ABOVE: Semi Sweet Designs’ stackable Christmas tree set. Photo via Semi Sweet Designs.
Mike and Billy Tamplin are more than just brothers, they’re business partners. The openly gay twins have worked together for more than a decade, launching the Tampa-based Semi Sweet Designs in 2011.
Their retail shop provides tools and tutorials for bakers of all skill levels to create their own cookies decorated in royal icing. What began as Mike’s hobby now provides both entertainment and education, offering more than 800 unique items to help patrons bake the spirits bright with the perfect holiday hit.
“We’re an online business that teaches and encourages people to decorate cookies for all occasions,” Mike explains. They primarily focus on major holidays and milestones, offering cookie cutters, stencils, decorating supplies, other merchandise, recipes and more.
“We help guide people each step of the way, from the tools you use to how to achieve icing consistency, what colors to mix and even how to package them after you’re done,” he adds. “We’re an all-in-one resource.”
Mike worked as an aerospace engineer prior to launching their shop, which he initially ran on the side. He’s done so as its face, interacting with clients and supporters online while Billy, a graphic and web designer, worked primarily behind the scenes.
“I was doing double duty for about maybe seven years and then it just got too overwhelming,” Mike says. “It started to take off to where I thought I could make it work on its own, so that’s when I made the jump and took Billy with me.”
Billy joined full time in 2019 and earlier this year, the two attended CookieCon as vendors. This year’s annual event – billed as the largest gathering of cookie artists in the world – was held in Orlando for the first time and celebrates 10 years in Nevada next March.
“Experiencing CookieCon and interacting with our customers was really awesome,” Billy says. “It felt really great to hear the type of impact that that our company has had on other people and to hear them say that our products and our tutorials helped them start their new careers.”
“It was so nice to actually hear back from our customers and to be able to put faces to the names,” Mike adds. “It was overwhelming but very rewarding.”
The Tamplins’ years of creative outreach led to the experience. While Semi Sweet Designs began as a blog detailing Mike’s cookie wows and woes, it now has more than 80,000 followers on Facebook, nearly 75,000 on Instagram and an additional 12,000 subscribers on YouTube.
“It’s surprised me how large of a cookie community there is,” Billy says. “Getting feedback, looking at all of the comments on social media and going to CookieCon, it’s surprising but also very nice to see that there are so many people out there that share our interests.”
The holidays are central to that connection, among them Christmas. Semi Sweet Designs offers nearly 80 cookie cutters dedicated to the most wonderful time of the year.
Collections include the aptly titled Gingerbread & Hot Cocoa cookie platter set; a Classic mini cookie cutter set with a candy cane, holly, stocking and tree; a Winter Woodland cookie cutter set with a reindeer, cardinal, winter berry sprig and pine cone and more. Each are also sold in separate pieces and of course, gingerbread men, nutcrackers, snowmen and the Clauses are all offered as well.
Among Semi Sweet Designs’ staples is a stackable Christmas tree set. It includes four cookie cutters, each of which is a different part of the tree, the top of which includes the star.
“I really think people will have fun decorating this set,” Mike detailed the collection last holiday season. “It’s a blank canvas that allows you to get as creative as you’d want with it.”
While his design was iced with ornaments, beaded garland and twinkling stars, “these Christmas trees would look just as amazing with a simple flood of icing and a festive sprinkle mix sprinkled on top,” he added. “Go simple or go ham. It’s really up to you.”
Mike says that’s why the design is his favorite. “You can decorate it any way you want, just like any Christmas tree,” he explains, “and it’s really cool when you see four individual pieces come together to create one image.”
The Tamplins approach each design with both accessibility and practicability in mind. It’s imperative that the pieces hold up for multiple uses.
“I want to make sure that the design itself is impressive but also not intimidating,” Mike says. “I don’t want someone to be scared and not even attempt it. I want them to think ‘I can do that,’ even someone who’s never picked up a piping bag before.
“I make the design simple but impactful and make sure it has a sturdy silhouette,” he continues. “For the holidays, we try to go with the trends if there are any, but if there’s a classic design that we haven’t tried, we’ll try to recreate it for the shop.”
“We’re always preparing,” Billy adds. “Our inventory just continues to grow with each passing holiday.”
You can view some of their holiday designs below:
You can also prepare for your favorite holiday with Semi Sweet Designs any time of the year. Check out cookie and icing recipes, in-depth tutorials and Mike and Billy Tamplin’s other baking essentials at SemiSweetDesigns.com.
This story was originally published in Watermark’s 2021 Holiday Guide. Read it online here for an LGBTQ-inclusive look at the holiday season in Tampa Bay and Central Florida.
