We recently connected with Britt Galvin and have shared our conversation below.

Britt, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learned by doing, by experimenting and testing what works and doesn’t. Cookie Decorating gets to involve baking and being artistic. There are so many tools now in 2025, that I actually am grateful I learned to decorate cookies in 2016-2018 because I got more practice with what was available vs having all the right stuff from the start. While I could have had a speedier process by maybe attending a class or paying for information, I think my process was just right. I was so lucky that so many Cookie Decorators before me shared their knowledge through blogging & YouTube. It’s was okay to fail, I remember the failures & the successes. Failing just becomes muscle memory – it’s a way to problem solve for the next time.

I think my most essential skill is icing consistency and color matching. Decorating cookies seems easy to most, but there is a skill that is learned like a baker making the right bread dough or an artist laying down an underlayer of paint when it comes to making Royal Icing. Royal icing has different levels of consistency that can be used to achieve different looks. Someone wants a flower, you need a strong thicker icing. A smooth look needs a flowy consistency – both these consistencies requires adding water, timing and feel to get right. Cookie Decorators also have to make the icing color from scratch. I start with a base of white & mix in food coloring in small quantities to achieve a match to my client’s desired color theme.

I don’t think there are many obstacles that stood in my way from learning more. Not in the typical sense that I didn’t have access. I’ve taken my time to get where I am, I created a life with my husband, had children, bought a house. I was just lucky to have supportive people and amazing clients to keep me going with cookie decorating. IF I wanted to do more, I definitely have a lot available to me to find a way to do it. That’s a very lucky place to be.

Britt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

A little about me, I am Britt – some call me “Bee”. I have been “crafty” most of my life. My Mom used to work in craft stores growing up and I’d get to be around all the supplies to see what kind of things people were making. No one baked in my family, for about two generations. Great cooks, just not of the dessert baking variety. My Great Grandmother did often bake cakes, so I’m told.

I consider myself to be a follower of one of the original influencers -magazines & TV. In the early 2000s, you couldn’t get on FoodNetwork without seeing some sort of baking competition. I fell in love with the way the chefs & bakers manipulated sugar, cakes & so much more. I loved getting to look through random Women’s magazines for the holidays and see the desserts they were making for parties and holidays. The likes of French baking like petit fours with the tiniest pink flower or a pound cake made to look like a orange cat. I just started using was what was available to me in a cookbook recipe or the grocery store. I often joke the baking gene skipped a couple generations, because I was purely self taught.

Many years later, Pinterest had arrived! I just so happened to be in the middle of my wedding planning. I fell in love with a pin from theKnot.com for lobster shape cookies as the couple’s favors. As a DIY Bride, I knew I needed my own version of cookies. Mid 2011, I made my first royal icing decorated cookie – in the shape of an elephant(my favorite animal). I would scour Pinterest for blogs about cookie decorating, the ins and outs of how to make sugar cookies hold their shapes, how to elevate my cookies with decorating techniques. From 2012-2016 I was creating cookies about once a year for family & friends. With their support, I launched my small at home hobby business under our state’s cottage food law and created my corner of the internet to share – JustBeeCustomCookies – now known as JBCookie.Co.

I provide custom royal iced sugar cookies for any occasion for clients. I love to coordinate with their themes, bringing in small details and matching the colors needed for their event. I recently received an email from a client – a mom of a 1 year old boy – who had done months worth of planning to create her event’s vision – She was so excited to see her hard work shown on a cookie. It’s often said “it’s just a cookie,” but really each cookie order is a canvas – just like a painter’s.

I just want my clients(&future ones) to know that I see the value in every order. I truly appreciate every time I get to keep creating cookies. I am going into my 9th year this July of cookie decorating. I have loved getting to create their visions in sugar format. Whether it has been a baby’s 1st birthday, a bride’s wedding cookie or their loved ones favorite food to shoe. They have pushed me to try more & without their grace in letting me create based on trust, I wouldn’t be here 9 years later.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Value them. Art is everywhere, and you don’t even realize it.
Creators work hard to get where they are. Creators share because they are excited and filled with joy of what they created. Don’t tear them down by saying its not worth what they sell it for or “I can do that.” It’s okay, you can do it too. Just don’t downplay the creator that inspires you for it.

Trust, too. For me as a cookie decorator, I don’t want to copy other cookie decorators. I might want to learn from their techniques or try my own version – I don’t need to copy their cookie designs though.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2022, My husband was in need of a liver transplant. To no fault of his own. It was a huge pivot in the way I was needed for my family and couldn’t be available to my small business. Often it’s thought “you work at home, you’re available all the time” or “social media = 24 hour access.” Every weekend wasn’t scheduled with my own events, it was scheduled with my clients. I had never had to cancel on orders before, I always made it around what was happening in life for my clients’ cookie orders. This medical event was a turning point. I had to scale back, I had to be open about what I could take on and what I couldn’t. Once again, I learned just how lucky I was with my clients. I have had some of the same clients since their weddings to their babyshowers to their kids now 8th birthday. They have become more than clients with their support, and understand the boundaries needed when life happens.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jbcookieco.square.site/custom-cookie-requests
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbcookie.co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JBCookieCo/

Image Credits

All photos are my own.