Velvet Delights Cottage Cookie Co.

05/30/2025

Hooray! 🎉

🧁 The Texas Cottage Food Law just got ⚡SUPERCHARGED⚡! Governor Greg Abbott has signed SB 541, the biggest expansion of the Texas Cottage Food Law yet. The bill’s passage puts Texas back on the cutting edge of cottage food laws nationwide!
Some of the changes include:

- Allows wholesale of non-refrigerated foods through a “cottage food vendor”
- The annual sales cap has tripled to $150,000, and is indexed to inflation from now on
- Clarifies (crystal clear) that there are no permits or permit fees required for selling or sampling – EVER
- Removing your home address from the food label with optional DSHS registration. You would get a unique identifier number from DSHS to put on your labels instead.
- This is personal – a new statement of non-inspection for the label that doesn’t read like it was run back and forth through Google translate half a dozen times. “THIS PRODUCT WAS PRODUCED IN A PRIVATE RESIDENCE THAT IS NOT SUBJECT TO GOVERNMENTAL LICENSING OR INSPECTION.”
- Foods allowed is now an EXCLUSION model. So, there’s no list any more of what you CAN sell, it’s now a list of what you CAN’T sell. Trust me, this is good. You will be able to sell ANY FOOD directly to the consumer under the cottage food law, except:
* meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products (this doesn’t mean eggs, it means the carcass of a chicken);
* seafood, including seafood products, fish, fish products, shellfish, and shellfish products;
* ice or ice products, including shaved ice, ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, and gelato;
* low-acid canned goods;
* products containing cannabidiol (CBD) or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); or
* raw milk and raw milk products

What kind of cottage foods can you sell as of September 1, 2025, that aren’t allowed now? Cheesecakes. Banana pudding. Flan. Pumpkin pie. Cream pies. Cut fruits and vegetables. Cheese. Vegetarian casseroles and pasta dishes. Pizza (no meat). Sandwiches (no meat). Hot meals (no meat). Sense a theme here? No meat. You WILL need to register with DSHS if you are selling foods that require refrigeration, and add some additional information to your labels (date made and a statement about safe handling instructions).

DSHS must make rules regarding registering to sell refrigerated foods, removing your home address from your label, and the process to become a cottage food vendor. I have NO ANSWERS to questions about this process at this time. We will be monitoring closely over the coming months and provide information as soon as it is available.

The changes go into effect on September 1, 2025. Thank you, Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Lois Kolkhorst, Representative Lacey Hull and Judith McGeary at the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance for your hard work contributing to this victory!

LET'S PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!

05/20/2025

These French macarons are filled with a whipped semi-sweet chocolate ganache 🍫 I’ll be getting them to my taste-testers this week 😋
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05/19/2025

Whipping up macaron magic! After lots of practice (and a few kitchen dance breaks), I’ve found my macaron groove with the French method and I’m loving every minute! 🥰 These little shells have been so much fun to master, and I can’t wait to share them with you all this fall. Now to perfect those fillings… I’m thinking a rich, silky chocolate ganache to start 😋

Stay tuned for some seriously delightful treats!

05/13/2025

🥳🥳🥳

🥳🥳🥳 Texas Food Freedom Act finally passes the House by a vote of 135-5.

This bill VASTLY expands opportunities for cottage food producers, including ability to sell more (healthy, refrigerated) foods, increases the annual sales cap to $150k, adds the ability to wholesale non-refrigerated cottage foods, clarifies that permits aren't required for sampling, removes the home address from labels with optional DSHS registration... and MORE. It's truly a groundbreaking food freedom bill that puts Texas back on top of the Food Freedom movement.

What's next: since the bill passed the Senate back in April with different language, Senator Kolkhorst will need to either concur with the changes or request a conference committee to hammer out the differences.

After that, the bill is sent to Governor Abbott for his signature to become law! He can sign the bill to become law, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. The last day the Governor can sign or veto bills is June 22.

If the bill becomes law, it will take effect September 1, 2025.

Link to bill: https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=SB541

05/09/2025

🌸 Embracing a New Season 🌸

As I prepare to welcome our third baby this summer & delve further into my homeschooling journey with my little ones, I find myself drawn to a simpler, more family-centered rhythm. This means some delicious changes for Velvet Delights Cottage Cookie Co.

✨ I’ll be hosting more flash sales, pre-sales, & pop-ups with a focus on less intensive, yet equally delightful treats. While custom orders are to be determined- custom decorated sugar cookies specifically will be extremely limited as I make space for my growing family & the precious early years we cherish together.

✨ I’ll be taking a maternity break in June, continuing into the early fall, as we settle into life as a family of five. During this time, I’ll be resting, reflecting, & dreaming up new recipes to share with you once I return.

Thank you for being part of this sweet journey & for supporting my small, home bakery as it grows alongside my family. I’m excited to share the next chapter of Velvet Delights with you.

With warmth and gratitude,
Jess

03/27/2025

‼️🍓🍞🥗🍲🍰‼️Hearing alert for the Texas Food Freedom Act!

This is my favorite bill of the session, because it does the MOST for cottage food producers, and not only does it promote a HEALTHIER local food system by allowing cottage food producers to sell more than snacks and desserts and giving people meal choices that aren't fast food. It clears up some very annoying gray areas that have plagued us for years. This is SB 541 on steroids. It's an amazing bill. Let's pass it.

How would this bill help you? How would it help promote a healthier food system? Tell the committee! You can leave an online comment until the hearing starts at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, 3/31: https://comments.house.texas.gov/home?c=c410

Fill out the form on top, and select HB 2588 by Hull on the bottom, and write your comment.

Share this far and wide, in every Texas cottage food group you belong to, every homesteading group, to any friends and family who might be interested and leave a supportive comment.

It's time to write to or call your Texas State Representative and tell them you support HB 2588! Who represents you? Enter your address at this link: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home Find your State Representative (NOT your U.S. Congressman). Your State Representative has a phone number that starts with 512-463-###X.

You can com watch the hearing in person or watch live at house.texas.gov on Monday morning.

Can you attend in person? You do not have to testify, you can simply register in favor of the bill and watch the proceedings.

Are you interested in giving testimony? Please email me at [email protected] and let's talk!

Read the bill: https://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB2588

Under the bill:
All foods except the following would be allowed for direct sales:
* meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products (this doesn't mean eggs, it means the carcass of a chicken)
* seafood, seafood products, fish, fish products, shellfish, or shellfish products
* ice or ice products, including shaved ice, ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, or gelato;
* low-acid canned goods
* products containing CBD or THC
* raw milk or raw milk products
What does that mean? Cheesecakes, flan, pumpkin pies, cut fruits and vegetables, cheese, hot meals (excluding meat), casseroles, pizza, banana pudding, gelatin products, they would ALL BE ALLOWED. If it's not on the list above, it would be allowed.

The sales cap would be raised to $100,000 annually, and indexed to inflation starting in 2026.

Non time or temperature-controlled foods could be sold at wholesale through a "cottage food vendor".

Sampling would be fixed. Yes, fixed. It would be explicit that a health department cannot charge a fee or issue a permit for sampling, and you could sample anywhere the same way you can at a farmers' market (Texas Health & Safety Code Sec. 437.020(3)(c)) or stick to the old method of packaging and labeling every sample.

As with SB 541, we are addressing the nasty "permitting" issue, with some local health departments STILL illegally requiring a permit to allow you to sell cottage foods at events.
Home address on label would not be necessary with optional registration with DSHS.

Shipping - no, shipping would still not be allowed, but the language does at least clarify it and remove the archaic "mail order" language.

Ever wondered if you as a cottage food producer could donate to a nonprofit bake sale or fundraiser? This bill clarifies that if an individual can do it, you can do it from your business as well.

Let's pull together and help pass this amazing bill out of the House! Goooooo team! 🌟🌟🌟

02/12/2025

Let’s start working on support for this Texas Cottage Food expansion bill! We were so close to getting one passed a couple of years ago, but we’re back again!

Homemade Texas has BIG news - a bill we've been working on for a couple of months has finally been filed! HB 2588, the Food Freedom Act, contains many of the same elements as Senator Kolkhorst's Cottage Food Expansion Bill (SB 541), but MORE. More freedom, more potential, more clarity. What is there less of? Restrictions. Confusion. Gray areas.

Let's talk about it! https://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB2588

All foods except the following would be allowed for direct sales:

* meat, meat products, poultry, or poultry products
* seafood, seafood products, fish, fish products, shellfish, or shellfish products
* ice or ice products, including shaved ice, ice cream, frozen custard, popsicles, or gelato;
* low-acid canned goods
* products containing CBD or THC
* raw milk or raw milk products

What does that mean? Cheesecakes, flan, pumpkin pies, cut fruits and vegetables, cheese, hot meals (excluding meat), casseroles, pizza, banana pudding, gelatin products, and on and on. If it's not on the list above, it's allowed.

The sales cap would be raised to $100,000 annually, and indexed to inflation starting in 2026.

Non time or temperature controlled foods could be sold at wholesale through a "cottage food vendor".

Sampling would be fixed. Yes, fixed. It would be explicit that a health department cannot charge a fee or issue a permit for sampling, and you could sample anywhere the same way you can at a farmers' market (Texas Health & Safety Code Sec. 437.020(3)(c)) or stick to the old method of packaging and labeling every sample.

As with SB 541, we are addressing the nasty "permitting" issue, with some local health departments STILL illegally requiring a permit to allow you to sell cottage foods at events.

Home address on label would not be necessary with optional registration with DSHS.

Shipping - no, shipping would still not be allowed, but the language does at least clarify it and remove the archaic "mail order" language.

Ever wondered if you as a cottage food producer could donate to a nonprofit bake sale or fundraiser? This bill clarifies that if an individual can do it, you can do it from your business as well.

What's the purpose behind this bill? In a nutshell, it is to help make Texas Healthy Again, and to make cottage food producers an important part of a local healthy food system. Home cooks can be more than purveyors of snacks and desserts. In a food desert, a home kitchen might be the only place you can get a hot or healthy meal.

We're also simplifying some gray areas, like sampling and donating to nonprofits. If we can't get shipping added this time (at least in this bill), at least we can make the rules around it easier to understand.

It's time to start calling and writing to your State Representative! Who represents you? Enter your address at this link: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home Find your State Representative (NOT your U.S. Congressman). Your State Representative has a phone number that starts with 512-463-###X. It's time to begin building some support for HB 2588!

I hope you're as excited about this bill as we are! Homemade Texas came up with the idea for the bill while watching Senator Kolkhorst's interim hearing for Senate Health and Human Services in November, and has been working on it ever since, including trips to the Capitol, Zoom meetings, and many emails and redlined drafts. Huge thanks also go out to the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance for wholeheartedly supporting, advocating for, and drafting the bill.

This is an exciting one! Let's gooooo team!

08/28/2024

The sweetest way to reveal a little miracle! 🤍 My lovely friends asked me to be their ‘gender keeper’ and requested a very special cake for their surprise reveal 🎂✨🥰 Congratulations on your little bundle of joy!!

06/15/2024

A tradition continues! Thankful for my repeat customers and honored to be a part of Lexi’s birthday celebrations for the third year in a row. These little ones grow up too fast, but memories like these make it all worth it 💖 Here’s her pink, sparkly, and oh-so-fabulous 6th birthday set!

06/13/2024

🔥 Firing up the celebration with a sweet sendoff! Honored to have made these cookies for Asst. Fire Chief Santana’s retirement party. Cheers to an amazing career and a bright future ahead!

05/29/2024

It’s almost time to meet the new cub! These parents can bearly wait for their baby to arrive, and they’re celebrating with these adorable sugar cookies 🧸🩵 Thank you for entrusting me to make these delicious treats for your baby shower! ✨

03/19/2024

Sweeten up your bridal shower celebrations with adorable sugar cookies 🍪💍