Christie C. There are endless quotes for honoring mothers.
“A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” —
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
“I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.” —
Mitch Albom
“Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes.” —
P.J. O’Rourke
I had to laugh at that last one because I remember when I still lived at home, I would be concerned about school, climate change, and politics, but totally procrastinate when it came to housework.
The truth is that motherhood is a thankless job that comes with endless emotional and physical labor from not just your children, but from everybody else. I am not a mother, but this year I did run an afterschool club where I taught thirty-something young people how to sew, knit, and crochet. It was a solo endeavor with many of the students classified as at-risk youth. After running the program for an entire school year, I became not just “Mrs. C.,” but also “Mom,” “Auntie,” and “Grandma” — that last bit mainly due to the fact that kids still see crocheting as a granny sport. I became their “mother” for ninety minutes after school.
The club did not become just about fiber arts. It turned into a safe place for young people, especially since most of them had very complicated relationships with their own mothers.
At my club, children received affirmation for their hard work, a chance to express themselves, a chance to learn a new skill, and even hugs—something that I learned is priceless coming from a child. The experience gave me an inkling into the hard work necessary from both mothers and fathers to help children grow, and the hard work, attention, and care my own mother provided when raising me. I can’t and don’t thank her enough for the late nights doing homework, drives to soccer games and art classes, attending every childhood event, and, most importantly, listening to me as a child because those things that bothered me as a child, though small today, were a big deal at the time.
This year, extend this Mother’s Day to your mother, grandmother, auntie, teacher, big sister, coach, or anybody else you consider to be a positive motherly figure in your life. But, don’t forget to appreciate these people outside of a holiday.
I want to share these 10 delicious recipes you can make for your mother or motherly figure for Mother’s Day.
10 Recipes to Make For Mother’s Day
1. Almond Amaretti Cookies
With a flakey sugary crust on the outside and a smooth, soft, and buttery inside, these almond enriched cookies are a true treat. They go nicely with a cup of freshly brewed coffee. A splash of Italian Amaretto is added for additional notes of almond and complexity.
2. Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Chocolate covered strawberry platters make beautiful gifts for special occasions. Find sweet strawberries or long stem strawberries and dip them into your mother’s favorite chocolate.
3. Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
Cut-out sugar cookies are fun to bake and eat during the holidays. For Mother’s Day, make these beautiful heart shaped cookies with pastel pink colors and fancy sprinkles. Decorating sugar cookies so that they’re neat does require a lot of practice and a stable hand, but you can make your cookies look professional and glamorous with a simple coat of royal icing and a shake of stylish sprinkles. I love to use sprinkles from Sprinkle Pop.
4. Mini Strawberry Shortcake
This strawberry shortcake is gorgeously fluffy with a lush layer of strawberry filling. To make the cake easy to make, you can use store bought strawberry jam such as Bonne Maman instead of making it from scratch. If you’d like to make your own jam, try my jam recipe, which works for several kinds of fruit. The whipped cream is made from scratch using lush heavy cream and a touch of sugar. In the event that you’re short on time or patience, feel free to use your favorite store-bought whipped cream.
5. White Chocolate Berry Almond Truffles
These gorgeous truffles can be easily made at home, and decorated with fancy sprinkles. They are perfect for Weddings, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or any special occasion that calls for them. The heart of these truffles is the white chocolate ganache at the center, rolled with dried strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.
6. Coconut Kisses
This Coconut Kisses recipe comes from The “Victory Binding of the American Woman’s Cook Book,” published in 1942. It is a true historical gem with firsthand information on early to mid 20th century cooking during the World War II era. It is also a great snow ball option for Mother’s Day!
7. Pink Champagne Cupcakes
It can be difficult finding a moist, buttery champagne inspired cake, but this one uses a lot of butter and a brushing of simple syrup to keep it light and delicate―just like champagne! As an added bonus, sliced strawberries decorate the tops along with a dusting of edible sugar. These will certainly delight any mother.
8. White Chocolate Raspberry Cake
Imagine a gloriously soft white cake with a layer of raspberry jam, fresh raspberries, and ice cream-like buttercream flavored with white chocolate. This cake is for dessert fans that love the cocoa-buttery goodness that comes with sweet white chocolate. Combined with white cake, it makes for a light and fruity treat.
9. Bourbon Pecan and Brown Sugar Cookies
These cookies have a tantalizing and rich brown butter flavor infused with bourbon whisky and brown sugar. The toasted pecans add to the flavor, making them a heavenly treat. The icing is irresistible, and most of my friends’ and family’s favorite part of the cookie. It does not have a pure, sugary taste that most cookie icings have. Instead, it tastes toffee-like with buttery notes and a splash of bourbon.
10. Cannoli Cupcakes
This cannoli cupcake recipe is one of my favorite cupcake recipes to date: the cake is a super moist sponge flavored with marsala wine; the filling is rich with cinnamon and sugar; the icing is Swiss Meringue Buttercream. There is a pleasant ring of miniature chocolate chips around the edges.
