Decorating Cookies with Morgan Webber of The Sugary Cookie

She turns the process of cookies from daunting into the stuff of royal-icing-coated dreams. Making decorated cookies approachable for the masses as well as delicious has been her goal ever since she set down this unlikely path 4 years ago. “I had never ordered decorated cookies - never even had them my entire life,” she says. “[One day,] I was hosting a baby shower and I ordered them as a favor. They were beautiful…  but they didn’t taste good. And it was such a bummer! They were hard and the icing didn’t have flavor. And I [thought], ‘this just feels like such a missed opportunity!’” 

So Morgan, a mother of two and former Montessori teacher, seized the opportunity, utilizing a sugar cookie recipe she found online and tweaking it, adjusting ratios to ensure a soft cookie (even weeks later) and adding almond extract. She set to work attacking the hard icing problem, too. “My icing has a softer bite to it. I call it Hybrid Royal Icing because it’s like royal icing and glaze combined. It gets hard and shiny, but it stays soft underneath.” These two recipes combine to achieve her ultimate goal: cookies that taste better than they look. It’s certainly – and I’m being sincere when I say this – the best tasting decorated cookie I’ve ever had. It’s edible art, or as Morgan would say, “not only edible – but enjoyable.”

Morgan will be the first to tell you that she never expected to be doing this for a living; she simply needed a creative outlet at home. “[It turns out] this is my thing. I’ve always been artistic and love crafts and I’ve always loved baking and food. I just didn’t realize how much I loved it. I’ve loved [making cookies] from the first day I did it. And I’ve made cookies every week since then, almost every day. I’ve just never stopped. I don’t think a lot of people can say they’re obsessed with what they do. I’m OBSESSED with what I do.”

Her kitchen in Thompson’s Station is a pristine, bona fide cookie cranking factory, complete with a dehydrator for faster frosting setting, a 3-D printer for creating custom cookie cutters (which she stores in neatly labeled baskets that greet you upon entering), and a wall to display her collection of antique rolling pins. An impressive counter and table span the length of what would be two rooms, a space of her own design that allows her to professionally produce her cookies as well as teach classes.

Ordering from or taking a class from her is like this season - pure joy. I tried my own hand at the techniques on the following page and I was beaming with pride, my sugar cookie apprehension melting away like the snow. 

Watch Morgan Make a Christmas Tree

You can find Morgan at the Hidden Gem farmer’s market in Spring Hill on Saturdays and on her Instagram @thesugarycookie. To order, visit thesugarycookie.com.