I got the most wonderful and unexpected gift from my friend Karen Thomas.

As long as I’ve known her, it’s been apparent KT is a creative genius. A few years ago, she discovered a new talent when she started volunteering as a baker for Cake4Kids.

Volunteer bakers design, bake, and donate cakes based on requests. Homemade customized cakes are delivered free of charge to at-risk and under-served youth across the country. The youth served may be in foster or kinship care, living in group homes, survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking, living in low-income housing with or without a parent, or even homeless.

KT also volunteers for Icing Smiles, a nationwide nonprofit organization that delivers dream cakes at no charge to kids impacted by critical illness. She loves exploring new techniques and sometimes she goes beyond her philanthropic work to make lovely gifts for her friends.

This Friday, KT gave me the most lovely gift: she baked custom cookies for me!

Would you look at these?

The Poisoned Glass! Can you believe the frame on the left?

Grievous Deeds!

Cold Heart and Has It Come to This?

Aren’t they beautiful? And here is the pièce de résistance, as the French would say:

You can see how talented and creative KT is. These pictures don’t do her designs justice but you can visit her YouTube channel, TikTok, and Instagram to see better pictures of her work and pick up some helpful tips!

Did you notice? In 12 years, I never wrote a culinary post, and this is my second one in January 2025—and both posts are inspired by gifts!

I’m grateful for all of you, dear readers!