Have some watermelon…cookie. Photo by
Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Today is National Sugar Cookie Day. That’s O.K. for a start, but sugar cookies aren’t the most flavorable cookie around. Most of the large, fancifully decorated cookies are sugar cookies. They’re pretty, but they could be tastier. Sugar cookies tend not to have vanilla or other flavorings. They’re just sugary—and baked with a higher proportion of flour to be a sturdy platform that’s good for decorating, but not necessarily the tastiest for eating.

That’s where Fancypants steps in. Their decorated cookies are as beautiful and varied as any bakery’s, but they’ve improved upon the bland sugar cookie by baking rich, buttery shortbread. We hoarded the entire box!

Because the Fancypants co-founders are former educators (a middle school teacher and an education researcher, both with masters’ degrees), they know about kids and nut allergies. So their bakery is 100% nut-free. But these are welcome gifts for nut-eating grownups too. There are cookie themes for everyone, from sports to animals to baby, wedding, holiday and custom-decorated cookies for corporate logos.