Travis, Jason, Mom on ‘Kelce Bowl’ cookies from Overland Park bakery. What about Taylor?
How could things get any sweeter?
Doting mom Donna Kelce and her boys, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis, and Philadelphia Eagles center Jason, are everywhere together these days, from television commercials to podcasts.
And speaking of sweet, what about sweethearts Travis and mega, pop star Taylor Swift? Did you see how Taylor greeted Travis after her concert in Argentina?
Believe it or not, things have gotten sweeter.
A bakery in Overland Park is selling cookies with fun likenesses of the Kelces and Taylor Swift just in time for the ‘Kelce Bowl’, the Monday night Super Bowl LVII rematch between the Chiefs and the Eagles being played at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Cookies have always been very popular,” said Cherrie Duensing, who with her husband, Robert Duensing, have owned and operated Best Regards Bakery & Cafe in Overland Park for the past 30 years.
“Chiefs cookies are obviously a big deal,” said Cherrie Duensing. “They were very popular even before they (the Chiefs) started winning Super Bowls,” she said. “We’ve been doing them for years, but when we won the Super Bowl, our cookies really caught on.”
She said they started making decorated sugar cookies many years ago, but Duensing said it has progressed into cookies for more than the holidays.
“So we used to do Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter, the main holidays, we now do a lot of pop culture events, different things, and movie releases,” she said. “In the summertime, we do different themes every week just to kind of show people what is available.”
Duensing said they’ve been baking tons of Chiefs cookies for individual games and for the playoffs. “Super Bowl was huge, we were doing thousands of cookies a day,” she said. “We had a line out the door at 6 a.m. and we didn’t open until 8,” she added. Best Regards bakes and sells Chiefs cookies year round. “There is not an off or bye week.”
In July, as excitement in the Kansas City area was building for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour concerts, Duensing said they were doing tons of cookies for Swifties. “Once they (Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift) started dating or the word was out that they were dating, people just wanted them,” she said. ”I mean they flocked, that’s both Swifties, as well as diehard Chiefs fans,” she said.
“So the two of them (the Kelce brothers) were head-to-head for the Super Bowl last year and you couldn’t help fall in love with Jason,” she said. “You know, if you listen to his podcast, they’re just the cutest brothers.” Now Duensing and her staff have immortalized the Kelce brothers, who hail from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in icing on half-inch thick sugar cookies.
“I’ve got four really great decorators right now who are just stars, and they do all this magic,” said Duensing, who said the Kelce brothers cookies have a lot of detail. It takes the decorators about 20 to 25 minutes per cookie to create the likenesses of Travis and Jason in frosting. “There’s a lot of layers and a lot of details on the cookies,” said Duensing. Travis Kelce’s cookie features a tiny red lipstick kiss on his cheek, while Jason’s cookie features his flowing mustache and curly beard.
Duensing has also added a ‘split jersey’ cookie in honor of the jersey often worn by Donna Kelce, also known as Mama Kelce, where half of the jersey is green bearing Jason’s number 62 and the other half is red emblazoned with Travis’ number 87. Black piping spells out Kelce across the back of the cookie. Not to be outdone by her sons, Donna Kelce is also frosted and piped atop a sugar cookie wearing bright red glasses and her signature blond bob.
Reacting to the trends in popular culture has been a boom in business for the bakery, which recently purchased a 3-D printer that allows them to create cookie cutters in any shape.
“Ideas today, cookies tomorrow,” said Robert Duensing, who said they’ve also added a cookie printer to their lineup of tools used to create captivating cookies. The cookie printer prints directly on a cookie that has been frosted with a special frosting created by Best Regards.
“We’ve merged technology with art and baking,” said Robert Duensing. “It gives us the flexibility to respond right away and that’s the beauty of it.” The technology allows the bakery to print cookies with photographic images, including a Travis Kelce The Eras Tour cookie, and a Taylor Swift “In My Kelce Era,” cookie. Another cookie displays the quote from Taylor Swift, who sang, “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.”
“You know, everybody loves to see this couple, and it’s nice to see them happy,” Cindy Duensing said. “You know, we’re all rooting for them. “
To meet the demand for cookies for the Super Bowl LVII rematch of the Chiefs and Eagles on Monday Night Football, employees at Best Regards will be working Saturday and Sunday. “It will be just crank out as many as we can,” said Cherrie Duensing, who added the bakery already has pre-orders for about 1,000 Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift-themed cookies. “We are going to try to have as many on hand as we can on Monday morning.” Duensing is encouraging customers to order the $3.99 cookies early.
Asked which cookie she favors, Cherrie Duensing responds, “I love Travis with a little kiss on him, yeah, I’ll tell you, it’s my all time favorite.”