There’s no shortage of unusual choices filled with New York City style
Angelina
Paris export Angelina has created a truly fanciful dessert for Mother’s Day. The all-red Confidence pastry has a macaron biscuit base, topped with stewed strawberries, currant, white chocolate cream and fresh raspberries. Mom can choose an individual one or order a larger one to share among four to six people or an even larger one for six to eight people. Given the colors of this confection, this might be the most memorable Mother’s Day Instagram shot you’ll see that day. Dine at the patisserie or order in advance to devour at home.
Sweet Generation
Sweet Generation is a non-profit artisanal bakery that trains youths aged 16-24 to work in the food industry. Through a program called RISE, students from marginalized or in-need communities receive hands-on job experience and entrepreneurial training. Started in Amy Chasen’s kitchen in Astoria, Queens and now expanded in Bushwick thanks to a multi-million-dollar grant from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Sweet Generation creates handcrafted cakes, cupcakes, pastries, breads and other confections with sales supporting RISE. For Mother’s Day, the bakery’s gift basket is a sweet collection of their most popular desserts including flower-decorated cupcakes, cookies, brownies and blondies. The gift pack is beautifully packaged in a Sweet Generation tote bag with a Mother’s Day card.
Paris Baguette
Bakery-café Paris Baguette introduces two limited-edition cakes for Mother’s Day. The cream-filled cakes feature the sweet flavors of blueberry and vanilla and are topped with colorful berries. Beyond admiring their artistry and knockout decorations, you have to love the names of these as well: Mom’s Very Berry Blueberry Chiffon, a blueberry fantasy from inside to out, and the Berry Special Mom Cake, a vanilla cake with sliced strawberries.
Vesta Chocolate
Designed from the heart in tribute to the owners’ mothers on Mother’s Day, Vesta Chocolate’s Mother’s Day Jewel Bonbon Collection is a gift to all moms from New York City chocolatier and pastry master husband-wife duo Roger Rodriguez and Julia Choi-Rodriguez. The holiday bonbon collection reflects flavors and family traditions from two countries, the Dominican Republic and South Korea. The ginger tea, vanilla, and “morir soñando” orange creamsicle bonbons are favorites of Roger’s Mami. Julia’s Umma is the inspiration for the tangy and sweet yuzu, Earl Grey and red bean bonbons.
Schmackary’s
Cookie-loving moms will feel the passion that’s infused in Schmackary’s oversized cookies. For Mother’s Day, the popular Manhattan bakery, known for its crazy and constantly changing variety of inventive cookies, is also adding a choice of “schmall” … so you can try more than one. Mix the flavors up for a bespoke six-pack with Baker’s Choice, Gourmet Chocolate Chunk, Fan Favorites or Frosted Fantasy, for example. Make the gift even more special with a gift tin. If you purchase these in-store, you’ll get 15% off cookies and drinks.
BoujFleaMarket
BoujFleaMarket wants moms to feel great on their special day. The Harlem e-boutique’s Mother’s Day gift pack is a cheery collection of lavender-scented body scrub and bath bombs, put together by mother-and-daughter co-owners Anastasia Linkpon and Adrian Mack. A shining example of entrepreneurship at any age, New York City native Anastasia is 7 ½ years old, making her one of the youngest recipients of the HOPE One Million New Black Business (1MBB) initiative in conjunction with Shopify.
CAMP: Form Reimagined
Sentimental by definition, moms collect things. Help your mother keep track of her treasures with a CAMP: Form Reimagined Trinket & Tchotchke Box that’s as individual as she is. Brooklyn-based CAMP upcycles vintage canisters, sugar bowls and spice jars to create “campy” stash boxes to hold precious keepsakes. With each purchase, CAMP makes a donation to a charity for metastatic cancer research.
Tipsy Scoop
New York City’s Tipsy Scoop does it again with another boozy holiday hit. The ice cream parlor’s Mother’s Day Pack features a variety of mom-tested, liquor-infused favorites: Dark Chocolate Whiskey Salted Caramel, Cake Batter Vodka Martini, Strawberry White Sangria Sorbet and Raspberry Limoncello Sorbet. Give your mom an aperitif, too – sign her up for Tipsy Scoop’s live Mother’s Day cocktail making class on May 9. Order a cocktail kit for yourself, too, and tune in to learn how to make two boozy ice cream cocktails. The kit includes boozy sorbet and ice cream, lemonade, candies, fruit and other goodies.
Cooking Class with Chef Marcus Samuelsson
You can preface your boozy dessert afternoon with a soul food class by New York Chef Marcus Samuelsson on May 7. Celebrating the launch of his new cookbook, “The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food,” Samuelsson’s master class is all about the beauty of Black cooking. Register your mother and she’ll receive a package with the ingredients needed to make tomato and peach salad, tamarind-glazed salmon and spiced wine cake.
Eternal Roses
If you’ve ever been frustrated when the gorgeous roses you bought fade into oblivion after just a few days, Eternal Roses solves that problem with their line of “eternal” Mother’s Day flowers. Designed to last for several years, the preserved roses are artfully set in a variety of centerpieces that will beautify any table or nightstand. Pick mom’s favorite colors for a customized arrangement with staying power.
Classic Harbor Line
Classic Harbor Line’s Around Manhattan Brunch Cruise keeps Mother’s Day spirited and scenic with a three-hour island circumnavigation on an elegant teak-decked yacht. The city’s skyline, bridges and landmarks provide the set for the almost three-hour sail which includes a three-course prix fixe brunch with a smoked salmon platter, house-made quiche and continuous mimosas.
Deborah Miller Catering & Events
If after all this, you think Mom would just rather wake up to an incredible feast at home (that you don’t need to prepare), NYC’s Deborah Miller Catering & Events will make it special with an array of adorable small dishes like mini waffle sandwiches, honey-drizzled yogurt shots and strawberry shortcake dessert jars. Or, how about a bacon dessert jar? The possibilities are endless.