Photography by Lauren Allen
“They’re too pretty to eat!”
That’s usually the first thing clients tell Jennifer Stillwagoner when they see her ornately decorated cookies.
Stillwagoner has perfected the art of confectionary crafting and piping intricate designs onto cookies cut for every occasion.
Stillwagoner is a Kessler Park native and grew up baking and decorating cookies every holiday season with her grandmother and mother. “Always a creative,” she studied art history and studio art at the University of Texas before moving back to Oak Cliff. (A “no -brainer” decision, she says.)
Fresh out of college, she became a preschool teacher. The arts and crafts activities she led for her classroom “filled her heart,” but Stillwagoner sought out a creative outlet after struggling to get pregnant as a newlywed.
She found comfort in her family’s holiday baking traditions and decided to chase those warm and fuzzy feelings through cookies.
“It was something that was a gift I could give back to myself. Just restoring that creativity and being part of someone’s joyous occasion,” Stillwagoner says.
She spent 18 months perfecting the sugar cookie recipe that had been passed down in her family for generations. Adding a dash of lemon here or a pinch of almond extract there, Stillwagoner dished out batches of recipe-tweaked cookies to coworkers, neighbors and students to garner feedback.
Stillwagoner began taking cookie decorating classes in 2017. Her first customers were her preschool students’ parents.
“(The cookies) were considered a Pinterest fail,” Stillwagoner says of her first commission — a batch of Christmas-themed cookies. “But I was so proud of them. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, these are crazy.’ Now looking back, I’m embarrassed by it, but also I have come so far.”
In 2020, Stillwagoner left teaching for maternity leave after giving birth to her son James and “never went back.” While she’d been making cookies for years, she felt it was the right time to go all in.
“I knew I’d be successful. I knew I would be good at this,” Stillwagoner says. “It has just exceeded what I had ever envisioned for myself.”
She offers pre-designed cookie sets for holidays, but the custom-cookie sets are where Stillwagoner taps into her creative side. She makes as many as four dozen cookies a week, which she says is the perfect amount to keep her busy without cutting into family time.
From bachelorette parties to baby showers, Stillwagoner designs up to 10 different cookies per set, all revolving around the customer’s chosen theme. After getting approval for her sketched-out designs, she starts baking.
Stillwagoner can “cook the dough blindfolded” at this point, but coloring all of the icing to the perfect shade takes a bit more time. She prefers to incorporate simpler designs so that her “wow” cookies — which usually cater to the guest of honor and are the “showstopper” design — stand out.
Pricing starts at $65 a dozen, but touches like gold paint, custom packaging or Stillwagoner’s watercolor technique can be added to designs for an additional price.
“I was never really a very good painter, in my opinion, but I am damn proud of how I can watercolor a cookie,” Stillwagoner says.
The company name, Lefty Lucy Cookies, is in honor of her dog, Cooper, whose nickname was “Lefty Lucy Goosey” due to his old-age wobble.
And the company tagline, “Enjoy ’til the last crumb is eaten!” honors Stillwagoner’s grandmother. The two women enjoyed high tea every Wednesday, and Stillwagoner’s grandmother encouraged her to savor every bite.
So now, when clients tell Stillwagoner her cookies are “too beautiful to eat,” she responds that the fleeting beauty is part of the art.
