Spurs love can't get any sweeter than this

SAN ANTONIO — If the Spurs win the NBA championship, at least some credit must go to the power of doughnuts, pan dulce and macarons.

At Mi Tierra Café y Panaderia, in El Mercado downtown, a veladora, or prayer candle, sits atop each pastry case. Nestled among the pralines, polvorones and pan de yema are dozens of round cookies covered in silver royal icing with “Los Spurs,” “Go Spurs Go” and a drawing of the team logo in black frosting.

“Our oven has been blessed,” said Angelica Cortez, pastry chef at Mi Tierra. “We said prayers over every batch and baked a lot of love into them.”

A batch of more than 100 cookies sells out within a few hours, she said.

“We have been selling them since we were playing Portland and we kept winning, so I kept baking,” Cortez said.

Take a few dedicated Spurs fans, give them a talent for baking and add a city hungry to celebrate and you have the perfect recipe for a new game day tradition. Local bakeshops are taking the heat in the kitchen to create treats that would have Coach Pop cracking a smile.

Though the sugar bombs are not on the players' training table, they are quickly becoming a fixture at family tables and neighborhood watch parties.

“Before, we literally could not keep them on the shelves,” said Melissa Gandy, manager at Bird Bakery on Broadway in Alamo Heights. “We'd put them in the case and people would buy them instantly.”

This time last year, Bird Bakery's baked goods bench wasn't very deep, and customers wiped out the supply. This season, Gandy and her team were ready. Their playbook includes an iced sugar cookie decorated with a basketball and “Go Spurs Go” script, cupcakes in black and white and a basketball theme and a Spurs tie cookie in honor of Father's Day.

At Bakery Lorraine, on Grayson Street east of The Pearl, owners Jeremy Mandrell and Anne Ng created two versions of their signature French macarons they have christened “Spurs macs.”

One macaron features an angel food filling inside black-dyed meringue cookies with a silver dusting. The other goes retro, with teal and orange cookies sandwiching pink raspberry jam.

“Those colors have such a nostalgia to them. Fans really love the throwback style. Now we're just trying to keep up with orders,” said Selina Juarez, manager at Bakery Lorraine.

At Panifico Bake Shop, on the near West Side, a doughnut in the iconic shape of a spur stands out among the doughnut holes, bear claws and twists. Their special doughnut began as a one-time customer request and now is a daily staple during the playoffs.

“It's the perfect occasion to pick up some pastries form this West Side treasure,” Dan Martinez, attorney and regular at Panifico, said as he picked up his dozen spur-shaped doughnuts for the office. “I love that they support our team like this.”

For some fans, picking up special cookies, doughnuts or pan dulce has become as much a part of game days as wearing a lucky T-shirt or visiting a favorite sports bar.

“The cookies have become a ritual for a lot of people,” said Christine McCrae Kelly, owner of Lily's Cookies, on McCullough Avenue just north of downtown. “They think, 'Well, I bought these cookies, and then we won,' so they keep coming back.”

It's a marriage of two great San Antonio loves: baked goods and Spurs basketball.

“Win or lose, this town is behind that team,” said Barbara Carpenter, visual artist and customer at Bakery Lorraine. “We love them unconditionally, just like a family.”

The only thing sweeter than one of these baked goodies would be another Spurs championship.

ejividen@express-news.net