Welcome to the blog! If you are looking to buy tickets to a cookie decorating class, you are almost in the right place (click shop on my main page and you will see my upcoming classes). If you are interested in reading about how to teach a cookie decorating class, continue reading!
Teaching a class can be a lot of work (some of that work can be reduced for a price), here is a quick rundown of what I do for my classes, things I am considering for future classes, and how I got into this in the first place!
Class Prep
Teaching a cookie decorating class is mostly prep work. Assuming you already know where you will be teaching and how you want to collect payment, the first thing you will need to do is design a set! (a.k.a. determine what you want to teach). My first class was in February, it was after Mardi Gras and Valentines day, but far too early for a Saint Patrick’s day set, so I kept it simple with flowers and a butterfly (check it out below). I came up with this set by doing some Pinterest searching and looking for a few key items:
- I wanted my set to have 5 or 6 unique cookies
- I wanted it to incorporate a few different techniques (wet on wet, using a scribe, layers, etc)
- I wanted to stick to 5 colors or less
With spring fast approaching in Louisiana, flowers and a butterfly seemed to fit all of my criteria so step 2 was to create a sample of my set to advertise my class and use as a reference photo. I am lucky enough to have a 3d printer so I can dream up any cookie cutter shape I like and make it happen but keep in mind that you may need to purchase cutters well in advance.
Once you have your set, you need to take pictures for advertising material. People want to know what they are signing up for! I prep most of my advertising material on Canva, below is a look at my first flyer!
Once your sales start rolling in and your class date it approaching, it is time to bake! Side note on sales, I purchased a package from WordPress that allows me to use WooPayments to collect credit card payments online. This is so easy because I am able to track inventory and limit class size without a lot of contact with customers!
Prep for the class is pretty straightforward, you will need to bake… a lot. My class sizes are around 12-20 people depending on the venue so at 6 cookies per person, I could be making anywhere between 72-120 cookies. If you are following my sugar cookie recipe on the blog, that recipe usually makes around 30 cookies (depending on cookie cutter size).
Making the icing is the hard part. It is difficult to determine just how much each person will need of each color but more is always better. If I end up with leftover icing at the end of the class I encourage people to take it home to practice if they would like or I can use it on some practice cookies! For the set above, I knew that I would need everyone to have a hefty amount of blue and light pink and only a little yellow and white, so I planned accordingly. The icing bags that I purchase are 14 inches which leaves enough room to tie off the bag with a knot. I prefer this over wasting a ton of rubber bands or clips!
It is not just cookies and icing you need, below is a list of must have class materials!
Class Materials:
- cookies
- icing
- example pic
- tray to place icing bags (one for each person)
- parchment paper
- scribes
- paint brush (if your set requires them)
- practice sheets
- scissors (if you do not pre-cut your bags)
- paper towels
- boxes (for clients to put their cookies in at the end)
- business cards (this is a great way to advertise your service, after all)
See set up below
From here, it is easy! I decorate my set and explain what I am doing each step of the way. I try to do mine quickly so that I can to a quick walk around the room after each step to answer questions and help out!
Things I am Considering
When it comes to cookie decorating classes, there are plenty of ways to teach! There are also potential corners to cut to make your life a little easier. One corner that I am thinking about cutting is creating my own sets. There are some great businesses out there that take the prep work and do it for you! I have heard great things about 6B’s teaching partners but this does come at a cost of about $60/month. If you are teaching more than one class, this may be a great option but if not, it may eat too much into your own profit. It will depend on your individual scenario! I have been considering it lately because I have increased to three classes a month! I will update if I choose to make the leap!
How I Got Started
I have been decorating sugar cookies for a while and in November of 2023, decided I wanted to get more serious about it. I was testing the waters and posting pictures of my work on social media when someone approached me about teaching a class at a business that they own. I won’t get into specifics but long story short, they essentially wanted me to do A LOT of work for free so I passed on that opportunity, but I could not get the idea of teaching a class out of my head. I started to approach local businesses to see if they were interested in partnering up and someone finally gave me a chance! It took a lot of emails and a lot of rejection but it paid off in the end and I am very happy to be offering classes at three locations now!
Thinking of Teaching?
When I was first considering teaching, an AMAZING cookie decorator was very open to helping me out (Shout out to Sugar Sage Co in Illinois). I would love to pay that forward. If you have any questions please reach out, I am happy to help!
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