Home cooks, including Merced's candy lady, pull out their best for bazaars and bake sales

Bazaars are the best kind of holiday gatherings. These sweet events are a showcase of taste-tempting, time-tested favorites.

As December kicks off, so do holiday bazaars. One of note is United Methodist Women's annual Christmas Bazaar from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the church, 899 Yosemite Parkway in Merced. That this church tradition is in its 81st year is impressive. What's more remarkable is that the grand dame of this event will be 98 years old in January.

Enid Olive has been making candy for the bazaar since 1942, when she moved back to Merced from Los Angeles with her first husband, Jim Cartwright. Olive has shared plenty from her kitchen over the years, from fudge to penuche to brittle, but it's the simple and classic molded chocolates that are her signature piece now.

"It's so easy to do, and people enjoy the different shapes and flavors," she said.

"I melt about half a bag of Candy Melts in a ceramic dish in my microwave for one minute on defrost setting," she said, "then I stir it with a spoon and microwave it a little longer until the candy is completely melted and stirs to a creamy consistency. I use a long-handled teaspoon to spoon the chocolate into the molds. Tap the molds to release the air bubbles. Place the molds in the freezer until they are hard — usually, 10 minutes is plenty of time — then tap out the candies onto a tray. They are ready to eat or to store in tins until ready to use."

Molded chocolates are easy enough to make at home. The candy wafers and plastic molds are available at hobby supply stores, as is the candy flavoring — in peppermint, cherry, cinnamon and crème de menthe.

What makes them special is that confectionery queen Olive handcrafts them.

That motherly handcrafting is what makes any family's dessert legendary. Mom's little touches over the years — innovation in its simplest form — made her desserts the talk of the table.

"This is why we believe America's best dessert treasures are likely hidden among the butter-crusted index cards buried in boxes and cupboards across the country," said Kimberly Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero, the authors of "Sugar, Sugar: Every Recipe Has a Story" (Andrews McMeel, $29.99). The two Sugar Mommas, on a mission to preserve the country's most memorable treats, offer up recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, bars and candies in their book.

"Much like many of our technological inventions have been discovered by accident, we think home bakers throughout the ages have perfected the art of 'making do' when they didn't necessarily have all the right ingredients."

That necessity, as home cooks have made do with the ingredients in their pantry, make bake sales and bazaars a cornucopia of "Mom's specials," be they the unusual like fudge made with Velveeta or cookies with Chinese noodles. Other recipes have been lovingly tweaked and reworked and offered up by mothers and grandmothers in good times and in bad, to celebrate and to comfort.

"Mom's best" has spawned a cottage industry of recipe contests and books. There's the Taste of Home magazine and book franchise and the Cook's Country magazine book series with homespun names like "From Our Grandmothers' Kitchens" and America's Best Lost Recipes: 121 Heirloom Recipes Too Good to Forget."

Bake sales and bazaars are brimming with treats created to satisfy a sweet tooth craving.

"And a sweet tooth provides a strong motivation to be creative in the kitchen — you'll do anything to satisfy it!" said the Sugar Mommas in an e-mail.

And let's face it, the right sugar fix can propel us to a happy place. And we could all use a little more happiness these days.

Staff writer Sharon K. Ghag can be reached at sghag@modbee.com or (209) 578-2340.