Homestyle faced criticism over Trump treats
There was nothing sweet about the phone calls Homestyle Desserts Bakery began receiving last week about its butter cookies featuring images of presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, according to co-owner Laura Timmons.
The quadrennial tradition, dating back more than two decades, had never drawn controversy until this month, when a Philipstown resident on Facebook denounced Homestyle for putting “the face of a 34-time convicted felon … who incited an attack on our nation’s Capitol” on cookies and vowed to stop patronizing the bakery.
Then the angry calls began, said Timmons on Monday (Sept. 23). “Why would you do that?” “You guys are disgusting.” “We’re not going to buy from you anymore.” “We’re going to tell all our friends.”
Standing behind the counter inside the Peekskill location (Homestyle also sells the cookies at its location on Route 301 in Nelsonville), Timmons pointed to a stack of white shipping boxes sitting on a table. The bakery is being inundated with a different type of call: Trump fans placing orders for shipments to Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and other states.
A story posted by The Journal News on Sept. 20 about the controversy reached Dan Scavino Jr., a Westchester County native who was deputy chief of staff in the Trump White House and is an adviser to the former president’s campaign. He reposted it on social media, and Homestyle has been swamped with orders, mostly for Trump treats.
On Monday, Timmons said she expected to send out 2,000 Trump cookies and 200 with Harris’ image. “We were selling even until that post [from Scavino] went out, and then it shifted,” she said.
Homestyle has been putting edible images on cookies and cakes for decades, said Timmons, with clients that have included the Yankees and their players. The visages of the Democratic and Republican candidates for president were introduced on cookies about 25 years ago and meant to be a bipartisan diversion, said Timmons.
Unfortunately, the hardening divide between Democrats and Republicans has been characterized by increasing hostility. A Pew Research Center poll in 2022 found that growing numbers of partisans view each other as “more closed-minded, dishonest, immoral and unintelligent.”
Passions have led to attacks on businesses, but typically only if they promote one candidate over another. The owner of a Manhattan clothing store, for example, said a man wearing a Trump T-shirt attacked her last month, apparently angered by a pro-Harris poster in her window.
In a Facebook post in response to the phone calls, Homestyle said that its employees and their family members and friends “hold different beliefs and choices” without threatening each other. “Everybody should be free to choose, and fighting over it is not the answer,” said Timmons.
State Sen. Pete Harckham, a Democrat whose district includes Peekskill, visited the bakery on Sunday (Sept. 22) after hearing about the calls. The senator, who in April 2022 presented Homestyle with a certificate recognizing it as a New York State Historic Business, recorded a video before leaving.
“I know that we’re divided and I know we’re polarized, but cookies? Really?” he said, holding a microphone in one hand and a bipartisan order of six cookies for each candidate in the other. “Threatening a bakery is not a productive way to help your candidate.”
Having the likeness of both candidates on cookies is a celebration of our democracy that we cherish.
It’s cookies. Who cares? The place is a basic bakery, akin to a supermarket bakery. That’s what they do.
Good for Homestyle! The bakery was busy and the cookies are good! It makes a good cappuccino, too. [via Facebook]
Nobody comes out of this story looking good. [via Instagram]
So glad that Homestyle saw a boon in sales; folks have made a hell of a lot of money selling MAGA hats, as well. But I’ll never spend another dime there. What’s next: a Marjorie Taylor Greene torte and a Jeffrey Epstein pineapple-upside-down cake?
“Normalizing” felons and sexual predators by putting their likenesses on bakery goods makes our community less safe. I’m glad to read that my Facebook post caused so many to call and express their disgust at the bakery’s decision.
Make cookies great again!
I was born and raised in Beacon (a long time ago) and my mom was born and raised in Cold Spring, and I still believe in freedom of speech, which means that Homestyle Bakery has every right to put Trump and Harris pics on her cookies. Putting people’s faces on her cookies is something she has done time and time again it seems, so what makes this time so different? Everyone has their right to their own opinion and some have given theirs. Let everyone else decide for themselves. Homestyle, keep up doing what you do. It sounds like your cookies are delicious and that is the most important part of selling them. Next time I am down home I will do my best to try to stop into your store. Unless you make gluten-free cookies, I won’t be able to eat them, but I can still stop to say hello and tell you to keep up the great work.