I had the great pleasure to attend a field trip to the Cookie Cottage with my Journalism class…read moreabout a week ago. The wonderful owner Cathy VandMhen toke 4 hours out of her busy work schedule to spend some time with my class. It did of course give my class and I a perfect opportunity to take a look at the birthday cottage attached to her bakery. When you first walk in you immediately notice the colors exploding everywhere, from the bright blue wall, to the pops of yellow and pink from the curtains. After we got settled I, we started off with a little craft, and an easy recipe for monkey-bread. After the bread was put in the oven, we moved on to decorating cookies. We used ketchup style bottle, filled with a variety of icing colors, to intricately design our cookies. Although many of ours didn't come close to the designs Cathy does on her cookies, it was a very fun, and special experience. We continued on with many other activities that really filled the whole experience with happiness and excitement.
Afterwards my class and I had the chance to pick two desserts out of her bakery case. I chose the strawberry short cake cupcake ($2.50) and the sinker doodle sugar cookie ($.50). The cake portion of the cupcake was moist, and had chunks of fresh, sweet strawberries mixed within. The icing was the classic sweet, sugary buttercream which perfectly complemented the cake hiding underneath. To finish off the look and whole strawberry was placed on top, bringing the flavors around in a full circle. The sinker doodle cookie was the "poster child" of a perfect cookie, everything from the crunchy out ring, the chewy center, and the flecks of cinnamon sugar throughout the whole dessert. Although the cookie was amazing it was easy out shined by the strawberry shortcake cupcake I had eaten before.
Lastly we got the opportunity to decorate our own vanilla cupcakes to take home. We used mini marshmallows, cut in half, dipped in sanding sugar, aligned in rows, on top of vanilla buttercream, to produce a lotus flower look. In the end they all turned out unique, and were very exciting to make. Overall this cupcake was my favorite. Although it was a basic, simple vanilla cupcake, with plain vanilla buttercream, it was exploding with flavor. The moisture and soft texture of the cake was captivating, perfectly accompanied by a thin layer of sweet, sugary buttercream, cut marshmallows, followed by a crisp crunch of colorful sanding sugar.
Overall, the Cookie Cottage was a great experience, and I would not hesitate to go there again, to not only try the delectable desserts once more, but to again thank the wonderful owner, Cathy VandMhen.