That’s how the cookie crumbles

Mrs. Joy’s Absolutely Fabulous Treats offers artisan cookies with a backstory

 

“It’s the happiest job ever!” Tarsha Joyner said as she rang up one of the day’s last customers.

The main parlor of her artisan bakery had dimmed by 4 p.m., since Lynchburg local Joyner prefers the cost-efficiency of natural light throughout the day.

But though the lighting may be dim at Mrs. Joy’s Absolutely Fabulous Treats, the atmosphere is not.

Joyner, the “Mrs. Joy” of the downtown Lynchburg bakery, located at 1008 Commerce St, is best known for winning first place on Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge” in 2015 as the only non-professional contestant among three professionals.

Since then, she has perfected her brand of edible fine art.

“I don’t even think about the fact that someone’s going to bite it and eat it, and it will all be gone,” Joyner said.

“I get satisfaction from creating it. That’s all I need. It’s a high. It’s temporary, like everything on this Earth, and I’m cool with that.”

Joyner’s treat selection boasts cake pops, caramels, and even doughnuts, but her claim to fame are her cookies.

The glass case by the cash register displays what initially look like miniature glass mosaics — they are actually cookies, meticulously decorated to resemble bold modern paintings.

One cookie is shaped and iced to resemble a full man’s suit — sunshine yellow and complete with a paisley tie and pocket square.

In the back of the bakery is the kitchen and bar.

The bar’s top is lined with trays full of square cookies which, like miniature canvases, portray watercolor forest scenery.

They are the result of a watercolor triptych class Joyner recently offered.

“I cannot tell you how many people have sat at that bar and just poured out their souls to me,” Joyner said.

“Perfect strangers. But when they leave, we’re not strangers anymore. They know they can come back any time and do the same thing over again.”

Joyner was born in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

She spent her childhood in several foster homes because her mother was mentally ill and her father had gone AWOL in the military — effectively going AWOL from his family as well.

“Foster homes were just horrible places,” Joyner said.

“Not nice at all.”

During this time, however, Joyner found a way to escape by developing a love for all things artistic.

“My favorite thing in the world was a box of crayons,” Joyner said.

“Not that box with all of the colors — that was too overwhelming — I just wanted the fat ones in the basic eight colors. They smelled so good when I opened them up. Then, I’d get a coloring book. Wherever I was, I could color and be happy.”

Joyner also loved reading fairy tales.

They provided a sense of an impending happy ending, which Joyner thrived on during her time going from one foster home to the next.

She searched for her happy ending through fairy tales, and found her joy in art.

“The reading, the imagination and the art started happening all together,” Joyner said.

“Then when the computer came out in the ninth grade, I became a computer geek.
Who knew!”

Joyner later met and married her husband Roger in Wilmington, North Carolina.

They, along with Joyner’s young daughter at the time, moved to Lynchburg in 1995.

After a long while of being married and settling into Lynchburg with her growing family, Joyner decided to attend Lynchburg College to study business administration and computer programming.

However, Joyner discovered her true calling in art and began pursuing graphic design and photography.

From these loves grew her unlikely baking venture.

It all started with a branding assignment from one of Joyner’s graphic design classes.

“My professor said that we were going to have to brand an entire product line of something,” Joyner said.

“I didn’t want it to be something fake, because you don’t really get all excited about some fake product that’s assigned to you.”

Her son Justin was looking for summer work at the time, so he got roped into Joyner’s endeavor to help market and sell their settled product: cookies.

“I started out by trying to make shortbread at the time,” Joyner said.

“Easy and cheap, right? Shortbread is not easy. Even with just the basic ingredients, if you don’t have the right technique, the recipe doesn’t matter. So I learned how to make shortbread. I researched the ingredients.”

Through the trial-and-error, Joyner discovered the deep love for the scientific part of baking.

It intrigued her to not only work with ingredients, but to see how they worked with each other in making a good product.

The completed branding project not only earned Joyner an “A,” but also earned her two advertising awards.

But Joyner’s real work had only just begun.

Joyner opened and ran a booth at the Lynchburg Community Market for about three years, perfecting her techniques and buying more equipment, before she decided to open her own shop.

She found and settled into a space on Commerce Street in downtown Lynchburg, where her shop currently flourishes.

The new workspace quickly became the catalyst for a monumental professional shift in Joyner’s life.

“The baking was starting to become a full-time job, and I was working as a software support analyst for medical software as my full-time job at the time, so I was working two full-time jobs,” Joyner said.

“It was killing me. Something had to give. I used to love sitting at a computer and figuring out problems, but when you find something else you’re passionate about, something else that makes your spirit just dance, you just move on. And I get bored very quickly.”

Through a fellow baker online, Joyner discovered that Food Network was looking for contestants for the “Christmas Cookie Challenge” special of 2015.

Joyner applied just to see what would happen.

At the time, Joyner also applied to star in an ABC show with her friend Nicole.

They had both made the first cut of auditions with ABC and waited to hear if they made the second cut.

“On our way back from New York, I heard from Food Network that I had made it onto their show,” Joyner said.

“At the same time, ABC was getting ready to fly me out to England for five weeks to film. But how do you turn down Food Network? And I knew what the prize money was, too. I didn’t know what the money was like with ABC.”

Joyner signed on with Food Network and went to California, while Nicole went on to England with ABC.

After arriving in California, Joyner discovered her competitors were all professionals.

One had five professional business locations, and one had been Martha Stewart’s personal cookie decorator.

Despite the initial discouragement and shock, Joyner prayed through, baked on, completed every challenge and ultimately won the grand prize of $10,000.

“It was an extremely, intensely nerve-wracking experience,” Joyner said.

“I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. I love a challenge. I love competition. I’ve been that way my whole life. I used to be a tournament and league bowler. Dodgeball is one of my favorite things to play, and I am a beast at it. I just love to compete at everything.”

Joyner said through the experience, she observed that people seem to get
starstruck easily.

“The only person that ever made me feel starstruck was Jesus Christ himself,” Joyner said.

“He’s the only one we really should be getting starstruck about.”

After the show concluded and Joyner returned home, business at Mrs. Joy’s Absolutely Fabulous Treats exploded, although Joyner had plenty of customers before.

Everyone wanted a prize-winning piece from the new local celebrity.

Joyner sees her cookies’ fame as an opportunity for not only her baking, but for her community outreach as well.

In Mrs. Joy’s shop, there is no talk of politics, but no rules about discussing religion.

“I can talk about my religion as much as I want,” Joyner said.

“Now that people care about what I have to say, it’s the perfect vehicle to show people that they are just as important and special as I am, and they are sons and daughters of the king just like I am.”

The entire family is involved in maintaining the business now.

All of Joyner’s children are on payroll, and Roger comes to the shop every night after his own job to mop floors, clean bathrooms and take out trash.

“I love it,” Joyner said when asked if her family loved the baking business as much as she did.

“I’m the one that will sit here on the couch at 3 a.m. between baking batches.
I don’t expect them to have that kind of passion for it. But then, it’s not their business.”

Joyner plans to someday open another shop in Charlottesville — possibly a smaller one near the campus of the University of Virginia.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Joyner also plan to return to school in the fall of 2018 and plan to attend UVA.

“I have this urge to get my master’s degree in art, and Roger allowed me to spend 15 years getting my last degree, so now it’s also his turn,” Joyner said.

Her shop is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday – Saturday.

Sundays are closed for church and rest.

Jarrett is a feature reporter.