Tea at Trianon: "Marie-Antoinette" Cookies

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

"Marie-Antoinette" Cookies

A charming idea. From Victoria:

Exquisite cookies, prepared exclusively for Victoria magazine by New York pastry chef Amber Spiegel, lend beauty to our January/February 2017 issue. Her stunning SweetAmbs creations take center-stage on the cover and add elegance to a Marie Antoinette celebration featured in From Our Table. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and an award-winning cake decorator, Amber shares her expertise with bakers of all levels through private studio instruction, online classes and tutorials, and her recently released book, Cookie Art. In fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses, she demonstrates techniques for crafting the masterful designs that highlight our pages. (Read more.)

The North Coast said...: How lovely- almost a shame to eat them! I'm being inspired to take up cookie & cake decoration by the recent spate of absolutely over-the-top cake decorating I'm seeing lately. We live in the Golden Age of cake & cookie decoration- never in my life of 65 years have I seen anything as beautiful or creative as what is being done now.; May 9, 2017 at 8:15:00 PM EDT