Skip to main content

Martha by Mail: Sugar Squirrel & Mighty Acorn

With Fall fast approaching, sugar squirrels and acorns abound in the landscape.  These gigantic copper cutters from Martha by Mail capture the adorable images of a fuzzy-tailed squirrel and one of its favorite nuts.  Skillfully made by one of this country's best coppersmiths, the cutters are unique in every which way.  They are such a pleasure to use because they produce such large, beautiful cookies (approximately 8" each); there is plenty of space for every baker's creativity.  If you happen to own a pair of these cutters or know someone that does, take them out of storage and start baking batches of these marvelous cookies for your loved ones (sugar cookies are ideal).  Let the images below, from the Martha by Mail catalog, guide you in decorating the cookies or simply let your artistry take over.  Thank you Martha & the designers of the former Martha by Mail catalog for giving us such beautiful works of art.  Cheers!


To give squirrels a fall fur coat, brush baked cookies with egg white, sprinkle with sugar, let dry, and shake off excess sugar.


A smooth dry royal icing base makes a perfect polished nut.  Dust wet royal icing with sugar to give the acorn cap a rough natural texture.  Just for fun, pipe on a plaid.




The Mighty Acorn


Sugar Squirrel


✵✵✵✵✵


Handle Side (Sugar Squirrel)

Cutter Side

Handle Side (Mighty Acorn)

Cutter Side

✵✵✵

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Antique Salt Cellars

There was a time when salt cellars played an important role on the dining table for the host or hostess.  As a result of it being such an expensive commodity several hundred years ago, salt was seen as a luxury and it was the well to do that made salt cellars quite fashionable & a status symbol for the home.  A single salt cellar usually sat at the head of the table and was passed around throughout the meal.  The closer one sat to the salt cellar, the more important one was deemed by the head of the household.  Smaller cellars that were more accessible and with an open top became a part of Victorian table settings.  Fast forward to the 20th century when salt was no longer a luxury and when anti caking agents were added to make salt free-flowing, and one begins to see salt cellars fall out of fashion.  Luckily for the collector and for those of us who like to set a table with Good Things , this can prove to be a boon. Salt cellars for the table come in silver, porcelain, cut glass

Vintage Wilton Wedding Cakes

Wedding cakes have certainly evolved over the decades just as tastes and styles have in our American way of life.  There was a time when elaborate & very formal towering feats of sweetness were the standard for every bride & groom.  Growing up in a household where I witnessed several wedding cakes take shape from start to finish, I can tell you  that every single one of these was a true labor of love.  For mom, Wilton was the go-to supplier in every aspect of cake baking, including the wedding cakes which flew out of our house every single year for friends & family.   Vintage Wedding Cake Toppers It’s fun going back and looking at Wilton’s methods and styles for wedding cakes during the 1960s and 1970s.  Back then, the shapely cakes were not simply stacked and covered in perfect fondant the way they are these days, but were iced and decorated with real buttercream, along with a multitude of accessories.  There was even a working fountain available that could b

Collecting Jadeite

With its origins dating back to the 1930s, jadeite glassware began its mass production through the McKee Glass Co. in Pennsylvania. Their introduction of the Skokie green & Jade kitchenware lines ushered in our fascination with this jade color.  Glassmakers catered jadeite to the American public as an inexpensive alternative to earthenware soon after the Depression, both for the home and for its use in restaurants.  The Jeanette Glass Company and Anchor Hocking introduced their own patterns and styles, which for many collectors, produced some of the most sought after pieces.  Companies marketed this beautiful glass under the monikers of jadite , jadeite , jade glass , jad-ite , jade-ite , so however you want to spell it, let it draw you in for a closer look.  If you want a thorough history of the origins of jadeite, collectors’ pricing, patterns & shapes (don’t forget the reproductions in 2000), I highly suggest picking up the book by Joe Keller & David Ross called, Jadei