Sweet Cheeks Gourmet baker does custom cookies by the dozen

Sara Walker is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cookies. Her custom frosting and designs can take hours, yet she never tires of the process.

She never intended to have a baking business, and in fact still has a full-time day job. But when friends kept asking for her cookie creations, she started selling. Now she makes custom orders weekly for Sara’s Sweet Cheeks Gourmet Bakery. After more requests, she began teaching cookie decorating classes as well. Currently, she teaches about one class a month at Art N Soul Studio, 18720 Pleasant St., Brookfield.

Walker also will be selling decorated cookies at Hawthorne Hill Farm, 16370 Small Road, New Berlin, Nov. 4-6; Brookfield East High School, 3305 Lilly Road, Brookfield on Nov. 13; Washington County Fairgrounds, 3000 Highway PV, West Bend on Nov. 19; and Whitnall High School, 5000 S. 116th St., Greenfield, on Dec. 3. Look for more events at facebook.com/sweetcheeksgourmetbakery.

Walker recently talked with the Journal Sentinel about her love of baking and her business.

I started baking in middle school. I grew up with my mom always making our cakes. I have always loved the decorating aspect of cakes. I had no idea about cookies till about 10 years ago. I was doing a birthday treat for my daughter. We were doing crazy cupcakes. They looked almost like popcorn. I thought oh my gosh, it would look great if we had a little sign that said “Carnival." I Googled a recipe. I'm still using it to this day, with a few tweaks. …

About five years ago I decided to learn more about the icing. Instagram and Facebook were coming around with videos and all these things. It was how I learned, with 30-second videos of these people doing cookies. I never took a class.

Friends would see the cookies and ask, “Could you make these for my daughter?” Then friends again asked if I'd ever taught. … So I taught a class for this group of friends. … I’ve been teaching classes now for a year since February. I love sharing my passion.

I have a full-time job. This is a side thing. It is really word of mouth. I don't do any advertising. I just finished a huge 14 dozen order for a wedding. That is a lot of cookies. My husband thinks it is crazy, because it is so detailed. For me, when I’m doing cookies, my world disappears, there is no problem, no troubles, and I decorate into the middle of the night.

One of the huge things for kids is paint your own. You get a paint palette of dried food coloring and you get to paint your cookie. Kids love to be the artist and eat it when they’re done.

My day job is in accounting — all numbers, not really creative. I've always had this creative part. I crochet, dabbled in drawing. This is a creative outlet, but you have to be strategic in planning. I'm gone 50 hours a week at a day job. Cookies are not quick. I have to plan. I have to have at least two weeks' notice for orders. … A custom order starts at $48 a dozen. That will include up to five basic designs and up to five colors.

I have to have the cookie cutters. I have more than 1,000 at this point, and it is now an obsession. I counted them at the beginning of the year and I had 800. My husband said, “You'd be silly not to get to 1,000." I said, “Challenge accepted!”

The majority I use are 3D cookie cutters I order online from various suppliers. Etsy is a great place for those. There are two local places I go to in a pinch, a place in West Allis, Cook Specialty, and Downtown Dough in Cedarburg.

I do classes at a little studio in Brookfield, Art-N-Soul Design Studio. I can teach up to 14 people at a class. It is basic. You don't need any experience. I've had kids between 11 and 13 take a class. I had my first two men in my last classes.

It is usually a theme. We make six cookies. I bring the baked cookies and already colored and bagged frosting. I do a little instruction and go over all the supplies and where you can find them, then tricks and tips on making the icing as we don't make that in class. I give them my recipe and do a demonstration of how to get it to the right consistency to do the basic flooding of the cookie. Most of my students have never touched a decorator bag or worked with a sugar cookie before. I am not a professional or trained, but I show them how I do it. Obviously there are other ways to do it, but this is my way.

I think my students impress themselves. These cookies look great. Are they perfect? No, they just started, but you eat it at the end anyway. The frosting tastes good, the cookie tastes good. No one knows what it is supposed to look like but you, so if you make a mistake, is it really a mistake?

I tell people this is my therapy. Once people start going there is not a peep in the room. The world disappears and they love the way their cookies turn out. I love to show my first cookies and how hideous they were. It is all about practice.

I give these out in the class. The number one tool I use is a scribe, a handled sharp metal toothpick is what it looks like. That is the most useful tool when you’re doing cookies and when you’re doing a class. I include that, and I show you the different ways to use the tool.

Then sewing clips, you use to clip the tip of the bag to cut it to keep it from oozing out or air getting in. If you have five bags in my class, you get five clips. It keeps the icing fresh and from making a mess.

Third, find a decorator bag you really like, one that feels good in your hand. There are thousands of people out there selling bags, so find the right one that works for you. Those three things are important.

You need to have a nice level of patience to sit and do something so tedious. I definitely feel I have that. People will laugh when I say this, but I don't like baking. That is the worst part for me. I just want to decorate. I have little patience when I bake. I have to do that to get to the point I enjoy.

People will come to my booth at craft fairs and I always sample, because people would see them and think they were clay or magnets. That is flattering, but everyone’s comment is they're too pretty to eat. My response is but they’re too yummy not to eat.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, if they try them, they will buy at least one cookie. In the end, it is a cookie. It has to taste good.

Food is comforting. It is the way to people’s heart. Cookies and platters and giving cookies has always been my thing.

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Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email [email protected].