Hello, I am Nadia-- a proud student of YouTube University, where I learned how to decorate cookies (in my head that sounded so much cooler than saying "I'm a self-taught baker"). I was introduced to baking at an early age by my Granny Jean, however I started decorating cookies in 2016 as an outlet to positively process some of life's lows. My first cookie set (Hearts for Valentines Day) looked HORRIBLE...the icing ran right off the cookies and my lines were as WONKY as they come but going through that process sparked something inside of me. It reminded me of a time when I was about 10 years old, and my big sister got me a children's encyclopedia series. I used to sit in her closet reading those books when one day I came across a picture of a birthday party set up where they made one of the COOLEST circus displays out of cookies and other sweet treats (at least that's what I thought at the time). My first cookie set reminded me of the time I saw those pictures for the very first time and said, "THIS IS SO COOL I'M GOING TO MAKE THIS FOR MY BIRTHDAY ONE DAY". 

 

Instead of being defeated by my failed first attempt I felt driven to try again...and again...and again improving on my skills with every set I completed. Fast forward to 2018, where I now have a 1-year-old son and I'm excited at the thought of making him so many cool cookies for his birthdays only to discover by the age of 2 that he was not a fan of royal icing (or any version of it). I would spend all this time decorating cookies for him, only for him to eat the back part of the cookie leaving me with a palm full of soggy icing every time (EEEWWW). For the first time since I started decorating cookies, I felt defeated, I could not wrap my mind around not being able to share my love of decorating cookies with my son.... SOOOOOOO, I DIDN'T. I would not accept defeat so I started looking for icing alternatives to quickly realize that I did not have much of an option, so I did what any mom would do for their child...try to find a way. Month after month after month I tried creating a recipe for an icing that wasn't so sweet and month after month there was no success in sight until the night Granny Jean visited me in a dream. 

 

In this dream we were sitting at a kitchen table talking; it was more like me talking to her about the difficulties I was facing in this creative process while she just smiled a listened. I remember crying in the dream telling her "Granny I don't know what to do it feels impossible". She smiled and she replied, "What do you like to do most?" I replied "Baking"... She then asked, " What are you baking right now?"... I replied "Cookies"...her smile got brighter, and she started nodding her head then she said, "isn't a cookie made out of dough, what ingredients do you need to make cookie dough?" She then reaches into the pocket of her apron pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil and slides it across the table where instinctively I started listing the ingredients while saying them aloud. By the time I got to the end of that list she said, "how can you say it's impossible if you just did it?" She smiled, touched my hand and I woke up! While I wish I could say that the recipe I wrote out in the dream was a success right away it was not HOWEVER it was a starting point in a whole new direction. 

 

Which brings us to the present times, if you have read this far, consider yourself part of the dream. The dream is to create and sustain an avenue for anyone who wishes to enjoy a low sugar decorated cookie, while still being delighted by the display of some already established and any new techniques develop along the way, used to capture their custom vision for any special occasion.