Some of my earliest memories involve baking Christmas sugar cookies with my Grandmother and Mother. As I got older and lost both my mother and grandmother, I took over the mantle as family cookie baker. For the first few years, I kept the decorations simple--the colored sugars and sprinkles that I grew up with. Then I got asked to help out with a friend’s baby shower. I wanted to make something really special to go along with the jungle animals theme of our party, so I looked up decorating with royal icing. After some trial and error, I had some pretty decent cookies. Everyone at the shower raved about how pretty (and tasty!) they were and that was it. I was hooked on royal icing. As time went on, I became known among my group of friends for my decorated cookies. I made them for Christmas, of course--but also Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and just because. I even made special “Thank You” cookies as hostess gifts for my wedding shower. It was my thing. Then, life happened. I went to graduate school, started a new job. I had one baby, then two. I tried to keep up with cookie making, but time was limited and all the baking, mixing, and decorating took time. I scaled back to mostly making cookies for Christmas and my kid’s birthday parties. I still pinned lots of great ideas and dreamed about having time to make cookies for every occasion, but it just wasn’t practical. I did still host a cookie decorating party with some of our friends each year around Christmas. It was a fun way to celebrate the holidays and get some baking out of the way at the same time. And, it wasn’t as labor intensive as making the cookies on my own, because each family brought some pre-baked cookies and I mixed up the icing. Then we all decorated together. That sparked an idea. What if you could buy a kit with pre-baked cookies and premixed icing and all you had to do was decorate? After all, that was the fun part. The pre-work (the mixing, rolling, and baking) would be taken care of for you. Just the thing for our busy, modern life. I decided to give it a try. Kim’s Cookie Kits was born. I started this project to help other busy people make the same great holiday memories that I have. Whether it’s doing something with your kids or spending an evening with friends, cookie decorating fun for everyone. Time is at a premium in today’s world, and I wanted to make it as easy as possible for others to experience the joy of decorating their own cookies to share. I still use my Grandmother’s Christmas Sugar Cookie recipe and my mother’s rolling pin. I can feel them with me every time I roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, and spread the icing. I think they would be happy that I am sharing this little bit of family tradition with you.
