Decorated Cakes & Cookies 

My mother and her sister took a cake decorating class together before I was born, so I never knew a time in childhood when family birthday cakes weren't fairly elaborate creations. It was the era of the sheet cakes and cake molds. Every holiday in my house came with colorful sugar cookies, decorated to match the assorted animated specials broadcast on ABC, CBS, and NBC. ...And then, as a young adult, I discovered all the cake decorating shows on the Food Network (Ace of Cakes!) and picked up the piping bags again.