Ellen DeGeneres didn’t get to eat one of her coconut macaroon cookies, but it was still worth it.
The owners of Maria’s Mom’s Italian Cupboard Bakery traveled to Beverly Hills two weeks ago for the 39th Annual Daytime Entertainment Emmy Awards as guests of the ceremony. The family-owned business provided 2,500 lemon sprinkle cookies for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards this past April. They were such a huge hit that they were selected to provide the cookies for the “swag bags” that are given guests at the Daytime Emmys.
Maria Ritter, owner of the bakery, was amped up to get to meet her favorite daytime television talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.
“All I want is for Ellen to eat one of my coconut macaroons, that’s it,” said Ritter, as she packed macaroons into boxes for her and her family’s trip to Beverly Hills.
Unfortunately, Ellen didn’t make the awards show, but Ritter said it was still a fantastic trip and memory.
Besides, she and her mom Mary Lyn Saldutti had a pretty good consolation prize, as they met Anthony Geary, an actor on their favorite soap opera “General Hospital.”
“My mom got a picture with him. We didn’t get to meet Ellen but the trip was still so great,” Ritter said.
While mingling with the likes of Rachel Ray, Sharon Osbourne, and Bobby Flay, the local bakers passed out samples of their macaroons to the Emmy guests. The bakery made 2,000 of the signature cookies for the awards show, which was held on Saturday, June 23, at the Beverly Hilton.
Ritter, her mom Mary Lyn Saldutti, and Maria’s husband Fred traveled to Beverly Hills for the show and hobnobbed with some of daytime television’s finest celebrities. The family attended the Daytime Emmy Award show with plenty of coconut macaroons in tow to hand out to the crowd.
“Back in April, we were getting ready to prepare for our Easter. It’s the second-biggest holiday for us. We’re running around, doing our thing, and I came across an email from Off the Wall Productions. They fill the gift bags for the Sport Emmy awards, and they wanted to know if we would be interested in joining their team and have our cookies featured,” Maria said. “At first I thought it was a joke. I called my husband and a few of my friends and asked if they were playing a joke on us. I have a friend in the media business and sent it to him, and he said that it was a really big deal. He told us to jump on it so we did.”
The production company employs several researchers to scour the country to find out what specific items should be included in the award show’s “swag bag.”
The bakery has definitely seen an uptick in sales since April, Maria said.
In business since 2008, Maria started the bakery with her now 72-year-old mother after spending the past 23 years as a stay-at-home mother. While neither had ever run a bakery before opening Maria’s Mom’s Italian Cupboard Bakery, they had enjoyed baking Christmas cookies together each year ever since Maria was a little girl.
“Mom is 72, and this has been a great time for her,” Maria said. “She was a stay-at-home mom and so was I for 23 years.”
The duo typically watches the Ellen show each afternoon while minding the bakery.
The specialty bakery has been providing quality cookies and baked goods to Evesham Township since 2008. Maria said the bakery typically does a lot of business with weddings, due to their attention to detail and beautiful packaging included with the baked goods.
Want more information on the local bakery? Check out their website at www.mariasmoms.com.
