A childhood wish to visit Disneyland helped inspire the business behind these sweet treats.

The Woman Behind Wicked Cookies On Family Ambition, Perfecting Recipes And Finding A Home In Leamington Spa

Sally Rees shares how a childhood Disneyland wish inspired Wicked Cookies, growing into a nationwide family business with a magical Leamington bakery, distinctive recipes and ambitions for further independent shops.

A  trip to Disneyland can begin with a savings jar. For Sally Rees’s family, it began with a bedtime story and cookies sold door to door. Her children were five and seven when their holiday ambitions set a small enterprise in motion. Ten years and two Disneyland trips later, that enterprise has become a family business with customers across the country.

Rees brought a background in business development and marketing to Wicked Cookies, but some of its most consequential ideas have come from listening. American customers at an early Coventry railway station pop-up repeatedly asked for snickerdoodles. The family’s experiments with the cinnamon-and-sugar classic produced their own version, the Snickerwoodle, which would eventually lend its name to their Leamington Spa shop, Snickerwoodles.

Behind the playful names is a willingness to take risks—and the patience to leave an imperfect recipe unfinished. Here, Rees discusses the opening day that made the family’s investment feel worthwhile, the elusive banoffee cookie and her affection for Leamington’s independent spirit.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Could you introduce yourself and tell us how Wicked Cookies began?

I’m Sally Rees, and I’ve been a director of Wicked Cookies for ten years. Before that, I ran several businesses, and my background is mainly in business development and marketing.

Our children started Wicked Cookies when they were five and seven. They wanted to go to Disneyland, and a bedtime story led them to make cookies and sell them around the houses. Ten years later, here we are—and we’ve been to Disneyland twice!

Which cookie best tells your story?

The Snickerwoodle. Early on, we had a pop-up at Coventry railway station, where American customers kept asking whether we made snickerdoodles. I’d never heard of them.

We researched them, found a recipe and made a batch. My husband and I both thought they were all right, but we felt we could do better. So we changed the recipe to create something we thought was really good.

Because ours was different, we called it a Snickerwoodle. We thought it was such a peculiar name that we trademarked it. It became our bestselling cookie.

Later, when we opened our magical bakery, we wanted a name that felt right for it. We decided to name the shop Snickerwoodles after our cinnamon-and-sugar cookie.

Highlights

• A family beginning: Sally’s children started selling cookies aged five and seven to help fund a Disneyland trip.
• An unexpected signature: Requests from American customers inspired the family’s bestselling Snickerwoodle.
• Patience over shortcuts: Sally says some recipes take years to develop, including an elusive banoffee cookie.
• An opening-day milestone: The family’s investment in Snickerwoodles was greeted by a queue around the block.
• Beyond the shop: Wicked Cookies serves customers nationwide, including corporate clients ordering branded cookies.
• Independent spirit: Sally values Leamington’s passionate shopkeepers, cafés and restaurants.
• Future ambitions: The family hopes to open further magical bakeries, with Stratford-upon-Avon a possible destination.

What is the secret to getting a cookie’s texture right?

That’s quite difficult because different people like different things. But I would say the quality of the ingredients is essential.

The oven plays a big part, too, as do the size of the cookie and getting the temperature right. All those things contribute to the texture.

“Ten years on, here we are, because we’ve been to Disneyland twice.
– Sally Rees”

How do you develop new recipes?

They start with ideas and inspiration, followed by plenty of research and development. Sometimes an idea comes together very quickly; sometimes it takes ages.

We’ve been trying to develop a banoffee cookie for years, and we’ve failed miserably! We’re absolute perfectionists, and we haven’t been able to get it right.

We also want to use natural ingredients. There are flavourings available that could make certain things easier, but they’re not necessarily what we want to use.

What has been your proudest moment?

Opening Snickerwoodles. We were eight years into the business and had invested literally everything we had. We were going out on a limb because we didn’t know how people would receive it.

On opening day, the whole family was here, baking and selling. It was so busy that we had a queue around the block. It was the most amazing day.

How does the Leamington shop fit into the wider business?

Snickerwoodles is the name of the shop, while Wicked Cookies is the main business behind the cookies.

We receive orders from all over the country. We have corporate customers, make branded cookies and attend markets, events and festivals around the country. We’re bigger than our little shop might suggest.

What makes Leamington special to you?

Leamington is absolutely beautiful. Although I’ve lived in Warwickshire for most of my life, I’ve always particularly liked towns with independent shops.

Regent Street has so many independents, and the shop owners are passionate about what they do. There’s a wonderful range of restaurants and cafés, too.

The flowers in summer look amazing. It’s a beautiful place to walk around, with a real soul to it.

What would you like to do next?

We would love to open more Snickerwoodles magical bakeries. We’re hoping to expand to Stratford-upon-Avon in the future.

We’ve tried several times, but finding the right property is tricky. Finance is a challenge, too, because opening somewhere takes a lot of money.

Ultimately, our dream is to expand so that more people can experience the magic of what we do and how we do it.