In 2016, Cupcake Market in New York City first made headlines with its unique premise. The bakery offers cookies featuring intricately designed celebrity faces.
Each sugar cookie is cut out from a sketch by owner Sarah Silverman before it is painted on by an artist with royal icing. 18 cookies or two sheets can take up to three or four hours, with each cookie costing $21. The faces on each cookie are given unique expressions, such as crying, yelling, or smirking. The cookies are even big enough to cover a person’s entire face.
Since that time Cupcake Market has been renamed to Funny Face Bakery to more accurately describe its specialty. The bakery still sells cakes and other types of cookies, but it is now much more focused on the popular face cookies.
“When we first opened, the 2016 primary was going on and I came up with the idea about two weeks before we opened and I thought it could be our whole ‘schtick,'” Silverman tells AM New York. “We sold out that day and people kept asking for that — that’s when I found out that cupcakes might not be the main business.”
Current events dictate which faces are offered. Presidential candidates, characters from The Office, and Buddy the Elf are some of the best sellers right now. Customers can also order customized cookies to look like people they know.