[title subtitle=”WORDS: Marla Cantrell
image: courtesy Amber Ebbrecht”][/title]
In September, 2013, Collin Ebbrecht was turning two. His mother, Amber, was looking for something extraordinary to put in the gift bags she planned to hand out. She scoured her stash of cookie recipes and once satisfied, decided how she would decorate them. Amber picked a chevron pattern would go well with the theme of the party, which was Thomas the Train, so she went to Collin’s room and pulled out his Thomas toys and set them on the kitchen counter. She mixed up the icing and added food coloring until she got the colors to match the toys perfectly. When Amber was finished, she had a trove of cookies that were the hit of the party.
Some of the guests couldn’t believe Amber was able to create something so beautiful. You should sell these, they said, and Amber listened. At the time, she was on maternity leave with her newborn, Benjamin. She had several weeks left before she returned to her job as the art teacher for Holt and Oak Creek Middle Schools in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The timing was perfect.
Amber came up with a name: CeBe’s Custom Cookies, a play on the first letters in her sons’ names. She designed a logo and set up an online Etsy shop. She read hundreds of blog posts by fellow bakers, picking up tips on which equipment to buy, and insider accounts of which recipes were hits and which failed miserably.
Before long, the orders were coming in, from the Etsy shop, of course, but also from people who’d seen the cookies she’d made for Collin. What set Amber apart is her decorating skills. Her work as an artist showed in the intricate designs, some so ornate they look more like pieces of art than cookies.
She was also able to make templates for cookies when she couldn’t find a cookie cutter to suit her. And her work with color, knowing how to put colors together, knowing how to create those rich hues, brought more and more business.
Often, she’s asked to design something to match a shower invitation, or to put monograms on cookies. When left on her own, she comes up with such detailed designs they look like miniature works of art. One of her recent designs has a tiny clothesline where hearts are attached with even smaller clothespins, all set against a blue-sky background. She makes chicken shaped cookies so adorable it seems a shame to eat them. She makes cookies in the shapes of mittens, and cottages, and some that look like chalkboards.
One of the nicest things her customers say is that they want to eat the cookies, but taking that first bite is hard to do. They want to keep them in tact so they can keep enjoying the little masterpieces Amber’s created.
Her secret to the buttery, sugary wonders is kept under wraps. What Amber will say is how much she loves what she does. It’s a process that takes a lot of time. She’s come up with her own recipes, which include pumpkin spice, chocolate hazelnut, poppy seed, and vanilla almond. The cookies require drying time, and the Royal Icing, which hardens after applying, takes experience to get just right. Amber makes it in three consistencies for different areas, depending on the design. And those gorgeous details, like the miniscule roses, are painted on, something she loves to do.
Even the packaging is beautiful. The cookies are wrapped separately, placed in a windowed box and decorated with a handmade fabric bow attached with twine.
Her family loves what she’s doing. “My husband waits for me to make a mistake, to have a cookie he can eat,” Amber says. “And I eat my share. It’s a good thing I like to run, or I might be gaining a lot of weight. I also chew gum when I’m baking, just so I can avoid any temptation. I think baking is therapeutic, the kneading of the dough. I love every step in the process.”
It’s a lot to do, teach fulltime, bake in her off hours, keep up with her family life. But she’s happy to juggle it all. Every step has led here, she says. What she’s learned as an artist plays heavily in her designs. And even before that, when she was growing up in Van Buren, she had a head for business. “I was always selling something. I’d find things I didn’t need anymore and set up a table in the driveway and open shop. Once, I painted rocks and tried to sell them door to door.” Amber laughs. “I remember that because I dropped one on my dad’s car. I don’t think he’ll ever forget it either.”
She doesn’t know where CeBe’s Cookies will lead, but she would love, one day, to own a combination bakery/art school. She thinks the two things would work beautifully together. She imagines customers coming in, the place filled with cookies and pastries and goodwill. She would be smiling, she says, they would be smiling. It would be a happy, happy place.
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To order CeBe’s Custom Cookies, visit Amber’s online shop at etsy.com/CebesCookies. Since all her products are custom made, plan to order at least two weeks early.
