Edible Book Day, now in its fourth year at NOMA, has become a popular draw for both bibliophiles, bakers, and admirers of sculptural cakes. On April 7, 2017, amateur and professional cake-decorating contestants brought confections that are designed around literary themes, ranging from replicas of book covers and fictional characters to puns that play off popular titles. The celebration has existed on a global scale since the year 2000, and according to its founders, “All edible books must be ‘bookish’ through the integration of text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form.”

Entries for 2017 included a cake that served as an homage to the exhibition A Life of Seduction: Venice in the 1700s with replicas of a doge’s hat and a copy of the catalogue, a spoof on Harper Lee’s coming-of-age novel To Kill A Mockingbird — retitled “Tequila Mockingbird” — and another clever literary play on words combining a famous horror writer with New Orleans’ favorite sandwich: “Edgar Allen Poe-Boy.”

Carrie Hardy has entered bookish cakes for the past four competitions at NOMA, but this year her daughter Ellie took the lead in the kitchen and entered a prize-winning cake of her own. Arts Quarterly spoke with the mother-daughter baking team as judges began to examine the creations.

How did you get interested in cake baking? 

Ellie Hardie: I looked up to my mom and then I just did whatever she did.

Carrie Hardie: I started doing it for Ellie’s first birthday. The cake was a mess, but I thought it was an accomplishment. And then I just picked up it as a hobby, kind of self-taught. I worked professionally in the banking industry, so this is completely just a side hobby. And the more I started doing it, the more I wanted to learn the next trick, or the next method or technique, and just kind of got obsessed with it. I watch all of the cake-baking shows.

What book-title cakes have you baked in the past for Edible Book Day?

Carrie Hardie: The first cake I did was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and that was four years ago. I also did a Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go. I always do children’s books, just because that’s what we’ve read every night, but two years ago when I did Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus the theme of the cake was what if the pigeon did drive the bus. So I kind of took it in another direction and he was crashing through the front of the actual book itself. So kind of a play on the idea.

Then last year, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was just a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and then an umbrella covering it up with meatballs coming down so that was a little more literal. But I just like coming up with the sketch and the theme. That’s what I loved watching with her, is because she told me she wanted to do it, and I saw her paper and she already had two or three sketches kind of played out, so the third one, the one she picked, it actually came to life just the way she wanted it so it was just really fun to watch.

What is the title of your cake this year?

Ellie Hardie: Press Here. My mom chooses a different book every year and makes it the opposite of what actually happens in the story, so I did the same. The cake is titled, “Oops, I Pressed the Button.” So in mine, the dots are attacking back, because they’re pressed too much. We’ve read this book at night a lot. So in the book, whenever you press a dot or something, the dots either expand, shrink, or multiply, and stuff like that.

How long did it take to make a cake like this?

Ellie Hardie: About a week. First you just make the cake and then put the icing, the fondant, over it. Then you have to assemble all the pieces and make the faces to the dots, then you assemble all the pieces onto the cake.

Did you take any professional classes?

Carrie Hardie: I just started playing with it. It’s fun, kind of like play dough. Buttercream gives me anxiety. Fondant I can do all day because if you don’t like it, you can redo it. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so it helps me just to kind of make sure that the product is what I want it to be. So the more I watched those cake shows, I would pause it and go to the kitchen, try to do what they were doing on the shows, then go back and see if I got the same outcome that they did. A lot of times not so much, but then it also taught me about my mistakes, a little new trick here and there each time.

2017 WINNING ENTRIES FOR NOMA’S EDIBLE BOOK CONTEST

Home Kitchen and Family Bakers

FUNNIEST/PUNNIEST
1st: Edgar Allen Poe-Boy – Christy Harden
2nd: Just Peachy Dahling! – Retiba Hegazzi
3rd: The Devil’s Food Wears Prada – Ruth Davidson

BEST VISUAL PRESENTATION
1st: Tequila Mockingbird – Becky Rodriguez
2nd: The Last Petal – Cat Davidson

MOST CREATIVE
1st: Oops … I Pressed the Button – Ellie Hardie
2nd: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs – Shelby Latino
3rd: Joke Time – Mary Brown

MOST LIKE A BOOK
1st: The Hobbit – Becky Rodriguez
2nd: A Galaxy of Good Taste – Antoinette de Alteriis

Professional Bakers

FUNNIEST/PUNNIEST
1st: Seuss-isms – Dennis Taylor and Delmy Olivia of Antoine’s Bakery

BEST VISUAL PRESENTATION
1st: Venetian Treasures – Cindy Pagragan of Cindy’s Sweet Sensations

MOST CREATIVE

1st: Chocolate Confections – Angela Wilson, MSEd, CEPC, CCE. Culinary Arts Instructor, Delgado Community College

JUDGE’S CHOICE: BEST IN SHOW

Tequila Mockingbird – Becky Rodriquez

PEOPLE’S CHOICE: BEST IN SHOW

Oops … I Pressed the Button – Ellie Hardie