Final Friday event showcases art you can eat

“Don’t play with your food” is not a directive that Sandra Denneler follows.

The Wichita State University art director has turned her fondness for creating themed party bites into a new book called “Oh, What a Treat.” She will be at Watermark Books and Cafe from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday showcasing some of her treats and signing books as part of Wichita’s Final Friday art crawl.

“It’s an art show, but you can eat the art,” Denneler said. “Some artists work in clay or oil, but I work in butter and sugar.”

The book features 36 recipes, and Denneler has been busy in her kitchen creating one batch each of 20 of her food crafts for the Watermark event.

Denneler’s creations are clever and whimsical but not that complex.

“I’m not really good at decorating, per se – you see people that can pipe a perfect cookie,” she said. “Basically, I’m designing with food.”

For example, she creates a high heel out of Nutter Butters and Tootsie Rolls and a fortune cookie out of a Fruit Roll-Up. Tiny M&Ms spill out of her festive multicolored pinata horse cookies. Tortillas and cheese with assorted fillings become shirt-and-tie quesadillas. Denneler even has an idea for Halloween kabobs, making a jack-o’-lantern, ghost and Frankenstein out of cantaloup, marshmallow and kiwi.

Her daughter is tickled by her wacky food experiments, but her son would just as soon eat an Oreo, Denneler says.

Denneler’s background in graphic design, art directing and food styling helped her in coming up with concepts and taking step-by-step photos. Denneler and her husband, a woodworker hobbyist, feature their creative projects on their blog, Project Denneler at projectdenneler.com.

At first, she simply posted the treats she was making to take to a friend’s party or to an office celebration. Then Pinterest took off, and she found herself getting a lot of questions as to how she made her treats. That’s when Denneler began breaking the process down and writing online tutorials.

Denneler finds inspiration just about anywhere – the aisles of Target, paper crafts, origami, clay sculpture, greeting cards – and incorporates a theme, often related to a holiday.

Although Denneler’s food crafts don’t require a lot of artistic ability, some can be time-consuming.

Her advice for the novice food crafter: Don’t start with the pinata cookies. Break in your skills with the pumpkin pie cheese and crackers.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 7:06 AM with the headline "Final Friday event showcases art you can eat."