Contributed by Carolyn Bilger | marketing director | Hobart
MARYSVILLE, OH — Baking has always been a part of Morgan Ingles’ life, having grown up baking cookies with her mom throughout the year and extra treats around the holidays. Decorative cookies were — and still are — her favorite to bake. They are also the cornerstone of her business, B&C Bakeshop by Morgan in Marysville, OH — and it’s still a family affair.
B&C stands for Brennan and Carson, Morgan’s two sons. Her mom, Joan, helps with the baking, while her mother-in-law, Kim, runs the front of the bakery and her husband, Bret, manages the bookkeeping and delivery.
A self-taught cookie artist, Morgan loves the creativity of it all and relies on Hobart to help bring her creations to life.
What prompted you to open B&C Bakeshop by Morgan?
Morgan Ingles: I started my cookie business five years ago out of my home, baking for friends and family. In the beginning, I would bake for discounted prices just to see what sold and to get feedback. My friends remember me saying, “I just want to bake cookies!” I was working full time as a dental hygienist and after eight years of doing that, I decided it was time to dive into the cookie business full time. I opened the brick-and-mortar location in March 2024.
Where do you get your inspiration for your cookie designs?
Morgan: I look everywhere for inspiration. I pull from color palettes, cloth swatches, invitations, photos of nurseries, weddings and wedding flowers. I’ll go through Instagram and see what other cookie artists are doing that I can put my twist on.
I’m very old school when I put the plan in place for the designs. I’ll draw out everything, design it, put colors where I want them to go and make notes about what I want to do for each set. I’ll note if I’m going to write a name on a specific cookie or use a certain number of colors. It takes me about 30 minutes to an hour to plan the design for a set of cookies. Somebody else wouldn’t be able to understand the cat scratches, but it makes sense to me!
How did you learn your technique for your decorative cookies?
Morgan: I started out watching YouTube videos and just scrolling through Instagram. There are a lot of cookie artists who post how-to videos to help others in the business. Luckily, I can see something and am able to put that onto a canvas.
It took me about six months to really refine my technique, but I’m still learning every day. I still watch videos and try to learn new things, so I feel like my technique is ever developing. Also, trends change, so I try to keep up with that as well, and I take feedback from my family into consideration when I’m adjusting my technique.
It takes me anywhere from one to two hours to complete a set of cookies, depending on the complexity. I just love the artistic side of it all. It’s what got me into this type of decorative cookie using Royal icing.
How many themes do you offer?
Morgan: My main categories are baby showers, weddings, bachelorette parties, birthdays, sports and anniversaries. I can also make logo cookies. But with custom orders, the possibilities are endless. Anything I can think of or that a customer requests, I can probably put it on a cookie. I have around 20 giant bins at the bakery that have thousands of cookie cutters in them. If I don’t have a cutter for what a customer wants, I can custom-cut those.
What are your most popular cookie designs, and which ones do you like to make the most?
Morgan: Holiday and seasonal cookies are the most popular and the ones I enjoy making the most. That’s really where my baking inspiration came from: baking around the holidays. For the fall, I’ve made pickup trucks with pumpkins in the back and Mickey Mouse pumpkins — pumpkins with pumpkin ears. Halloween means ghosts, bats and cats, of course, and Christmas is all about Santa, trees and reindeer. There are always different variations I can make for the holidays. I like to switch up the colors. So, if I have a Christmas set from last year, I change up the colors to make it fun for me to do again.
How do you ensure your customers are satisfied with the cookies they receive?
Morgan: I feel the most important part is the design and the art. That’s what makes customers fall in love with these decorative cookies, and then making sure each step is done with care. I make sure my cookies are done and packaged quickly so that everything is fresh. My decorated cookies are soft, so I take good care in packaging. I heat seal every single cookie, which takes a lot of time, but I do it because it ensures freshness.
What other baked goods do you offer besides your decorative cookies?
Morgan: I usually have 10 or 11 options every week to complement the Royal icing cookies I always have available. I offer different drop cookies, buttercream cookies, brownies, oatmeal cream pies, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, cheesecakes and more. Really, it’s anything you can think of. I kind of go off what I’m feeling, what the holiday is, and what time of year it is. Then I formulate recipes each week. My mom provides input, too.
How does your Hobart Legacy+ HL200 mixer support your business?
Morgan: I would say overall it just mixes everything very evenly, which is a big thing for me. I can mix four batches of my sugar cookie dough at a time, and I’m able to do that however many times over and over and get the exact same outcome. That’s important, because it ensures my customers are going to get the exact same product every time. I love it because it is much more durable and much sturdier than what I was using before. Really anything that I make, I mix the dough in my Hobart mixer.
What features on the Hobart mixer do you like best?
Morgan: The controls are easy to use and intuitive. I like that it has the Soft Start that starts out mixing slowly, so it’s not spraying the flour everywhere. I use the Shift-on-the-Fly so I can change speeds without stopping the mixer. It’s helpful when dough needs to be mixed a little quicker or a little slower, while also incorporating ingredients at the right times.
For my cinnamon rolls, I use the SmartTimer. There’s a period when I have to knead the dough for seven minutes, so I turn the timer on and don’t have to watch the time when I have a million other things to do. It turns off on its own, which is really nice. The Triple Interlock System is a great feature that makes me feel comfortable when operating the mixer.
What are your future plans for B&C Bakeshop by Morgan?
Morgan: I’m just going to keep plugging along. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully grow the business and reach more people in the community. I love baking and am glad this can be my job.
