What makes us different?

The core reason I believe Icing Queens is different, is because we believe so heavily on creating safe spaces where we can all just be truly and wholly ourselves. Where we can feel safe to be imperfect, and make mistakes.

2025 taught me that I no longer wish or long to meet every goal or accomplish every task. I would far rather revel in what I currently have, than constantly push to achieve more.

I realize that I haven’t taken the time to just be happy with what I’ve already done, because internally my entire life, if I am not pushing myself for more growth than what even is my purpose?

I think I’ve been so heavily conditioned by childhood trauma that I had to prove myself. Not just to the world, but to me, and me was impossible.

Recently I’ve learned to center my expectations, slow down, and just SIT in what is…because honestly? What currently is, is pretty amazing. Constantly chasing more has not allowed me the peace to sit in it, take it in, and appreciate the beauty of what 2025 brought to our lives.

I exhausted myself. I chased empty friendships. I gave more than I should have, freely. I trusted too naively. I gave with an empty hope to somewhere, somehow receive back what I was pouring out, but it never came, and so I collapsed inwards. I shut down. My body crashed physically and mentally. All the signs were there but I ignored them until life made the decision for me.

So as I enter 2026, you may see me slow down in my pursuits to grow the biggest business, worried that “someone else might do it before me.” -because truly, let them? I’m just happy what I have with all of you exists.

I’m going to take my time to focus on the friends who’ve been there for me through all of this. Spend time with my family not just existing, but being PRESENT. Enjoy every moment and actually have the energy to do so. I’m reclaiming the joy that life brings, that sadly, was a distant memory most of 2025, even if it didn’t appear as so.

As I still recover from being extremely ill, and go through my cocktail of prescribed medications supposed to make me better, I am thinking of all those I’ve had the greatest time knowing. Those who brought joy when joy felt distant. Those who brought kindness, lent a hand, helped me grow and taught me new skills. Those who rallied behind me in every challenge I took on and those who truly believed in us.

Thank you. Thank you for being a part of my journey. And while 2026 might look slower, just remember that we’ve always been a place meant to slow down, and I can’t foster that if I’m not practicing it myself.

So here’s to a slow, nurturing, 2026. Where we can all grow slowly, and savor our mistakes, because we absolutely will still be eating them!

2025 wrapped up with a bow

This year has been an absolute whirlwind. I opened my cookie decorating studio mid January of this year with the expectation of using it solely for a space when private classes might need it.

I had zero intention of using it as an actual decorating studio, or hosting public classes.

In the beginning of Jan I posted my first public class tickets on my old website. I expected just a few people to come so I could re-coup my last wages from setting up the new space.

Unexpectedly, nearly 60 tickets sold within the first 3 days. I didn’t know what to do. I had one small table and a few chairs. Nothing was prepared. I scrambled. I got painting done. Ordered a bunch of new chairs and somehow-got everything ready. By mid January we had over 100 individuals signed up to take our classes.

I assumed, this was a “new business rush” and that the hype came simply from there being no other dedicated cookie decorating studios in Wisconsin.

When I launched my February classes I expected a few sign ups, but again, 100 individuals signed up.

March was a bit less and I assumed the slow down was coming and I’d go back to nonchalant business ownership.

But then April-August maintained the same traction. I realized early on I was going to have to decide where I wanted to take my business and what I wanted to gain from all of this. It was never money.

I realized quickly that we wouldn’t be able to stay in our tiny 250sqft location long term and would need to start exploring alternate options. We floated the idea of our own store front but didn’t want to jump too deep too fast. That is when we found Maltworks at Belle City Square . What sold me, was truly the managers of the property. They have a heart for their community and local businesses and I knew it would be the right location for me to take the next step in our business growth journey.

We took off the month of September to, once

Again, scramble building out an entirely new

Studio. BUT THIS TIME, I had a vision.

My heart has really been fully poured into this whole thing that bloomed from the seeds of zero-expectations.

I am SO thankful every single day, for the people I have met on this journey. The people I have gotten to know, to talk with, to see regularly. Honestly? Some of ya’ll are starting to feel like family. I get excited when I see familiar names on our sign up sheet. Classes feel more like a family get together than a group of strangers.

We have been able to do some pretty awesome things this year. We have donated dozens of free cookies and tickets to local non-profits, charity events, and fundraisers. We were able to raise nearly $600 for Hope Safehouse. We celebrated with friends, family and all of you-through cultural events like cinco de mayo, Easter, Dia de Los Muertos.

This is just the start. We plan to continue to pursue celebrating what makes each of us different in every way we can find. We plan to continue to find ways to support each other, and other local businesses. We can empower one another to circulate money locally, build togetherness, and slow down in inclusive spaces that take us back to the days before social media, screens and internet. Instead, we just enjoy the company of those around us, and if I must say-that’s pretty SWEET to me

I am proud yet humbled, because without all of you (who I now call friends) this wouldn’t be possible. It’s exciting. It’s exhilarating. We will continue to EAT our mistakes, and own the challenges. I am SO excited to see what 2026 holds for us.

Year to date, we have serviced:

-225 private classes

-102 public classes

-351 custom orders

-30,500 cookies baked (low estimate assuming every order and every class was the minimum size-which we can assure you, actual numbers are FAR FAR higher .)

-Hundreds of memories created

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing to life a dream I never fully could have imagined.

-Miranda

Relationships over riches

“It’s easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven.”

We’ve all heard that phrase before. It’s a reflection into the hunger for greed and how it will always take you onto a path of self-destruction. When I created my business it stemmed from a deep passion for art and a fond memory of early childhood years baking with my grandmother. It was always personal. It was always rooted in meaning.

To be honest, most of my initial years in business I had no idea what I actually wanted. I was doing something fun and creative and I loved encouraging others to take up a new hobby. I loved meeting new people and having the opportunity to share their special life moments together. I remember doing a bridal shower cookie class…where the group was making cookies to freeze for their wedding day. It was such a beautiful concept filled with meaning and togetherness. Imagine having cookies at your wedding that were all made by someone special to you. Each one carrying quirks that signify the individual who made them. How sentimental is that?!

When I opened my studio in January a vision slowly formed. I felt at a strange point in history where togetherness felt like the golden needle hiding in the haystack-elusive and almost impossible to find. When we got to sit down with customers (or stand!) we had so many opportunities to hear about personal lives, laugh, own our mistakes and grow together in unique ways. We watched dads and their kids build and get creative together in moments they’ll likely never forget. We watched moms get celebrated over mothers day. We played bingo and brought joy for no other reason than to share in the brief moments of “togetherness.” You are all far more than just “customers” but “stakeholders” into who we are becoming.

So what makes me rich? It isn’t a dollar sign. It’s not what we make, it’s HOW we make it. I can never put a value to these sacred moments because they are priceless. I don’t want to be remembered some day as just a cookie decorating studio...but as a place where our cookies were simply the vessel to connection. Where community and expression were given the freedom, security and space to grow. We carry something that can’t be duplicated because authenticity and soul are, and always will be, unique. And let me just say….we are PROUD to be the very first of our kind in Southeastern Wisconsin.

From Grandma’s Kitchen to Icing queens: my journey to creating cookie memories in racine

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.