Art has always been a big part of Jamie Roberts' life.
"I grew up in a very creative household," she recalls. "My mom was very artsy, very crafty and creative, and drew all the time. And that's how we hung out — we just colored and painted and drew."
What Roberts didn't know as a child was that she'd later realize her calling as an artist via the medium of royal icing.
It all started in 2017 when she was baking cookies with her three daughters for the holidays and posted a photo of the cookies on Facebook. A friend messaged her that if those cookies had been available, she would have bought them.
So for Valentine's Day, mostly as a lark, Roberts offered her cookies on Facebook, "just to see which 15 of my friends are gonna feel sorry for me and buy some cookies."
She ended up selling 440 Valentine's cookies. "Within a month, I had my business license and insurance and everything I needed to start my business."
By 2020, Roberts, who is entirely self-taught, was doing business as Three Birdies Bakery, baking and decorating cookies full time out of her home kitchen. Last February, she moved to a professional kitchen in Spokane Valley. It was a relief to her, and her husband, for her to have her own separate workspace. But Roberts admits it's still a struggle to balance her professional and home life. "My brain just does not stop. As a creative, you're constantly thinking, 'I could turn that into a cookie,' or 'I could be connecting with my customers this way.'"
It's a busy business, especially during holidays — Christmas and Valentine's Day are her two biggest — when she'll bake upward of a thousand cookies a week, sometimes spending up to 45 minutes doing intricate work on a single cookie.
"I try to take inspiration from the real world, more than I take it from other people's cookies," she says, noting that she does not take orders from clients wishing to copy other people's cookies. "I have a certain style to my cookies. I hand write all my stuff, and I take a lot of pride in the fact that my fonts look really good."
Roberts' cookies are also distinctive because she uses a 3-D printer to create her own cookie cutters. She can recreate corporate logos or craft virtually any idea a client arrives with. She recently printed a variety of shapes — slot machines and dice — for an order from a casino. And she's responded to some amusing requests over the years. One of her favorites was an OB/GYN who treated the office staff to "very detailed vagina" cookies. Another favorite was the church group that requested "dabbing Jesus" cookies.
With so much effort going into producing each cookie, is she ever sad that all her artisanship gets, well, digested?
"There are some orders where I wish that I could just save them," Roberts acknowledges. "But if people say, 'They're too pretty to eat!' my response is, 'I'll make you more.' I've made peace with the fact that I'm here to make things to be destroyed. I bring a lot of people joy, so it's OK."
COOKIES FOR ALL
One reason Jamie Roberts moved her business to a commercial kitchen was because it was a challenge working at home with "three inquisitive kids." Her advice on decorating cookies with young kids? "Keep it simple. Kids are easy. They're going to eat it as soon as they're done."
For the most basic cookie party, Roberts recommends getting canned frosting and tinting it with food coloring. Pop a dollop of frosting in a zip-close bag and snip a corner to create a piping bag for delicate work; plastic knives for bowls of frosting will suffice for more uninhibited young artists. The soft creamy frosting on these cookies will be easy to smear and ready to eat the minute the decorating is finished.
Royal icing, used by professional bakers, is "finicky," Roberts says, noting that the consistency can vary. But this pro-style frosting offers the opportunity for creating fine lines and details that can provide a more challenging and artistic option for older kids and adults. Roberts says her recipe for royal icing can sit on the counter for a week, in the fridge for three weeks or in the freezer for six months.
Royal icing of a thicker consistency can be piped delicately through a small tip onto a cookie for distinct details. Or the icing can be watered down a bit, put into a piping bag with a broader tip and "flooded" onto the cookie to create a smooth, solid finish.
For the houses Roberts made for Health & Home, she first coated the cookies with a light layer of white frosting that was allowed to dry. Next she outlined the windows in red with a narrow tip piping bag, then flooded the rest of the house around them, using the outlines as a sort of dam to prevent the frosting from flowing everywhere. A tiny brush helped make sure the flood reached every nook and cranny. The "flooded" cookies need to dry as long as overnight before additional layers of decorative piping can go on top.
— ANNE McGREGOR
TRY IT YOURSELF
ROYAL ICING
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/3 cup meringue powder
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 pounds powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Whisk meringue powder into the water until frothy.
- On low speed of your mixer, slowly add in the powdered sugar.
- Once incorporated, raise speed to medium and mix approximately three minutes or until the icing turns white and has a smooth toothpaste-like consistency.
- To adjust consistency: Stiffen icing with additional powdered sugar; thin by spritzing with small amounts of water at a time.
— RECIPE COURTESY OF JAMIE ROBERTS
Find Jamie Roberts' cookie kits at threebirdiesbakery.com. Roberts also teaches cookie classes at the Kitchen Engine. Go to thekitchenengine.com to see the schedule and sign up.
