Meet Madison Bagley | Cookie Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Madison Bagley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Madison, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My Mother In-law and I were watching the “Christmas Cookie Challenge” on Food network not long after I had my second child. I off handedly said to her “I think I could do that.” more as a joke than anything else. So for Christmas that year my MIL got me a book about how to decorate cookies and a cookie decorating tool kit. Around February the next year I started playing around with the kit and made a few cookies for my daughters valentines party. I posted a few of them on Facebook and before I knew it I had people asking me to make all sorts of different kinds of cookies.

All that to say, I guess there wasn’t much of a thought process when it came to starting a business. I just kind of dove into cookie decorating head first and came up with a cookiery.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have been making custom decorated cookies using Royal icing for over two and a half years now. It has been a very interesting journey to say the least. When I first started I had no idea how much time and practice it takes to make this type of cookies. I started making them for my daughters class and a few family friends but after posting the pictures to Facebook I soon found that I had more people wanting cookies than I could manage alone. I also have a horrible problem with telling people no! That’s when I decided to bring my MIL onboard. She not only does all of the baking but she also does all the scheduling. That gives me the ability to focus on the decorating part, which is what I really enjoy!
I have always been a very artistic person and now cookies are my favorite canvas.

I love the challenge of taking a clients theme and creating multiple pieces of art that all fit cohesively together. I also believe I have the best job ever because who doesn’t love cookies?

I’m very proud of where we are at now but it definitely wasn’t an easy road getting here. At the beginning we really had no idea what we were doing so we were practically giving our cookies away and taking every order that came in. That first year before my son was in daycare I would spend my days as a mom and my nights as a “cookier” working out of my dining room.

Now thankfully we have a separate shop just for cookies and I am able to manage my time a little better. There are still many late nights but that’s just part of the job.

During covid, I realized that we had to start expanding our business outside of our local sales. So this year we have started to branch out into the word of social media and online teaching. I just released my first online class and it has been a definite success. I am very excited to continue to expand in that area and to hopefully one day be able to do in person classes again!

What’s sets us apart is the amount of thought and detail that goes into each cookie. Not only do we pride ourselves on have delicious cookies but every detail down to the last line is thought out with the customer in mind. Each set of cookies takes several days to compete with hours of planning put into each one. We love what we do and I believe it shows through our work.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would start our day by having brunch in down town Marshal, which is about 30 mini from my house. It is the cutest little Italian restaurant with a delicious menu and an amazing wine selection. We would then Travel up the road a bit to Bear Creek Smokehouse where they have got a huge selection of Texas novelty items, soup mixes, meats and the best Jalapeño mustard you’ve ever tasted! Next we would take a tour of Caddo Lake on Captain Ron’s boat tour. He takes you way back into the beautiful natural lake. It is breathtaking and if we’re lucky we might just see a Bigfoot hiding behind the cypress trees that line the banks. Then we would head to Jefferson and do some antique shopping, eat some ice cream at the general store, ride the old Jefferson railway and watch them feed the alligators. For dinner we would eat at McGarty’s Saloon and listen to some live music. Then to end our very East Texas day we would take the historic Jefferson ghost tour!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to shout out my amazing husband who has been my biggest cheerleader since day one. I’d also like to thank and recognize my Mother In-law Merry, who not only got me into cookie decorating but who now co-owns Busy B Bakehouse with me. She is an essential part of our operation and there is no way I could do this without her.

Website: Www.busybbakehouse.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/busybbakehouse/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/busybcookiestx/

Image Credits
Natalie Mae Designs