Becky has always been a creative type. She started her career in music theater singing and dancing on the broadway stage and award winning regional theaters around the country.

She started decorating cookies in 2014 and has slowly built her cookie business- Little Birdie Cookies. She now has many loyal customers in her hometown and surrounding areas and loves to teach and host cookie decorating parties. She is also the cookier for a top global clothing brand and yes, has appeared on Food Network twice, both on Holiday Wars and Christmas Cookie Challenge. One day she hopes to win!

At CookieCon she has proudly taught electives and has assisted Ashley (Sweet Nelsons) and Leslie (Four Peas and a Dog) with their add on workshops. She is honored to have won awards for her sugar show entries in Louisville and Sandusky.

If not decorating cookies, painting glass or routing for her beloved New York Giants, she loves being with her animals (including goat Milo and ducks) and of course her husband Chris and kids Maddie, Holden and Tommy.

Founded in 2019, Kristen’s Cookies is the brainchild of Kristen Stringer, who drew her initial inspiration from Callye Alvarez of Sweet Sugarbelle. Kristen's journey began with a delightful idea: creating Christmas-themed cookie trucks and trees for her children's “Christmas tree milk and cookies” photo shoot. After leaving the leftover cookies with the photographer, she was amazed by the flood of requests that followed. What started as a seasonal project quickly blossomed into a thriving custom cookie business.

As the demand for her cookies grew, so did the challenges posed by the pandemic. Embracing the shift, Kristen ventured into virtual teaching, discovering a passion for sharing her cookie artistry with others. This led to the development of both online and in-person classes, and partnerships with the World Cookie Summit and The Cookiers, further expanding her reach.

Renowned for her exquisite royal icing florals, moldable icing techniques and unique aesthetic, Kristen has become a prominent figure in the cookie community. She now teaches a variety of classes, engages with local pop-up shops, and offers an array of seasonal sugar cookies and flavorful drop cookies. Her dedication has earned her recognition as a 4-time add-on instructor and now Core Instructor at CookieCon. Beyond her baking and teaching, Kristen is a positive force in her community, generously donating her time and talent. With a heartfelt commitment to nurturing the next generation of cookie artists and enthusiasts, she continues to inspire with her love, passion, and knowledge of the craft.

Erin began her cookie journey one late night, over ten years ago, in the haze of post-partum depression. She baked sugar cookies as a way to give herself something creative to do while her babies were sleeping, and her husband was working long hours. What started as an escape, soon became a passion. When she moved to Boise, ID she hosted “cookie decorating parties” so she could meet new people in her area. As it so often goes, people began asking her for orders, and her business Darling Cookie Co. was born in 2018.

Erin’s work has been featured in bridal magazines, and she’s made cookies for New Kids on the Block. Erin is proudest of the annual Idaho Food Bank fundraising campaign that her business runs every Thanksgiving. To date, Darling Cookie Co. has donated enough money to provide over 25,000 meals to the Boise community. Erin’s first CookieCon was in 2019 in Reno. She is honored and humbled for this full circle moment and opportunity!

Rebecca Dugger began her cookie journey during quarantine in 2020. Her pandemic hobby quickly turned into her very own cottage bakery, The DociaMack. This happily married mother of two was born and raised in Mandeville, LA, a suburb of New Orleans. She likes finding fun ways to incorporate her local culture and heritage into her designs and classes.

Rebecca’s love of Halloween and all things spooky landed her a spot on Food Network‘s Halloween Cookie Challenge in 2022, where she was crowned champion.

When she’s not creating custom cookie art or teaching classes, Rebecca enjoys singing, watching true crime documentaries and drinking margaritas on the rocks, no salt.

Madison’s cookie journey started in 2018 while watching a new show she found on Food Network called “The Christmas Cookie Challenge”. After hearing one of the contestants say that they left their corporate job and now make tons of money just making cookies, she sarcastically said to her mother in law, Merry, that maybe that's what she needs to start doing. I mean, how hard can decorating a cookie really be? So for Christmas that year Merry jokingly gifted her a cookie decorating “starter kit”.

A month later, she attempted her first batch of cookies- and quickly realized that dealing with royal icing was in fact, very hard! For her nephew’s birthday party, she decided to try and create cookies that looked like Nerf Gun bullets. However, to her great horror, they ended up looking like they would be better suited for a bachelorette party. Unwilling to accept failure, she dug in her heels and tried again, and again…and again until she finally, sort of, got the hang of it.

In February of 2019 she posted her first “set" of cookies to Facebook and people immediately began asking if they could order. In the blink of an eye, she went from being a hobby baker to a full time cookier without the slightest sense of how to actually run a small business. For the next two years she would get very little sleep, overrun her entire kitchen and dining room with cookie paraphernalia, and eventually outgrow her home altogether.

By 2020, however, Madison’s excitement for cookies had started to fade. The joy of creating little edible pieces of art had been replaced with a million character cookie orders and very picky clients. She was just about ready to throw in the towel, when Merry gave her another cookie Christmas present: two tickets to Cookie Con in Dallas! At the last minute, she decided to enter the sugar show. To her complete surprise, her Edgar Allan Poe piece won 2nd Place in the popular vote! She came home with a reignited passion for cookies, tools to help her better manage the business side of things, and most importantly, a new group of friends who would support her through the highs and lows in life, and in cookies.

Since then, Madison has shifted her focus from year round cookie orders, to teaching the art and love of cookie decorating to others, both in person and through her online cookie classes and social media platforms. She has won several more awards at Cookie Con for her sugar show pieces and recently taught two add on classes in Austin. In 2023 her cookie journey came full circle when she competed on Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge” and brought home the Golden Ornament and the title of “Christmas Cookie Champion”.

Outside of the cookie world, Madison is the mom of two precious kiddos, 3 special needs rescue dogs, and one husband. They are her biggest cheerleaders and the best cookie testers around! Somewhere between gymnastics and baseball practices, she also heads up the Carthage Primary PTO. For the past 14 years she has also spent every summer as the music director at Camp Honey Creek for Girls in Hunt, Tx; An outdoor summer camp committed to helping young girls become strong women. She attributes much of her success to an amazing support system made up of her family, friends, and of course the awesome cookie community she found here at CookieCon.

Shelly started Pastry Shells in 2010 as an escape from the corporate world. What began as a creative outlet soon grew into a thriving business, allowing her to leave her engineering job in 2017 and pursue her passion for baking full time. Along the way, Shelly realized her engineering degree came in handy for optimizing her business processes, which led her to start helping other cookie decorators streamline their operations and grow their businesses.

As a founding member of Cookie Better, Shelly has hosted four virtual workshops and teaches monthly classes through The Bakers' Society, where bakers learn new strategies to enhance both their decorating skills and business growth. Shelly’s goal is to share her journey and the tools for success that helped her, empowering others to achieve more in their cookie businesses.

Bunny Lyons started out as a cake decorator with over 30 years of expertise in the field. In 2009, Bunny ventured into the world of cookie decorating, further expanding her creative skills. Currently, she is the proud owner of a custom cake and cookie decorating boutique called Bunnycakes in her hometown of Berlin, New Jersey. She also has a career as a critical care nurse. At her boutique, Bunny teaches and shares her extensive knowledge of cookie decorating to individuals at all skill levels. She takes great pleasure in mentoring aspiring decorators, offering guidance and support to help them excel in their craft. For Bunny, cookie decorating brings her so much joy and has been her therapy for life. Her mission is to create as many cookie “Minions” as possible, who are just as addicted to cookie cutters and cookie supplies as she is!

Samantha Baughman is the creative mind behind Sammie B's Sweets. In 2012 she accidentally stumbled into the world of cookie decorating. She was a stay at home mom and cake decorator, and it was by chance that she ended up in a cookie decorating forum run by Mike and Karen. There she quickly fell in love with the cookie community. Her first batch of cookies was an absolute disaster, but with the encouragement of the cookiers in the forum, her second batch was much better and she was hooked! She spent the next year teaching herself everything she could about decorating, through trial and error, and by 2014 had started her business selling cookies and teaching decorating classes in her local community.

Since then, Samantha has spent years pushing the limits of her abilities with cookies and royal icing. She started exploring the vertical world of cookies through 3D designs and cookie sculptures, earning her several sugar show awards. Her work has been featured on the Food Network, and she also competed on the Christmas Cookie Challenge. Cookies are one of her life's passions, especially teaching classes. She teaches everything from beginner basics to complex 3D structures. Along with her business, Samantha also runs Operation Cookie Takeover, a community project that ships cookies to soldiers deployed all over the world. With the help of the cookie community, over 225,000 cookies have been shipped to date!

When not making cookies or teaching classes, you'll find Samantha spending time with her husband and four kids, chauffeuring them to all of their sports, coaching basketball, rock climbing, tending to her bees and her garden, hiking, or trying new hobbies and crafts. As a self described lifelong student, she is passionate about learning from all types of artists.

Brian Muffoletto and Nick Napierala are teachers by day and bakers by night. They co-own their business, The Bakers Men Buffalo, located in Lancaster, NY. This baking duo specializes in custom decorated sugar cookies, bakery style gourmet cookies and instructing cookie classes. Their bakery name was inspired by the famous nursery rhyme of “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Bakers man”, but when there's two men in the kitchen, it's the Bakers Men! Their hobby of cookie decorating turned them into business owners in March 2020. When orders started to increase, it led them to install a commercial kitchen in their home.

Their baking and decorating talents have been showcased on several Food Network TV shows. Brian appeared on “Christmas Cookie Challenge” in 2020 and then was asked in 2022 to make an appearance on the series premiere of “Halloween Cookie Challenge”. Nick appeared on “Christmas Cookie Challenge” in December 2022. Brian and Nick have won numerous awards at the CookieCon Sugar Shows, including mystery shapes, judges choice and popular vote!

Currently, Nick and Brian primarily focus on cookie decorating classes, combining their passion of teaching and cookie decorating. Connecting with the community allows them to reach more customers and build relationships with different companies and non-for-profit organizations.

Beth owned a mortgage company and decided to trade in the warranty deeds for piping bags. She hasn’t looked back. She is the owner of The Vanillan, a specialty cookie business in Madison, MS. She recently showcased her talent on Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge where she won the title of Champion and $10,000. She travels speaking and teaching classes on how to decorate and paint cookies.

Beth loves to volunteer and give back to her community. She is the President of The Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary, she is a board member for the Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society, reads books to kiddos for Goodwill monthly and is on the leadership team for Reservoir Career Women.

Beth knows that everything she has, does and will do are gifts from God!

Annissa Neufeld of Sweet Wheat Bakeshop has combined her passion of sugar with her marketing degree, to grow her full-time baking business, and now teaches others how to do the same! She is a 2x Food Network winner, a 2023 American Cake Awards Rising Star finalist, and has been featured in various industry magazines. Annissa has taught thousands of students how to cookie better and believes there’s no such thing as gate keeping business secrets. From custom orders to pre-sales, hosting workshops to selling in retail stores, Annissa has done it all but markets and popups have become her favourite and most profitable business adventure yet!

I’m Monek’ Smith, the flour faced girl behind MS Cookie Co. I’m a wife and a mom of 2 from Dallas, Texas. I started making cookies in January 2019 and haven’t looked back. Some of my favorite things are audio books, Texas A&M (Whoop!), friends, baseball, graphic tees, Mexican food, and sleep. My favorite cookies to make are bizarre theme mash-ups that stretch my imagination. I can’t wait to hang with all my cookie friends at CookieCon this year!