SEQUIM, Wash. — Sarah Harrington’s cookies are little works of art. They can take up to 15 minutes to decorate. And the name of the company she runs from her home in Sequim explains her inspiration.
"Cookie Daughters is a business I started in January 2021,” Harrington said. "And the inspiration for my name is because of my daughters, I have two little girls who inspire me to do just about everything in my life."
Sarah makes scratch cookies in her kitchen then decorates them in her living room. National Parks, houseplants, "Stranger Things." The Cookie Daughters Instagram is full of hundreds of examples of cookie creativity. If it can be imagined, Sarah can turn it into a cookie.
Tools of the trade include painting supplies and a 3-D printer for making custom cookie cutters. She dug through her drawers of hundreds of cutters she’s made, finding cutters shaped like crinkle cut French fries, bacon, and friend’s wedding dresses.
Decorated cookies don't usually stray from cute and happy, but Sarah didn't feel like making her usual fun flags and picnic-themed cookies for Independence Day when the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade.
“It was difficult to celebrate the 4th of July for me this year, because it didn't feel like I was being celebrated or my daughters were being celebrated,” she said.
So Cookie Daughters and another Olympic Peninsula craft baker, Whitney D’s Cookies, baked protest cookies instead. The brightly frosted treats bore statements like ‘Pro-Choice’, ‘Feminist’ and ‘Hear our Voice’. The two bakers raised almost $1000 for Northwest Abortion Access Fund by raffling these cookies. Sarah knows she may have lost customers by making a pro-choice statement with cookies and icing — but she's fine with that.
“I want my customers to know who I am, what Cookie Daughters stands for, and what people are purchasing when they purchase from me," Sarah said. "And to me that means letting people know where I stand."
Sarah also did it for her 'cookie daughters', 2-year-old Hudson and 4-year-old Bryn.
“I felt like doing something that empowers me also shows them how they can empower themselves."
Right now her daughters are just in it for the treats. But Sarah's husband Ian sees the hard work and creativity his wife puts into her craft.
“Her soul’s kind of in these things and it means a lot,” he said as their daughters noshed on some freshly frosted treats.
And whether they're pretty, or political, what this baker loves the most about any decorated cookie is that they're best enjoyed — when destroyed.
“It's really cool to see the joy on someone's face, it's a cookie, it’s just a cookie, you're just gonna eat it and it’s not going to last very long,” Sarah said.
Cookie Daughters custom cookies start at $55 a dozen, based on design. Sarah also makes 'just for eating’ frosted cookies that are $24 per dozen. She also teaches cookie decorating classes.
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