Freedom From Limits and Nuts in Cookie Decor Course

Normal rules don’t apply when you’re on spring break, or when you’re dealing with frosting.

If you don’t feel like decorating a tulip, turn your cookie upside down and it becomes a ghost. Red, yellow, and green daisies may not exist in nature, but they can in baking. And if you smudge, get ready to celebrate by eating your mistakes.

“You can do whatever you want,” said Prince Lang, a third grader at Bradfield Elementary, as he placed skittles on flower-shaped cookies at the University Park Public Library.

Cookie enthusiasts gathered on the library’s third floor on March 7, the first day of spring break in Highland Park ISD, to learn about decorating from the experts at patisserie and coffee bar Sugar & Sage Bakery on Lovers Lane.

Bakers Lynn Mai and Maggie Chappell demonstrated frosting techniques for participants in the cookie decorating class, then put them to work following their directions — or not. The bakers told the young, and older, cookie artists that they had free range.

“As a child, I wanted to be super creative and let whatever ideas I had come out,” Mai said. “And I think that this is a really fun way to do that, with no restrictions.”

Ten-year-old Emilie McCallan, who came to the class with her grandmother Linda Gardner, turned one cookie into a striped Easter Egg, and decorated another half green and half purple for the characters Elphaba and Glinda in the movie Wicked. 

But the decorations didn’t stop Emilie from eating her art. “It’s irresistible,” she said.

These cookies tasted even sweeter because they, like all baked goods at Sugar & Sage, were nut-free. 

Mother and daughter duo Alison and Ashley Sage Weinstein created the bakery as a space where Ashley, who is severely allergic to nuts, could enjoy being with friends without having to worry about her allergy, Chappell explained.

As the parent of a child with a nut allergy, I know that good nut-free cookie decorating classes aren’t just hard to find; they’re virtually nonexistent. I registered my children for Sugar & Sage’s class as soon as I could access the UP Parks and Recreation Department’s registration page.

The program was part of a new series from the department. It plans to offer courses on the first Friday of every month for now, though it may expand that selection in the fall, said recreation/aquatics coordinator Robert Coleman.

The courses are part of an effort to use the city’s facilities as well as possible to meet the community’s needs, he explained. And no one left this class in need of more sugar, white chocolate, or sprinkles. 

Hyer Elementary fourth-grader Charlie Underwood ate his first cookie shortly after he finished decorating it. He liked making designs on the baked goods, he said, but his favorite part was “knowing you can eat them after.”