Maybe it’s the political climate, maybe it’s…nope, it’s definitely the political climate that makes the idea of consuming sweets not just appealing but a necessary indulgence right now.

JCK’s Annie Davidson Watson blamed the heat when she gave us this sugar rush earlier this week, with her edit of jewels that recall the colorful goodies of our youths (for me this would be Creamsicles, Swedish fish, rock candy, and Italian ice—things I happily and somewhat shamelessly still gobble up at the peak of middle age).

There are also candy-colored jewels among the pieces in the John Hardy x Wölffer Estate capsule—summer’s sweetest collab, according to JCK’s Brittany Siminitz—inspired by the artwork on bottles of the vineyard’s famous rosé.

But with all due respect to Britt, I think the latest collaboration to land in my inbox has handily dethroned John Hardy’s rosé thing: Magnolia Bakery (a NYC icon known for its frosted cupcakes) and the funky cool-girl Brooklyn-based jewelry and accessories brand Studiocult just unveiled a collection that can only be described as a much-needed dopamine hit in the most desperate of times.

Born from a shared passion for whimsy, nostalgia, and celebration, the limited-edition jewels include a kitschy necklace, rings, and earrings in pastel pink, white, and gold. They have details inspired by piped icing swags and dots, anchored by a daisy motif—a nod to Magnolia’s enduringly popular Carrie cupcake seen on Sex and the City (Season 3, Episode 5, according to my Google search).

Interestingly, Magnolia has done several collaborations over the years; past partners include Keds, Boy Smells, Incredibles, and Essa Bagel. The Studiocult collab is its first time teaming up with a jewelry brand.

“We reached out to Studiocult because we loved the joyful nature of their designs and how it matched the whimsy of our brand,” says Sara Gramling, the bakery’s vice president of partnerships.

While I appreciate the whimsy and escapist elements of this collection for sure, it’s also about nostalgia for me. The mere mention of Magnolia Bakery makes me wistful on so many levels. I am not sure how it landed on my radar—besides Sex and the City’s cultural dominance, especially among girls who worked at fashion magazines. But I do have a vivid memory of a gorgeous July day in the West Village: It was my birthday, and I picked up a dozen cupcakes in pastel pink, yellow, and green frosting—always classic yellow cake for me—for a dinner party back in Brooklyn with my girlfriends that night. I remember awkwardly toting the box around with me as I shopped at Loehmann’s and tried on piles of Rebecca Taylor, Anna Sui, and Moschino in the store’s famous communal dressing room.

So many lazy Saturdays spent just wandering the city shopping before heading home for a disco nap in advance of whatever was happening that evening—that was life before 30 in NYC circa 2001. Sixteen years before I had a child. Before I returned to the jewelry industry to write about it here. Before my metabolism screeched to a halt. Before the headlines of the day forced me to stop watching SVU reruns and get my head in the game.

Adding to my sentimental feelings is the fact that a later-in-life celiac disease diagnosis makes all things Magnolia verboten unless I want to get very, very sick. So Magnolia-inspired jewelry is as close as I can get to invoking the days when I could bite into one (or two) of those cupcakes with wild abandon, walk for as long and as far as I wanted to in the golden sunshine of a summer afternoon. No one was expecting me at home. Like Carrie in the early seasons of SATC, I didn’t even have a cell phone. Social media and its daily assault on my mental health would not arrive for a least another five years. Can you imagine?

My birthday is tomorrow, as it happens. I am baking a gluten-free yellow cake for myself. It will have to do. But if I need a fix—if any of us need a fix—we now have a uniquely deliciously solution.

Top: Carrie Cupcake ring in stainless steel, polymer, and 18k gold PVD, $150; Magnolia Bakery x Studiocult

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