By Katelyn Travers
“I never really went into this to be a full time job or to build a big business,” says Karen Avery, owner and decorator of Cakes and Cookies, who also was a church accountant for 20 years. “It was just something that I thought I would enjoy doing.”
Sparked from imitating tiger cupcakes she saw in a book for her first grandson’s second birthday, Avery says, “This was something that would allow me to be creative and allow me to work from home.”
Avery bakes, frosts and decorates cakes on her island countertops. Her creative freedom has led her cake decorating into many unusual designs. Entire football arenas, pirate ships and multi-tiered wedding cakes are spectacles that cannot be created overnight.
Avery has spent as many as 60 hours detailing an immaculate wedding cake and 30 to 40 hours on slightly less elaborate pieces. Prices range from $100 for a one tier cake to $250 minimum for a wedding cake iced with butter-cream frosting. Additional cake flavors or icing colors cost $10 each.
Avery’s business is 100 percent run from her home just outside Manhattan. If consultations are not via phone or e-mail, customers will take a few turns down gravel roads to meet in her kitchen.
Since her business began, Avery has only taken one cake decorating class. “I’ve always had the ability to teach myself things, I’m basically self-taught.”
The one class she has taken, however, was by a woman who won multiple cake competitions and has appeared on the Food Network.
Avery says she is not interested in entering any of those competitions, because “I’m not really competitive by nature, so I haven’t really considered it.”
However, pieces like her wedding castle cake complete with edible flags and drawbridge or flowers that look handpicked rather than handmade would be sure to grab a judge’s attention.
Avery has had some thrilling experiences taking this career path. Transporting cakes always sets the stage for disaster. Fortunately, her delivery has never been met with tragedy, but at times layers have slid and required last minute primping at the delivery destination.
A self-proclaimed detail-oriented person, Avery will ice and re-ice layers of a cake until it meets her standards. She will only take on one wedding cake a week in order to ensure quality. She also has a standard recipe that will alter slightly based on consistency needs for the structure of the cake.
Creative Cakes & Cookies’ whole business style is very laid back and 
concerned with the people she is serving and the project she is creating at the moment. Avery enjoys the variety of people she would not otherwise meet and, “being a part of such an important part of their life.”
Her passion is evident when explaining how she believes these people have come into her life for a reason and she hopes her cake will be mean more to them than just something to eat. Her goal is that each cake will exceed the customer’s expectations and bring them joy.
When decorating each cake, Avery prays for the blessing of her customers in hope that they will, “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
