Cookie Couture started out one morning in April 2006 with a single tray of bright pink, heart-shaped gingerbreads, made by founder Nadine Ingram for her favourite neighbourhood café.

Inspired by the popularity of these simple hearts, and by a life-long love of baking for others, Nadine took to the kitchen to create a range of exquisitely iced gingerbread cookies themed around the times when people come together – baby showers, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, corporate events, and other special occasions.

Nadine knew the value of a good biscuit from the start. After training as a pastry chef in London under the direction of luminary Michel Roux at Le Gavroche, she worked for several years at some of London’s top Michelin restaurants. Enlightened by this experience and following her years in front of the ovens at MG Garage and Bourke St Bakery, Nadine knew that no matter how striking her cookie’s looked, they also had to taste great.

This is why Cookie Couture uses only the finest natural ingredients to create a soft, perfectly spiced gingerbread that is balanced with the delicate crunch of beautifully applied icing.

From baby prams to butterflies, animals to stars, numbers to musical instruments, flowers to handbags, Cookie Couture’s gorgeous handcrafted creations have added a whimsical touch to many celebrations since the morning of the bright pink hearts.

As demand grew for custom made cookies and after the introduction of the delicious rustic cookie range Nadine realised she needed staff. Samantha Denmark became the first to join Cookie Couture as they continued to bake from a small domestic oven. Samantha’s extraordinary design talents and illustrations were just the beginning of what she would bring to her role at Cookie Couture. Mainly it is her belief that the cookies really do come alive the minute the icing is applied, that confirms her grasp of the Cookie Couture philosophy of ‘fun with cookies’. It is not unusual for her to be telling a story about the various animals on the baking trays and what they might get up to during their day.

It didn’t take long before the baking outgrew Nadine’s home in Newtown and Cookie Couture’s kitchen moved to Marrickville.

Development of the seasonal ranges were improved from here, and the cookies became available to more, carefully selected stockists.

Our Baker Mina was the next to join Cookie Couture. To fully understand Mina’s dedication to your cookies you would have to be there on an average day at Cookie Couture to see him lovingly rolling, cutting and baking all the cookies by hand before they are iced. You would see the integral part that he plays in maintaining the standards of a handmade product and how important that is to him. Mina has seen us through some of the ‘mad, crazy, busy’ times at Cookie Couture and never loses his cool.

Apart from the help of invaluable staff, Cookie Couture would surely not be a success if it weren’t for Nadine’s husband. Jonathan started making the Gingerbread dough almost  from the beginning. He continues to make the dough every night after his full time job as a chef, but not before collecting their two children from School. He works tirelessly (ok maybe that’s stretching it!) to make sure there is enough Gingerbread for the next day at Cookie Couture. He is planning his retirement but until then we call him Dough Boy.