28 | DECEMBER 19 • 2024 
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antor Rachel Gottlieb 
Kalmowitz of Birmingham 
made a special plan with her 
daughter, Ilana Kalmowitz, 13. After 
seeing a notice on the Jewish Moms 
Of Metro Detroit Facebook group, 
she signed them up for a Chanukah 
cookie-decorating class at Diamond 
Bakery. 
The event, which took place Dec. 
17, was a chance to connect with the 
community to celebrate, especially 
when Chanukah comes late in the 
month at a time when people will 
largely be home or engaged in end-
of-year travel, she says. 
Kalmowitz explains she was drawn 
to the cookie-decorating event 
because her daughter is very artistic. 
She texted her daughter about taking 
part in the event together. 
 “I thought it would be fun to do 
something Chanukah-related with 
my daughter as we were heading 
toward Chanukah,” she says. “It 
gives us an opportunity to connect 

in different ways and to try to bring 
our light out into the community.”
Chanukah cookies are an annual 
tradition at Diamond Bakery, says 
Gina Rowley, a former owner who 
now lives in Florida. “For Chanukah, 
we always did the fondant cookies; 
we would do menorahs and stars,” 
she says. “Everything is blue and 
white during Chanukah time. The 
little sprinkle cookies were very 
popular, blue sprinkles, blue and 
white sprinkles together.” 
From stars to hearts, they made 
sure to have a diversity of cookies 
on hand, she says, adding that 
icebox cookies, sufganiyot and even 
Mexican wedding cookies went 
flying off shelves. 
“The teeny cookies, they go by 
weight, we’d sell pounds of them at a 
time,” she says. “We would do trays 
after trays after trays, donuts, too — 
all of it.” 
During her days, they would 
hand-pump the little cookies out and 

add sprinkles manually. “It was a lot 
of work, but we did what we could 
do to take care of our customers 
because they had to have their 
cookies,” she says. “I really enjoyed 
doing those cookies, the fondants; 
it’s creative and always fun to do.” 
A pastry school grad, Jacqui 
Gretzinger of Novi led the Dec. 17 
event. Having grown up with challah 
from Diamond Bakery every Friday 
night and having a long love for its 
seven-layer cake, she says she was 
excited to bring her skills to the 
class. 
“I wanted to bring joy to Jewish 
people and Jewish kids who might 
feel slighted because they don’t have 
the whole Christmas experience,” she 
says, explaining that as a Jewish kid 
growing up the area, she was always 
disappointed that there weren’t more 
Chanukah offerings. 
 “I wanted people to be able to 
come out and enjoy our Chanukah 
season and bring home something 

they’re proud of for when they have 
their family over for Chanukah or 
go to someone’s house and want to 
bring something.” 
The cookies were ready and 
waiting to be decorated when the 
class began so people could focus on 
learning the step-by-step process of 
decorating them, she says. There was 
a choice of looks and techniques for 
the decorators to explore. She also 
provided recipes for sugar cookies, 
how to make the frosting and gave 
tips on storing the cookies as well. 
It was a warm and delicious even-
ing for the dozen or so participants 
who headed to Diamond Bakery 
after-hours, she says. “Sugar cookie 
decorating is fun.” 
From the cookies to sufganiyot 
to seven-layer cake, Dan Buckfire, a 
current Diamond Bakery owner, says 
he’s glad he’s helping to bring more 
sweetness into the community. 
 It’s even more important given 
everything going on in the world, he 
says, adding the bakery will be open 
from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 25. 
 “Chanukah is a festive, joyous 
holiday and you have to celebrate the 
good times,” he says. “Chanukah is 
a holiday for children, a holiday for 
celebration and a celebration of the 
resilience of the Jews.” 

Diamond Bakery offers a workshop on cookie decorating.

Chanukah 
Cookies

KAREN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CHANUKAH

Jacqui Gretzinger 
led the cookie-
decorating class at 
Diamond Bakery.

For Supporting The Zekelman Holocaust Center’s 40 th 
Anniversary Benefit on November 10, 2024