It's true, and she'll be the first to laugh about it. Tina would happily never cook dinner again. But baking? That's not cooking to her, it's art, and it's a love she never saw coming. Cookies just happen to be her canvas.
It started in front of the TV. For two or three years she watched the holiday baking shows on Food Network, mesmerized by the artistry, telling herself "I want to try that." One day she finally did. She shared those first cookies on her personal Facebook page, people noticed, and she hasn't stopped since. Five years later, 731 Cookies keeps her wonderfully busy, and she counts that as a blessing.
Cookies made for a moment
What caught her eye on those shows was the custom sugar cookie, and it turned out to be exactly the medium she'd been looking for. Where a store cookie is mass-produced to sit on a shelf for months, Tina's are made for one event and one person. She'll take your inspiration photo and spend hours, sometimes days, working out the techniques to bring it to life. She's self-taught, always chasing a new skill (florals are her happy challenge), and she genuinely loves the process start to finish.
Ask her favorite order and she'll tell you about a baby shower for a doctor at the Jackson Clinic, a mom originally from Cameroon. No blue, no pink, Tina worked in the colors of her country instead: red, green, and gold. The new grandmother had flown in from Africa, and she loved the cookies so much she carried one all the way back home with her.
"Let people be seen"
That's the whole point, really. Ask Tina what she loves most about baking for her community and she doesn't talk about cookies. She says, "I love to let people be seen." Every set is made specifically and intentionally, for your baby, your spouse, the new mama-to-be, your business. And the little extra income lets her show up for people who need it, a tank of gas, a bag of groceries, a hand for someone struggling. "I love that stuff," she says.
Tina is upfront that this is her part-time joy alongside a full-time job, and she'll tell you plainly it came from God and God alone, a gift she never went looking for. However it found her, she's deeply thankful she gets to share it.
One thing to know: she keeps almond out of her cookies, and because every order is custom, the more you share, your theme, your colors, your inspiration photo, the more she can make it truly yours.
Order from Tina
Find Tina and 731 Cookies on Bkd Local and let her make your next moment one people remember, at bkdlocal.com/baker/731-cookies.