Gilded Cookie owners out to prove opening a business during a pandemic isn’t crazy

When Kara Smith was a little girl and her mother baked sugar cookies, Smith would stand at their kitchen island and decorate them, eager to see people’s reactions when she gave them her finished work.

“It felt like you were giving a little piece of yourself,” Smith said.

She enjoyed it so much, she declared that she would one day own her own cookie shop.

Early next month, Smith and Adrienne McWithey are opening the Gilded Cookie in the former Cero’s Candies and Monica’s Bundt Cake space at 1328 E. Douglas.

“This has always been a dream to open, but it’s very difficult as a one-man band,” McWithey said.

In addition to working with each other at another local bakery, McWithey said, “We both have been home-based cookiers.”

She has Sweet Creations by Adrienne, and Smith owns Adore Sugar Cookies.

McWithey said her mother was always encouraging her to hire someone or work with someone else, but she wasn’t interested.

“I’m super particular and picky. I don’t trust anyone to do it my way.”

Though Smith doesn’t do things the same way she does, McWithey said that “her way is as good as my way and vice versa” and that their different strengths complement one another.

The shop will have cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls for individual purchases and gift sets.

There also will be a few gift items for sale, such as tea towels and wooden spoons.

The Gilded Cookie’s signature cookie will be a Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookie that is made by hand chopping the chocolate and then adding edible gold leaf for decoration.

“It just adds gilded gold flair to it just to kind of create something special,” McWithey said.

Smith said she’s “always loved the phrase gilding the lily.”

She said she has an over-the-top aesthetic when it comes to cookies, which she calls edible art.

“Anything can be a cookie,” Smith said. “I see the world as a cookie.”

When she sees wrapping paper or an interesting building, she said, “I’m like, that could be a cookie or that’s a great design for a cookie.”

As a child, she remembers looking up at the Keeper of the Plains statue and thinking, “That could be a really awesome Wichita cookie.”

Smith said her mother is “beyond thrilled” she’s opening her own place.

“She said, ‘Well, I guess it’s a good thing I gave you all the cookie cutters, huh?’ ”

The shop will have space for people to come in and learn cookie techniques.

Smith and McWithey are updating the building but don’t have to do anything major since it was already set up for a similar business.

“The biggest thing for me was its location,” McWithey said.

She said she wants to be part of downtown’s new direction.

“It’s a good scene, and it’s just getting better.”

Her mother, Kit Corby of Keller Williams Hometown Partners, and Levi Fitzmier of J.P. Weigand & Sons handled the deal for the space.

A number of people have suggested that Smith and McWithey might be crazy for opening a cookie store in a pandemic, but McWithey said personalized cookies and special touches for parties seem to be what people need.

“They mean so much more right now,” she said. “Families and loved ones are really looking to put a special mark on things even though its different. . . . They’re providing a moment. They’re providing memories.”

Smith said the Gilded Cookie also is about looking to the future.

“The city has to continue to go on, and people have to continue to dream and think of what the next chapter can be,” she said.

“For me, it’s very much about dreaming and hoping what our future will be once we get past this.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 11:27 AM.