One look at Crystal Kokal’s cookies makes it clear she has an eye for detail. The owner of Sassyfras, a cookie bakery run from her Eden Prairie home, uses a variety of tools to create intricate frosted designs tailored to her customers’ events.
Family has been the inspiration for every aspect of Sassyfras. Kokal’s childhood memories are filled with images of her mom baking beautiful wedding and birthday cakes. Although she inherited the baking gene, Kokal has always been drawn more to baking cookies than cake.
Wanting to try out a new style of holiday cookies with her kids in 2021, Kokal decided to make cookies with smooth, detailed icing. The first few attempts were a disaster — she struggled to make icing that wasn’t too runny or too chunky. Not one to give up, Kokal took a decorating class and started sharing her test bakes with friends.
Those friends soon wanted to purchase her bakes, so in 2023, Kokal launched Sassyfras. Along with the cookies, the company name was also inspired by family, named after the nickname she used for her kids — “sassyfrasses.”
Family has been woven into Kokal’s baking journey from the start, continuing to shape her work by helping with large orders and keeping her accountable for balancing her time.
Sassyfras Cookies isn’t the first business Kokal has started — she previously sold mittens made from recycled sweaters under the same Sassyfras name. But cookies are an entirely different product than mittens, so managing time can still be a challenge.
Each batch of one dozen cookies takes a minimum of three to four hours to make and decorate, and Kokal makes nearly 10 batches per week. This does not include the time it takes to develop her designs, which often rely on a screen-printing technique.
Logos, event invitations and party themes provide inspiration. Kokal turns those ideas into stencils, which she uses to “print” images onto the cookies by scraping icing over the stencil. Often, more than one stencil is used per cookie to create multicolored designs.
Sassyfras has continued to grow with both private and corporate orders. One special type of order Kokal creates is paint-your-own cookies for memory care residents at local senior homes. By brushing a wet paintbrush first onto small colored candies and then onto pre-frosted cookies, residents “paint” their own colors onto the treats.
Kokal’s schedule also includes classes at local breweries and community education centers, where she passes on her decorating knowledge. Having developed her own skills through guided instruction, Kokal values the role classes can play for people looking to advance their baking skills.
She uses many tools to produce her growing number of custom cookies, yet her favorite remains a simple rolling pin — a basic necessity for every batch.
“I really love my rolling pin,” Kokal said. That affection was earned after years of baking to find the perfect one — a pin that doesn’t bruise her hands and helps create cookies with an exact 5/16-inch height.
A more complex tool Kokal considers a necessity is her dehydrator — a piece of equipment she credits with expanding both capacity and quality by helping set icing.
“A lot of times, if people don’t have a dehydrator or don’t have the right consistency, you’ll get what are called craters,” Kokal said. “It’ll either sink or you’ll get little holes, and that’s from the icing underneath being a little drier. Then you’re putting wet icing on top, and the dry pulls the wet out.”
The dehydrator helps quickly dry the icing, preventing craters and locking in the puffy finish.
Another tool that gets regular use in Kokal’s kitchen is her 3D printer. With it, Kokal creates custom cookie cutters for each order, often inspired by clients’ event invitations.
The first batch Kokal made using a 3D-printed cookie cutter holds special meaning. Created for her sister’s 60th birthday party, the cookie designs were inspired by the party napkins. Kokal traced the lettering from the napkins and used it to create custom designs.
“It was a really fun set, and it was really special making it for her,” Kokal said.
That batch remains one of Kokal’s favorites, perhaps because the process reflects the strong family values that shape every aspect of Sassyfras.
To learn more about Sassyfras Cookies or connect with Crystal Kokal, visit sassyfrascookies.com.
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting home bakeries in Eden Prairie. To suggest a bakery, email editor@eplocalnews.org.
