I have been around the confectionery arts all my life. My grandparents, Wilbur and Mildred Brand started Country Kitchen in 1964 to supply cake decorators with quality products. The business grew and they began selling candy making, cookie making and wedding supplies. Country Kitchen is still in the family. While my mom is retired, my sister and I are co-owners of Country Kitchen. I am very fortunate to work with my sister, Leslie Myers every day. I’m sure there are very few who can say they work with their sister/best friend!
From the time I was little I have enjoyed “messing” around in the field. In 1991, I began working full time at Country Kitchen making displays of cakes, cookies and candies and also as their wedding consultant. I became especially interested in cookies when I was flipping through Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie Magazine in 1993 and came across an article about a family who gets together every year and paints gorgeous cookies for Christmas. I absolutely loved the technique they had used and HAD to try it myself. Once I tried it, I was hooked. For the next several months, I was painting cookies daily! The following fall, I decided to teach a class showing this as well as many other decorating technique for cookies. It was a great success and I have taught one every year since, with many of the same students attending every year.
I teach annually at the I.C.E.S. (International Cake Exploration Societé ) I look forward every year when I.C.E.S holds their annual convention. It’s so exciting to see others so enthusiastic about the confectionery arts! I have also traveled to several states, sharing the craft of cookie decorating and other confectionary arts.
In 1995, I married Bruce Carpenter. Two years later I had twin boys, Isaac and Austin. In September of 1999, I had a baby girl, Sydney. In April of 2003, Simon-our youngest son came along.I love baking cookies with my kids, and I hope their passion for the arts is someday as great as mine.
My Websites:
www.AutumnCarpenter.com– My site with my books and products.
www.CookieDecorating.com– A site for anyone who is interested in the art of decorating cookies.
www.ShopCountryKitchen.com– Our retail shop for all things in the confectionary arts.
Autumn Carpenter's Weblog 
Autumn,
I wanted to send you the below link to a Vancouver Sun daily newspaper article in Canada regarding my 8-year old son and his love of sugar art. You may recall he was the only child delgate at the ICES convention in San Diego and he asked for your autograph at the Canada reception in which you were doing a demontration. Anyway, the link includes a video where he demonstrates his skills by using one of his Autumn Carpenter impression mats that he won at the Canada reception. He did the interview with a 103F temperature. He insisted that he wanted to go ahead with it even if he was sick. Now that’s sugar art dedication! Just thought you would enjoy seeing your products in action being viewed by thousands. We love your products! Here’s the link:
http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Fabulous+baker+Braxton+youngest+enter+gingerbread+competition/3960653/story.html
Kind regards, Jan (and my son Braxton) Calkins
Vancouver, Canada
hay i am 13 year old and 1 love peace how much is it to make a birthday cake thanks you
your friend,
sydney lashley
Hi Sydney! I don’t make cakes to sell, just for family and friends. Have a great birthday!
I continue to enjoy your blog and all your posts. Your cakes are truly amazing!
I have nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award. Continue posting, I look forward to each one of them.
So, what does Liebster mean?? And what’s the award?? Here’s the rundown…
“Liebster” means favorite or beloved in German, and this award helps to draw attention to blogs that aren’t too well known.
Here are the rules for this award:
Upon receipt of the award, one is to:
1) Link back to the blogger who gave it
2) Paste the award on the blog
3) Choose 5 blogs to pass this award to (they must have fewer than 200 followers)
4) Let the recipients know about their nomination by leaving a comment on their blogs.