Dr. Erika Bullock is more than just a professor; she has a talent that surprises many people. Bullock is the owner and Chief Cookie Artist of A Pretty Smart Cookie, a Madison-based cottage bakery specializing in custom-decorated sugar cookies for all occasions. She also offers cookies decorating classes for those who want to try out a new hobby.
Bullock comes from a family of women who were excellent cooks but did not care for baking. Baking frustrated her mother and grandmother because they did not want to take the time to follow a recipe precisely. “They were kitchen magicians,” Bullock remembers, “so they wanted to be more playful in the kitchen.” But the precision of baking suited Bullock’s personality perfectly. As a scholar and professor of mathematics education who also teaches logic and lives by a planner and a meticulous schedule, it is no wonder that she appreciates the structure associated with baking.
Bullock’s mother taught her to prioritize taste in the kitchen. “She said that if the food was nasty, no one would care if it looked good.” Bullock still follows this teaching. Even though she uses the same few recipes, she tests each batch of cookies to make sure that the taste is right. Then she adds her special touch to the decoration to be sure that each cookie looks just as good as it tastes.
Bullock’s love of baking began at a young age. She decorated her first cake at age 8 as a surprise for her uncle, whose birthday fell on Easter that year. It was a white coconut cake with a green coconut Easter basket on top and jellybean eggs. From that day forward, she was the family baker. She took her first cake decorating classes at Michael’s while she was in college in Atlanta and began a small bakery in her apartment. She did everything from dessert tables to large wedding cakes. She also taught cake decorating classes at a local baking supply store.
The business slowed to a stop once Bullock entered a doctoral program in 2009. She completed her PhD at Georgia State University and moved to the Memphis to begin her first position as a professor at the University of Memphis. In 2016, she moved to Madison to work as a professor in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
After settling into Madison, Bullock wanted to resume baking as a hobby. She went to a cookie decorating class at Vanilla Bean and the fire was rekindled. To bake to her heart’s content, she recognized that re-entering business was necessary. This time, it would be cookies. “They take up much less space than cakes!” So, A Pretty Smart Cookie was born in late 2019.
Baking was a saving grace for Bullock during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she was able to help people celebrate special occasions by making no-contact cookie deliveries. The business slowed while she cared for her parents who passed in 2021 and 2022. A Pretty Smart Cookie re-emerged in 2023 and has been celebrating milestones with the Madison community ever since.
You can find A Pretty Smart Cookie at www.aprettysmartcookie.com
