soon as I got there, one of the gold rings snapped off of the goal post, which is something I was afraid might happen but was unprepared for. With some quick thinking, I re-secured it to the post with some chewing gum, and it didn't budge the rest of the day. (Don't get grossed out... It was purely ornamental and wasn't touching the food at all. No germs. Promise.)
I had some pretty stiff competition though! My coworkers are an extremely creative bunch of librarians. And talented. Here are a few of the entries:
The woman who made this Hatchet cake said she had this cake in a box on her kitchen counter ready to go this morning, but one of her cats managed to jump up and knock it to the floor. She said it was a disaster, but she improvised very will with a hatchet and a small plane crash in the side, making the damage look intentional.
This one placed second. It had some truly amazing detail!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Flip Flop
My entry, next to I Scream Ice Cream and Things Fall Apart - very clever. That cake was delicious, by the way.
Harold and the Purple Crayon, Pinkalicious cupcakes, and Plain Simple. The chocolate cake won third place.
A Case of the Stripes (super cool and won first place!) and Ashfall. I've never read Ashfall so I'm not sure of the literary reference there.
Alice in Wonderland and If You Give a Cat a Cupcake.
At the very end, there were cupcakes decorated like the Watchmen.
In all, there were 15 entries! I didn't place in the top 3, but that doesn't matter. I had a blast participating! Can't wait til next year!
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