Alexis Ruddock
Alexis Ruddock
Alexis Ruddock will appear on this year's “Christmas Cookie Challenge” this holiday season. It’s her latest achievement since opening Sweet Frosted Cookies.
By Courtni Fields
A Fort Worth pastry chef is bringing her cookie decorating expertise to the Food Network—with an organic twist.
Alexis Ruddock will appear on this year's “Christmas Cookie Challenge” this holiday season. It’s her latest achievement since opening Sweet Frosted Cookies, a business launched following a personal loss.
We stopped into her bakery at Clearfork to chat about her time both on and off the screen.
Q. When did you start baking?
A. I started baking back when my oldest son was 13. When he turned 13, however long ago that was, I bought a box of ready-mix cake. I remember it was chocolate and then I bought a container of chocolate frosting and an icing tube to write, a blue tube. I baked it, and it was really the ugliest cake I've ever seen. It really made me sad and made me cry because I put “happy birthday.” So it became a goal for me to make him the prettiest and the most delicious cake that he will ever have.
Q. What made you want to bake organically?
A. After that scenario with my son's cake, I opened up a bakery in California. It was called Frosted Gourmet Cakes. I wasn't doing organic then, but I was doing high-end ingredients. I got all of my ingredients from Europe and from Italy. I would have them shipped here. Then I got pregnant.
Four weeks into my pregnancy, I found out that the baby wasn't doing well. The baby was sick, so I was put on bed rest, and then I was on and off bed rest. Finally, five months into it, we found out that she was a girl and I was still working at my bakery. We gave her a name, and then two weeks later, she passed away.
The only thing that the doctors could tell me was that it was a fluke. For me, that wasn't a good enough reason. I knew she was having a hard time, but they couldn't tell me why because I got tested genetically with my husband. We're very healthy — we don't smoke, we don't drink, and so to hear it was a fluke, I couldn’t accept it.
One day, I was just browsing through Facebook and I read something about why to go organic, and I started reading up about it. I started reading about the Roundup, Monsanto, and all the reasons why people should eat organic. And for me, I had to go above and beyond. It can't be just food, so I learned about the cookware, how it really just puts toxins into our food. I learned about our clothing, and so I only wear recycled clothing. There is no middle ground for me.
Q. How did you find out about the baking competition in the first place?
A. I didn't. They found me. One night I was at home ... I know exactly where I was sitting. I was on the sofa and someone calls my business line. It was a gentleman, the producer and he had said, “Hey, would you be interested in applying for a Christmas cookie decorating championship?” It was one of those things I knew I wasn't going to get in, and so I said, “yeah why not?”
Q. What was the competition like?
A. It's exhausting! I was really, really exhausted because by the time we got there the first night, it was almost 11 because we all flew in at different times. Then we have to check in, and then we had to be there by 7 in the morning the next day. There's a pre-interview. The total interview was probably seven hours to get three minutes. You're like, “oh, I dropped something,” and they're filming, and then when everyone finishes, you have to go back and talk about what you did, so that's another three or four hours. It's a really long, exhausting progress.
Q. What was your favorite part of the show?
A. My favorite part was the experience of being on Food Network. The way you were treated, I felt like I was star for the three days I was there. They did my makeup, my hair, and my clothing, and however many times they had to redo my makeup. Then meeting and making friends. My idol; when you watch the show, you'll see her. I'm getting to know her more outside her YouTube videos.
Q. What was your least favorite part of the competition?
A. My least favorite was we had to wait a lot. Everybody has to take their turns. I wish I really could have gotten to spend more time with the judges, because the main judge this year was Ree Drummond. I love her. I watch her, and I wish I was able to go up to her and get my book signed or something, but it was so fast and everything was, “here-here-here, go-go-go.” The only time we ever really got to see them was when they were introduced to you, and then when they judged you ,and then you're gone. You're done.
Q: What are your favorite cookies to bake?
A: My favorite, favorite, favorite cookies to bake are lavender butter cookies. I love, love, love them. A lot of people stay away from lavender, but mine’s organic. It's either French or English lavender. If you know how much to put on one batch it won't overpower the cookie. It won't taste like soap and your mouth won't bubble. I love it so much. That's one of my favorites but for my orders and classes I do your classic vanilla sugar cookies, but my favorite that I could eat all day are the lavender.
Q. What has it been like baking in Fort Worth versus the other places that you've lived?
A. Since California was so big, because it's so populated, there was really no connection between me and my customers. For me, Fort Worth is small, and so it has that support of your local community. I’ve met a lot of great people because of my cookies. Because of my baking, a lot of these people have become really great friends.
