I just love "happy" food - food that invokes memories of good times and joyous occasions. Years ago when our children were small, we lived in Tampa, Florida. On Friday afternoons, I would stop by the Alessi Bakery and pick up a few iced sugar cookies in different colors and designs to take home to our two girls and their friends.
      I don't know who had more fun, because I loved picking out the cookies, and the children loved eating them. That is why I am really looking forward to the opening next Monday of the Cookie Cutters Bakery next to Bernard's Jewelers on Northside Drive (in the same shopping area as Lowes). The gourmet cookie and cupcake shop is going to specialize in iced sugar cookies in all shapes for all occasions.
      "No one in Statesboro makes these type of cookies, or really cupcakes for that matter," said Shannon Sikes, who is opening the bakery with her husband Stacy. "I have friends that will go to Savannah to get these cookies for parties and showers, and we both just felt there was an opportunity here."
      The Sikes graduated from Georgia Southern in 1992. "I am from Atlanta, and majored in hotel and restaurant management," Shannon Sikes said. "After marrying, I got my teaching certificate and taught in middle schools for ten years. My husband is from Cobbtown and worked in the financial services industry for a number of years. We both wanted to start a business of our own."
      Sikes said that they will open with over 200 cookie designs, and a lot of what will be produced will have a seasonal component to it. "For summertime, we will have flip flop cookies, bathing suit cookies, just a number of different summertime themes," she said. "For Easter, we will have Easter eggs and Easter bunnies. It's just going to be a lot of fun."
      Although the sugar cookies will be the centerpiece, Sikes is equally enthused about the cupcake side of the bakery.  "Our cupcakes will be oversized with lots and lots of icing on them," she said. "We will also make oversized cookies called monster cookies. Cookie flavors will include chocolate chip and peanut butter. We will also have a cookie that has peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips and M&M's. It's awesome."
      The 1,200 square foot operation will create six new jobs for the area. "We have hired one full-time person, and five part-time. Sikes said the iced sugar cookies will start at $1.25 a piece.
      "We would have opened sooner, but just couldn't find the right location," she said. "We are very excited about being here, and can't wait for people to come in and see our cookies and cupcakes."