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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Guests at Fellows Riverside Gardens decorated mason jars to hold their decorated cookies in to make a cookie bouquet on Feb. 11.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Cindy Velt demonstrated how to decorate cookies during the cookie decorating program at Fellows Riverside Gardens on Feb. 11.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Guests piped royal icing on their cookies to decorate them during the cookie decorating program at Fellows Riverside Gardens on Feb. 11.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Long-time friends made Valentine's Day cookie bouquets on Feb. 11 at Fellows Riverside Gardens. Pictured are, from left, Tammy, Sandy, Michele, Stephanie and Twila.
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Neighbors | Alexis Bartolomucci.Guests decorated cookies at Fellows Riverside Gardens on Feb. 11 during the cookie decorating program.
By ALEXIS BARTOLOMUCCI
Guests at the Fellows Riverside Gardens on Feb. 11 created a sweet treat to take home for Valentine’s Day.
Cindy Velt led a class on cookie decorating and creating a bouquet out of those cookies. Velt picked up the hobby of baking and decorating cookies when she retired four years ago.
“I started doing this as a hobby just for fun and I fell in love with it,” said Velt.
She taught herself from watching YouTube videos and soon got requests from her friends and family to make some for them. Velt decorated more than 9,000 cookies in 2016.
Velt has been teaching classes for a couple years and enjoys teaching and watching others learn and be creative.
At Fellows, the guests decorated six Valentine’s Day shaped cookies with pink, red and white royal icing. When the cookies were done being decorated, there was a mason jar, tissue paper and other decorations to turn the jar into a holder.
Once the holder was created, the cookies were put inside and they resembled a bouquet.
“It’s very inexpensive to do and you just get better the more you do it,” said Velt.
Cookie decorating is something people of all ages can enjoy. A group of ladies who have been friends for 35 years said they loved the program and it was fun to try something different while doing it together.
There were also mother-daughter and grandmother-grandaughter partners who used to program as a way to spend time together while making a delicious bouquet.
“It’s something you can really enjoy. It takes a small amount of space at home, a little bit of equipment and a lot of time. It’s relaxing,” said Velt.
Velt loves seeing the creativity people come up with when they decorate. If someone doesn’t like something they made, they’re going to eat it anyway.