I usually make the Easter cookies like these, but that was a lot easier to do when I didn’t work on Fridays. The weeks fill up fast now, and the weekends even faster. Luckily we have no shortage of good local shops to fill in the gaps of homemade goodness. I thought I’d post a few photos in case you in town and still looking for basket fillers.
F and I stopped in two places after work today, and I’d like to say a big thank you to all those businesses that stay open past five. Hurray for that.
First we stopped into La Patisserie Chouquette to check out the new digs. It is just as gorgeous as everyone says – and I’m hoping to stop in many more times. It’s just a little too beautiful, perhaps, for a three year old. The whole time we were there I was afraid she would accidentally knock into one of the displays and send one of the amazing cakes onto the floor. It’s like walking into a jewelry store, everything seems precious and untouchable. Or to me, even better than a jewelry store. I can take or leave the bling, but I’m all about gorgeous pastries.
I was pleasantly surprised at the non-precious prices. I thought they were very reasonable – at least the items I focused on. These cookies were $3 each – and take it from a cookie maker – it’s really hard to make something like this and have $3 cover the ingredients and the time. These would look so sweet in a basket – they have bigger ones as well, plus carrots. Very, very cute. I would also recommend the jelly beans. F and I split a box as a treat, and they might be the best jelly beans I’ve ever had.
It’s slightly dangerous that we pass two amazing sweet shoppes just on our drive home – especially when you consider our entire commute is just a couple of miles. Kakao always delivers, and we picked up some sweet treats for the grownups.
It was especially fun to find these lip balms – I got four for the girls and their cousins. They are handmade by Maven, a neighbor to Kakao’s Maplewood location, using Kakao chocolates and pates de fruits. F is going to flip. She’s absolutely obsessed with chapstick.
So maybe this holiday skip the giant bags of pastel wrapped Hershey’s and pick up a few of these sweet little handmade treats. Or forget the holiday, and just celebrate the drive home from work. Works for me.
