Mother's Day at Pike Place Market

Doesn't this look like home run for Mother's Day? I saw many a family giving their mother a little extra attention while strolling Seattle's Pike Place Market on Sunday. This weekend was the market's Flower Fest and there were far more vendors selling fresh-as-a-daisy bouquets. The market has become a regular stop for me (can you blame me?) and this was the first I have seen of the beloved peony. 

                              

I watched a cute exchange between a twenty-something girl and her mother. The mother had chosen a bouquet and the daughter was insisting that she be allowed to pay for the it. The $20 bill got passed back and forth between the two of them before the daughter got wily and tucked the money into her mom's purse when she looked away. Well done, daughter, well done.

I think I helped to seal the deal for a father and son who were waffling between two arrangements. I pointed to one of their choices, an exquisite arrangement in all pinks and white and said, "That's the one." They looked relieved.

The sun was out and people were buying flowers - what could be better? 

Cheesecake! I think whoever decided to personalize the mini cheesecakes at The Confectional is a genius. Shoppers could choose between Mom, Mummy, Mum, Mommy and it looked as cute as can be. I bought a caramel one to the left and it was just as good as the last time I visited. Yum and yum.

Mother's Day Worthy Cookies and Marie Antoinette

Too pretty to eat!

That was the consensus when I made this beautiful set of Marie Antoinette cookies with edible wafer paper from my favorite online source, Fancy Flours.

The funny thing about making something that is "too pretty to eat" is that the audience is just as happy with the cookies as if they had eaten them! The oohs and ahhs last just as long and everyone circles back to admire them all over again. Edible Art, indeed. It's just in this case, no one wanted to take me up on the edible part. I did, of course, and they were delicious! 

You can buy these edible wafer paper ladies at Fancy Flours.com

You'll remember my post about designing custom cookie cutters for this project. It was well worth the effort, wouldn't you say? Plus, now I have a "woman in a ball gown" cookie cutter in stock for future high profile depictions. 

Of all the stories that surround Marie Antoinette, my favorite was that she insisted that flocks of sheep were dyed to match her dresses. When word arrived in the field that she was wearing a blue gown that day, the shepherd would release the blue sheep into the field to graze. Can this possibly be true? What a sight that would be. 

My edible wafer paper selection included images of French pastries (you can see a few above) and I also made some cookies with wafer paper from the Mother's Day Vintage Stamps collection. All in all, I just love them. 

I baked and decorated these in Florida and my parents spent just as much time strategizing how I could transport these cookies home with me safely, as they did packing up their actual belongings. The cookies made it home in bubble wrap and a cardboard box and I am still trying to think of a way to display them for future enjoyment. 

The cookies are made from my grandmother's sugar cookie recipe and iced with her simple powdered sugar and hot water frosting. I wanted to see if the edible wafer paper images would transfer as beautifully on her frosting as it does on royal white icing.  It worked really well (you adhere the image with corn syrup and allow it to set) and I am happy that I can use this form of artwork on an easy frosting.

If you love baking, you should really experiment with edible wafer paper. I always say that I am driven by color and sugar - these cookies are a perfect 10.