From Grandma’s Kitchen to Icing queens: my journey to creating cookie memories in racine
It started with my grandma’s tiny kitchen, a box of expired cake mix, and a dream I didn’t know I had yet. Here’s how those moments became “Icing Queens.”
The Question I Keep Asking: How Did I Get Here?
I often ask myself that question while I peer over at hundreds of cookies stacked neatly inside bins-organized by shape and theme for the upcoming classes that week. Or in the soft “sigh “ I let out after a long week-mopping my floors and wiping down powdered sugar coated cabinets.
The First Studio Space — And the Leap I Almost Didn’t Take
I reminisce in backwards thoughts-back to when I was first strolling the halls of Midwest Market 2210 in late November of 2024 with a friend of mine. She was trying to convince me for months to open a location there and I kept avoiding it. I glanced at the empty space that would eventually become my studio (I just didn’t know it yet.)
Where the Idea First Sparked
But let’s go back further. Think-the kitchen in my first house of 2017. I was making dog themed cookies for my aunt as a birthday gift because she loved her dog and she loved my cookies. I remember staring at them pondering as I turned to my (then husband) “do you think I could sell these?” He looked at me uninterested and shrugged. “I dunno. Can you?” I shrugged back. “Guess I can try and see what happens.” I made a post in my local neighborhood which showcased my ugly Christmas cookies I thought were the product of my prime.
Who would have thought it would be a kind old lady, who’d invite me over for tea to discuss my “first ever” cookie order for a small wedding-which would send me on the journey of “well, well, well, whadaya know.”
Learning the Art
It’s 2012 now. I’m in the kitchen with someone from my old church. She’s teaching me how to decorate sugar cookies with royal icing and we’re squeezing the soupiest icing out of the cut tips of plastic baggies 😅 somehow the cookies are turning out as pure art (at least in my 17 year old eyes). It is then, that I realize the magic that comes with the experience.
Baking With Grandma—And the Best Cake I Ever Had
2003. I’m 9 years old. In the smallest kitchen at my grandmas house-but it’s cozy. There’s endless boxes of pudding mixes, boxed cakes (that hopefully aren’t expired) and a refrigerator that lives in the front hallway instead of actually in the kitchen. We’re mixing up some concoction of the day. Banana pudding mix, a regular yellow box cake mix and fresh sliced bananas. We baked our cake and used whipping cream mixed with the pudding mix to make our own frosting-one of the best my memory still carries to this day.
The First Attempt—And a Rock-Hard Lesson
Now back to 2001-I’m only 7. I beg my mom to let me bake her cookies (never mind you, I have absolutely no recipe) she hesitantly tells me “I guess” because if anyone knows me, persistence should have been my middle name. I make the most dry, rock hard unsupervised abomination you could imagine. It lived in the bottom left vegetable drawer of the refrigerator for at least 3 months. I think my mom didn’t have the heart to throw it away (or the stomach to eat it)
Building More Than a Business
These pieces of time all coincide with something that would become the very roots of “icing queens” and blossom into what you all see today. Each moment-a representation of building core memories with family or friends… be it a sweet old woman ordering cookies for her son’s wedding…spending time shopping a market with a dear friend while dreams are brewing…a science experiment with grandma…community with your local church groups….or just what feels like a random thought one day in your kitchen.
It’s about the time we spend with those around us. The experiences we pursue and the risks we take. To build community with strangers you’d never talked to otherwise, and to pull people together in a time where the word “together” doesn’t ring as loudly as it once did.
Why Icing Queens Exists in Racine
That’s the point of all this. That you all take so many of our classes that you are confident to go home, grab your family-grab your close friends, turn on your own ovens and mixers and start writing your own memories… because who knows, maybe one day that’s where it all starts.
Ready to Start Your Cookie Story?
Join us at Icing Queens in Racine, Wisconsin for a cookie decorating class that’s more than just baking—it’s about connection, laughter, and memories you’ll carry forever.