Decorating CookiesAn interview withAuthor * Stylist * PastrychefJulia M. Usher
Lorelie-Julia you have so many accolades, it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I would like to start with a few wedding cake questions and then on to the decorating cookies. You started your baking career with a boutique bakery called AzucArte specializing in wedding cakes. How long did you run your bakery? Did you enjoy making wedding cakes? Julia-I opened my bakery in 1997, about six months after graduating from culinary school (The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, Cambridge, MA), and ran it for about 7-8 years. Yeah, I loved the creative aspect of designing wedding cakes, especially putting on all of the finishing touches! But I eventually grew weary of the administrative and 24-7 aspects of the business, and sold the shop in 2005 to pursue a career in freelance food writing and styling, which is what I’m still doing today. Lorelie-Was there a specific cake that is the most memorable to you? And If so what made it special?
Julia-I really loved a cake that I had wrapped in fondant and hand-painted with royal icing to mimic an antique fabric (actually the same fabric on one of the chair’s in my cake showroom). It was also heavily draped with fondant cutwork lace and then smothered in old-fashioned cottage roses and curly willow. The colors were very muted, almost weathered, and the cake had a well-loved, time worn, vintage feel about it - completely in sync with my personal style. The reason I appreciate this cake so much is probably because I was given nearly free rein to design whatever I wanted within some very broad design parameters (it needed to look “lush and elegant”) and with few budget constraints. It was also a unique situation insofar as I was dealing exclusively with the father of the bride. I was trusted, unleashed, and allowed to let my imagination soar. It was an uncommon design experience (usually brides exercise a lot more control), but an incredibly invigorating one as a result. Lorelie-Do you still do an occasional wedding or bridal shower cake? Julia-No, I made a clean break from the bakery business in 2005 to focus on food writing and styling – areas of the food business that allow for a more predictable and manageable lifestyle. After years of working nearly every weekend and never being 100-percent certain about who might show up for work and when, I was ready to leave the bakery and pursue work in which the outcome depended on me alone. Since I no longer have a commercial kitchen, I actually cannot legally serve the public, but even so, I’d rather keep my eyes on my writing tasks right now. Lorelie-If you could give a bride one piece of advice while shopping for a wedding cake what would it be? Julia-Don’t sacrifice flavor for looks. A wedding cake can taste as great as it looks, if you’re working with the right baker. Lorelie-I ordered Cookie Swap and read through it while doing my morning treadmill workout. I was so enthralled by the gorgeous photos and all of the wonderful ideas for decorating cookies, that I forgot to stop exercising. That's a good thing because if I start baking all of these yummy cookies I will need to burn more calories. Which brings me to my next question. Do you workout? I am sure that people ask you this often due to the fact that you are a slender pastry chef. I know this has nothing to do with your book, cakes and decorating cookies but the personal trainer in me has to know.
Julia-Well, thanks for the compliments. To be truthful, I was feeling pretty slothful after a year of recipe testing and sitting in front of the computer (it took most of 2008 to write the book). I do exercise (mostly run and take aerobics classes about three times a week), but I honestly had little time to keep up with my normal routine in 2008, and even in 2009, when I did about 100 events to promote the book! I suppose I’m mostly blessed with my Dad’s slender-gene; he could eat whatever he wanted and still lose weight. I’m not quite as lucky, though, so I have to pair whatever exercise I can work in with eating in moderation. Fortunately, with recipe testing, all you really need is a small taste to know if you have it right or have to go back to the drawing board again. Lorelie-Back to your amazing book. When did you decide that cookies would be your specialty? Decorating cookies seems even more challenging than wedding cakes to me. Which do you prefer and why? Julia-Though I wrote a book about decorating cookies and did a ton of cookie decorating when I had my shop, I don’t consider decorating cookies my specialty. I view myself as more of a party design specialist, who draws on food and sweets to help convey the style of events. That said, I think most would agree that my book Cookie Swap is really more of a cookie party book than a cookie recipe or decorating cookies book. While it has aspects of the latter, for sure, it’s mostly about using the framework of a cookie swap as reason to entertain with sweets year round. As I like to say: cookie swaps aren’t just for Christmas anymore! As for the second part of your question, I like decorating cookies and cake decorating equally well. They challenge me in very different ways – largely because of their different scale. With cookies, you’re looking at the decorating as if under a microscope, but, with cakes, their larger scale requires a much more holistic design view. A good designer of sweets, or anything else for that matter, must be able see both the details and the bigger picture, all at the same time. Lorelie-Congratulations on your most recent award. The Cordon d' Or cookbook competition. How exciting! Can you tell us a little about it?
Julia-Thanks again! Yes, the Cordon d’ Or Culinary Academy Awards is an international cookbook competition, and I was extremely fortunate to have won three awards this year for Cookie Swap: one for best title and cover (shout out to my fabulous photographer Steve Adams for the images on the cover and elsewhere!) and two others for best food stylist and author in the Culinary Frivolities category. I head to St. Pete Beach, FLA in a week or so for the awards ceremony, and am really excited and honored! Lorelie-Are you teaching and touring exclusively now? Julia-Actually, no, I’m only doing a few events and TV appearances now, mostly in my hometown of St. Louis. My book tour was entirely self-funded, so after being on the road almost non-stop from August through mid-December 2009, I had to call it quits for a while. I’ve also just signed a contract for a second book, so I need to be close to my home kitchen all year to get this next book tested and delivered by March 2011. Lorelie-Did your corporate experience help you in any way with setting up and running your current business? Julia-Yes, definitely. (For those who don’t know, I worked for 10 years as a business strategy consultant with Bain & Company and then got an MBA from Stanford prior to getting into pastry.) I’m naturally pretty numbers-oriented, so I’m constantly weighing the costs and benefits of the personal business strategies I pursue. My extensive Cookie Swap book tour has yet to pay me back in book sales, but I feel the investment in my first book and in the building of a larger media platform will have positive spillover effects on the second book. It has already helped me garner an advance on the second book that is 25% higher than that on the first. Lorelie-Passion runs high for people who are attracted to baking and decorating cookies and cakes, and it looks as if you are no exception to that rule. What is your advice to someone who would like to take the leap into the pastry chef arts? Julia-Thanks to the Food Network and other media hoopla, people are taking greater interest in food and the pastry arts these days. But, at the same time, I believe people have an over-glorified view of what being a chef or pastry chef is all about. While the creative aspects are undeniably invigorating if you’ve got the pastry bug, there’s an incredible amount of physical and emotional work required of those in the profession – and often for very little pay. That said, I encourage those interested to get working in the field – to stage at a bakery or in a pastry kitchen to get a true-life, not TV-sensationalized, feel for the business, and to do this before making the financial commitment of going to culinary school. Lorelie-I love the fact that all of your ideas in The Cookie Swap, are adaptable to different situations, and that you give alternatives for those who are at the beginner stages of decorating cookies or cakes. At first I was intimidated by all of your perfect cookies and then as I read your book I became more comfortable as you broke everything down step by step. Thank you for that. I am sure that others appreciate it as well. Short video clip of my attempt at Julia's Vintage Hat Cookies a.k.a. Easter Bonnet Shortbread Cookies. Julia-Thanks for this compliment! It was a real challenge to strike the right balance of recipes and projects in the book, but I worked hard to include things that would appeal to all skill levels. So, I’m pleased and relieved to hear that you appreciated the step-by-step recipe breakdowns, complexity keys, and some of the other how-tos included in the book. Lorelie-I will be recommending Cookie Swap on my site to DIY brides, bridesmaids who are looking for ideas for a bridal party, and to anyone interested in the art of decorating cookies and cakes. Julia-Well, thanks so much. I appreciate your support and sincerely hope your readers find the book useful. My bridal chapter (called A Vision in White) has bridal shower favor, invitation, and cookie ideas that I think your brides and their families will enjoy! Lorelie-Is there another awesome book in the works? Julia-Yes, as I mentioned earlier, I just signed a contract for a second book with the same publisher. It is due in March 2011, and is expected to land in book stores by Fall 2011. Right now, the title is top-secret ;). Actually, I haven’t yet settled on one. But I can tell you that it is a cookie decorating book that will be filled with cookie projects for every occasion, along with the step-by-step how-tos! From Decorating Cookies To Julia's Website
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