AROUND TOWN

from SIMPLYkc Magazine July 2021

DEAR KACIE

COOKIES!

WRITTEN BY JULIE BURTON

They’re almost too pretty to eat … almost.

Cookies are a classic sweet treat. You have Grandma’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, the sorta-healthy-not-really flourless cookies, Girl Scout cookies, and cookie dough cookies (it’s a thing).But there is one type of cookie that is gaining attention, and it’s not surprising since these cookies are like looking at a piece of art.

They’re custom sugar cookies that are thick, buttery, and cake-like. Each cookie is hand-decorated with icing and artistic details meant to be displayed in a stunning presentation. They’re also just as good to eat. We gathered a few favorite “cookie-ers” around Kansas City for you to try out.

Kate’s Cookies KC

Instagram: @katescookieskc Facebook: @katescookieskc

You can’t blame her for keeping her day job. Kate Suter, owner of Kate’s Cookies KC, is a dentist by day. And by night—well, she’s making sure she has plenty of patients with a sweet tooth. Baking cookies became her side gig while she was in dental school. She moved back to Kansas City, started an Instagram account, and Kate’s Cookies KC was in business.

Suter does everything from baking the almond-flavored cookies to decorating with her lemon-flavored icing. The intricate decorating can take hours, and only Suter has the artistic hand. Her next project is teaching classes for anyone wanting to impress their friends and relatives with their own cookies.

Favorite cookie design: “The braille cookie I made for my niece, who is blind. She was always sad she couldn’t read her personalized holiday cookies, so for Easter one year I made her a personalized bunny with her name in braille.”

Love and Sugar Cookie Co.

Instagram: @loveandsugar_cookieco Website: loveandsugarcookieco.weebly.com

Love and Sugar Cookie Co. began from a scroll of Instagram, of all places. Katlin Julo started her cookies business in 2019 after seeing beautifully decorated sugar cookies on Instagram. Baking since she was a little girl, she focused on sugar cookies and the art of decorating.

Julo’s cookies are soft, thick, and full of vanilla and butter flavors. But the flavors don’t stop there. Julo loves to develop recipes to match the season. Her soft, ginger snap cookies were a customer favorite last fall. What’s next for the budding cookie-er? Possibly owning a bakery and coffee house. You can’t beat a very pretty cookie with a warm cup of coffee.

Kate’s Cookies KC

PHOTOS BY KATE SUTER

Love and Sugar Cookie Co.

Favorite cookie design: “My favorite cookie is probably my Christmas Cookie Santa! He’s just so cute!”

Fountain City Sweets

Instagram: @fountaincitysweets Facebook: @fountaincitysweets Website: fountaincitysweets.com

It’s easy to be consumed by the exhausting job of child-rearing. It is rewarding, but you also lose a little bit of yourself being a stay-at-home parent. Sara Siegele, owner of Fountain City Sweets, needed a hobby after two years of staying home. She discovered decorating cookies, and she found her passion.

She spends her early mornings and late nights dedicated to her “edible art.” When her kids get a little older, she plans to make the business her full-time career. She even started teaching cookie decorating classes at the local art studio, KClayton Studio in Overland Park.

Her cookies are soft with a light almond flavor. And unlike traditional royal icing, the icing has a much softer bite when fully dry. Siegele also offers vegan sugar cookies.

Favorite cookie design: “A customer wanted me to incorporate her logo designs and then gave me creative freedom to do anything I wanted within the theme ‘Kansas City’ for the rest of the cookies. I had the best time designing that set.”

Swoon

Instagram: @justswoon

Facebook: @justswoon Website: justswoon.com

Swoon began in 2007 by accident. Sofia Hudson owned a furniture gallery in the Crossroads. Her mother-in-law made sugar cookies for First Friday Art Walks. Soon people began coming just for the cookies, so the two decided to turn Swoon into a cookie business.

Swoon’s cookies are buttery and crisp. They are baked until the edges start to caramelize, and frosted with a crusting buttercream icing made with real butter, cream, and a lot of vanilla. The decorating is the longest process, taking at least three days to complete.

Hudson is turning Swoon into a national e-commerce site with standard assortments that are giftable. Stay on the lookout for a new retail space at their kitchen studio in Kansas City, Missouri. There will also be an expansion of offerings at their Made in KC Marketplace locations.

Swoon

Favorite cookie design: “We love to make personalized sugar cookie assortments full of inside jokes. The grouping of cookies may look crazy to a stranger, but the recipient’s face lights up with instant recognition.”

PHOTO BY HEATHER MORROW