Candle making. Paint and sip. Pottery throwing. Shopping and brunching. If you and your best gal pals have done it all—we have your new Saturday afternoon plans. Extra bonus if you love Lilly Pulitzer and all of the happy pink and green hues of Palm Beach.
Food Network star Jamal Lake is now hosting a Lilly Pulitzer-themed cookie decorating class at his intimate bakery, Ganache Bakery, in West Palm Beach every Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. The acclaimed pastry chef first introduced the Lilly-inspired cookie class at The Pink Retreat—an annual retreat in Palm Beach where gaggles of ladies gather to celebrate friendship, the color pink and their love for Lilly Pulitzer clothing—and it was so popular, that he decided to offer the class to Lilly lovers on a regular basis.
Guests can book the cookie class through West Palm Beach Food Tours, which is owned and operated by Kristl Story. Her popular Downtown West Palm Beach Tour always ends at Ganache bakery, where guests are schooled on how to properly crack open a coconut and offered bites like a Key lime tart.
“Jamal’s bakery is always a favorite on the tour,” says Story, who coaxed the chef to offer the new cookie decorating class.
Decked out in a blue, palm-patterned Lilly frock, I attended the first cookie decorating class in late October. While I was drawn to the idea of splashing cookies with my own Lilly-flair, I actually learned a lot, too. For time purposes, Lake pre-bakes the sugar cookies ahead of time for the class (can I get an “Amen!”) and provides a recipe card to follow if/when you bake the cookies at home. Throughout the two-hour class, though, he offers genius baking hacks—like rolling the cookie dough in between wooden paint sticks for consistency, so that it cooks evenly.
“I grab the wooden sticks from the paint store for $1, and some places like Home Depot will even give them to you for free,” Lake reveals, as he skillfully maneuvers the rolling pin atop the sticks that flank the dough.
The class mainly focuses on making royal frosting—using the same pink, green and blue colors that are often showcased in Lilly frocks—and decorating four pre-cut sugar cookies. The cookies are fashioned into oh-so-Florida shapes, including flamingos, sunglasses, and the star of the class, the iconic Lilly Pulitzer-inspired shift dresses.
“The Lilly patterns are so vibrant, and there’s so much going on with the prints that it gives you creative license when decorating the cookies. You can mess it up, and the cookies still look good,” Lake says. “It’s going to look good, taste good, and you’re going to have fun doing it.”
Guests will first learn how to pipe the edges of the cookies with royal icing—ironically, bordering the cookies with precision is the most difficult part—then Lake teaches participants how to “flood” the cookies with icing. From there, you’ll spend the rest of the class custom designing your cookies, gabbing with friends and drinking wine (you’re allowed to #BYOB).
“I love all of the colors of Lilly Pulitzer,” says Ivana Bertuzzelli, who joined the class with her niece, Marina. “I’ve done all of the West Palm Beach food tours, so this was a new, fun thing to do.”
For those who are, ahem, perfectionists like me, the class is long enough to play around until you craft flawless cookies (while snacking on a few naked sugar cookies). The details like the floral patterns and the eyelet on the Lilly shift dresses are the toughest to nail, but Lake shows off tricks to perfectly execute flower swirls or the lace designs. My cookie borders initially looked like a 5-year-old had gotten hold of the piping bag, but the chef kindly fixed my mistakes, so that I left with Instagram-worthy cookies. (Also, fact: Once you go through the arduous decorating process, you will NEVER question the price of an artfully designed cookie again).
There’s space for 12 participants, and the class is ideal for birthday or bachelorette parties, mother-daughter and girlfriend get-togethers, or even a date night (private classes and different dates are also available). Since the class ends at 6 p.m., stroll CityPlace or Clematis Street in West Palm Beach to find a restaurant for drinks and dinner. Just be careful when hauling around your dainty cookies — and we won’t judge you if eat them on the way home.
Me? I had worked so hard on my cookies that I couldn’t stand the thought of eating them. They’re still displayed in my kitchen like pieces of fragile art—and a reminder that I’m better at wearing Lilly than painting cookies.
