You don’t have to look far to find cookies that take the cake. For nearly 10 years, Rude Boy Cookies has rocked Albuquerque with incredible edible art, handcrafted in an array of inventive flavors, colors, and shapes.
Unique, Addictive Flavors
Think German Chocolate Cake, Hot Fudge Sundae, and Red Velvet cookies, creatively painted with royal icing to resemble hot air balloons, hearts, superheroes, real-life heroes and dozens of other tempting treats. Rude Boy Cookies also customizes festive cookies for birthdays, weddings, and holidays and serves up homemade ice cream and milkshakes. It’s no surprise that in 2023, USA Today named Rude Boy Cookies one of the top 10 cookie shops in the country.
Musical Inspiration
One ingredient in Rude Boy Cookies’ success is the irresistible beat of ska, rooted in Jamaican music and culture of the 1960s. “I set out to open a business that combined my loves—music and chocolate chip cookies,” says co-owner Mike Silva. “Especially ska. Fans of ska music are called Rude Boys.”
Silva jazzed up the Rude Boy Cookies shop with ska imagery inside and out, including iconic ska checkerboards and the joyful silhouette of a ska dancer wearing a signature suit and a porkpie hat. Rude Boy Cookies evens hosts live music and bands often stop in for cookies.
It’s Always Been Cookies
The sweet shop wouldn’t have a cult following without its magician in the kitchen, co-owner Kristin Dowling. She took gold, along with the $10,000 purse, at the 2017 Food Network Christmas Cookie Challenge. For one of her winning creations, she artfully painted biscochitos with a snowy New Mexico holiday scene: an adobe church and chile ristras beneath a starry sky.
“Kristin’s created all our cookie recipes,” says Silva. “She’s been baking since she was a kid in the kitchen with her grandmother. She excels at creativity. She’s an artist, able to transform her creative ability onto the cookie. She found a way to combine her love of cooking and art.”
Dowling’s award-winning biscochitos make delectable holiday gifts, and so do dozens of other enchanting sweets from Rude Boy Cookies, which ships its treats around the country. The only challenge to shopping online, or in person at the two Albuquerque locations, is resisting the temptation to purchase one of each extraordinary edible masterpiece.
Story by Lynn Cline
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