{"id":266920,"date":"2025-07-16T15:35:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/266920\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T15:35:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:35:19","slug":"i-tried-meghan-markles-sold-out-as-ever-shortbread-cookies-and-here-are-my-honest-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/266920\/","title":{"rendered":"I Tried Meghan Markle’s Sold-Out As Ever Shortbread Cookies and Here Are My Honest Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a quiet morning last month when a text arrived from my brother Seth in California. \u201cI just ordered Meghan Markle\u2019s<\/a> apricot jam, shortbread cookie mix, and peppermint tea,\u201d he announced. \u201cIt was sold out in an hour last time\u2014they just restocked. Get on it!\u201d <\/p>\n

I\u2019d never actually seen the Duchess of Sussex’s crafty Netflix series, With Love, Meghan<\/a>, and to be honest I don\u2019t have a strong opinion on her adventures and exploits. But I am a fan of teatime, and just like Meghan, I, too, like to make my own homemade jam<\/a>. And while I don\u2019t whip up<\/a> sachets of bath salts for my houseguests or host beehives in my backyard, I confess I can see the appeal. <\/p>\n

Thirty seconds later, I was frantically searching for in-stock products on Meghan’s As Ever<\/a> brand site. The tea was already sold out (\u201cGonna sell it on EBay,\u201d my brother joked). But he was right\u2014several items were still in stock. I grabbed a $9 jar of the apricot jam\u2014a spread, actually, but I still wanted it. I also ordered the two remaining items that were available: a box of crepe mix and the intriguing-sounding Shortbread Cookie Mix With Flower Sprinkles<\/a>. Those were $14 each. <\/p>\n

The order went through\u2014or seemed to. An email promptly arrived letting me know that \u201cSomething delightful is coming your way.\u201d Another note popped up from Meghan herself. \u201cDear Ingrid, I\u2019m so pleased to have you here! At As Ever, we celebrate the beauty in the details and cherish the small moments of magic that can be found in the everyday.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"meghanNetflix<\/p>\n

The shortbread cookies with flower sprinkles, as they appeared on the Duchess\u2019s show, With Love, Meghan. <\/p>\n

A week later, on June 27, I learned that Meghan would be launching her own \u201ccrisp and beautifully balanced\u201d ros\u00e9 on July 1. Sadly, I did not \u201cget on it\u201d fast enough this time and the wine sold out. Still, things were looking up three days later, when I learned that two of my items\u2014the mixes\u2014were on their way. <\/p>\n

By day\u2019s end, I also got some surprising news, as did my brother and\u2014to judge from the uproar on social media\u2014many other disappointed customers. \u201cDue to high demand,\u201d the email announced, \u201cwe are unable to fulfill your order of the apricot spread at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Clearly the Duchess was spread too thin. I was informed that I would get a refund and that \u201cwhen the apricot spread <\/a>is back in stock, you will be the first to receive it, free of charge.\u201d I\u2019m still waiting. <\/p>\n

The jam was clearly in a jam, but two weeks after I placed my order, a plain brown box landed on my doorstep with a sticker that warned: Open with Care. Inside, a card said simply, \u201cEnjoy\u2014Meghan.\u201d I brushed away the popcorn peanuts, opened the shortbread mix, and set to work. The box contained two packages: the cookie mix and a small bag of \u201cflower sprinkles,\u201d which turned out to be about a tablespoon of dried edible flowers, including rose, calendula, blue cornflower, and hibiscus. There was also a note from Meghan on the package: “Let’s call this a hug in a box,” she said. “I fell in love with the ritual of tea and ‘biscuits’ during my time in the U.K.”
<\/p>\n

All I had to supply was two sticks of butter. I whipped the butter and slowly added in the mix, aiming for the creamy consistency specified by the recipe on the box. Mine turned crumbly, but a little hand pressure got the dough to adhere. I folded in the dried flowers and rolled the dough into a log. At this point, I worried that it was too dry and made the mistake of checking TikTok, where amateur bakers were mixing and rolling their As Ever shortbread like pros. But with one rare box of cookie mix in my possession, there was no turning back. <\/p>\n

\"arrangementIngrid Abramovitch<\/p>\n

The editor\u2019s own version, baked from the Duchess\u2019s As Ever mix. <\/p>\n

After an hour in the refrigerator, the dough was sliced into wonky rounds and baked. The recommended 9 to 11 minutes went by without the pale brown result recommended by the recipe. I added a few minutes, then removed them from the oven still looking a bit pale, but firm to the touch, and let them cool. <\/p>\n

My family looked skeptical but eager to try them. \u201cI prefer chocolate cookies,\u201d my husband Joel declared. \u201cBut for shortbread, they are 10\/10.\u201d At the ELLE Decor office the next day, my colleagues devoured the rest of the batch. <\/p>\n

I have yet to try the crepe mix but, once again my brother Seth was way ahead of me. \u201cThe crepes came out a lot better than I predicted and were delicious,\u201d he said. \u201cThough they could have used some apricot spread.\u201d <\/p>\n

Baking, Sussex-Style\"aOpen Gallery\"\"\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Ingrid Abramovitch, the Executive Editor at ELLE Decor, writes about design, architecture, renovation, and lifestyle, and is the author of several books on design including Restoring a House in the City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a quiet morning last month when a text arrived from my brother Seth in California. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,1329,101665,1331,7721,7719,7718,1381,7720,1281,447,7710,519,101664,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-266920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-content-type-feature","10":"tag-contentid-8bfb744f-972a-4da3-867d-043f505075fc","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","13":"tag-duke-of-sussex","14":"tag-harry","15":"tag-locale-us","16":"tag-meghan","17":"tag-meghan-markle","18":"tag-prince-harry","19":"tag-royal-families","20":"tag-royal-family","21":"tag-shorttitle-we-tried-meghan-markles-shortbread-mix","22":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114863651336151347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}