Showing posts with label custom wedding cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label custom wedding cookies. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2016
Monday, June 23, 2014
Muskoka Cottage Wedding Weekend Cookies
Jen's gift to the bride and groom was Sweet Handmade Cookies in a theme suitable to their wedding weekend at their Muskoka cottage. I love how the cookies turned out! Best wishes to the happy couple!
I got a note from Jen yesterday - "The cottage cookies we ordered as a wedding gift were a huge hit. The lovely bride wanted them out on the wedding sweet table. Everyone said they were delicious."
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Monogram Cookies
These piped monogram cookies (SHC = Sweet Handmade Cookies) were created for an advertising campaign coming soon!
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Bachelorette Cookies
Nadine was organizing her sister's bachelorette party and together we came up with this set for the party - heels and diamonds in the wedding colours of navy and silver. Much happiness to Elise and Chad for their upcoming nuptuals!
Monday, November 4, 2013
The 900 Cookie Challenge
In December of last year, I met Cristina, who was planning her October 2013 wedding. She loved my cookies and wanted to incorporate them into her wedding reception. After we exchanged a few emails, and I did up some samples, we met and signed a contract, and I placed the order on my schedule. It was for 900 cookies, two cookies per guest, to be flooded in white with an edible image and a piped border, packaged together in one bag and closed with a ribbon. One would go on each guest's place setting at the reception.
I was thrilled with the order, but admit that I thought about the order weekly and had dreams about it monthly from January until late September, which is when the frequency of my dreams (not always pleasant) increased substantially, as did the stress.
By the time October rolled around, which is a busy cookie month anyway, what with (Canadian) Thanksgiving and Halloween in it, I had 2000 cookies on my schedule, including another wedding order, a couple of baptisms, birthdays and my weekly farmers' market cookies. I prefer 300 cookies per week maximum, so I knew this would be a challenging month for me.
Because of the other cookie commitments, I had a week to make the 900 cookies. My baking racks limited me to 200 cookies at a time and the steps involved making the dough, baking and flooding on one day, putting on the edible image and piping a border the second day and packaging on the third. Putting edible images and piping a border onto 200 cookies was a 4 hour job. Baking and flooding 200 cookies was another 6 hours. Packing took a couple of hours as well. It was a week of incredibly long days. The statistics include over 29,000 dots piped, 20 pounds of butter, 100 cups of flour, more than 10 kilos of confectioners' sugar and 180 meters of ribbon!
When all was said and done, here are some lessons learned:
Lesson #1. Count, count and recount. The first day I rolled and cut over 500 cookies, keeping track of each batch's number of cookies. I rolled and cut the rest over the next few days. When I got close to the 900 mark, I counted again (as if I hadn't already counted 2 dozen times). A portion of the cookies had already been baked, decorated and packaged, another portion had been baked but not yet decorated. Suddenly there were cookies missing - 72 in fact. I counted and counted again. My husband was called in to count. Nope - no matter what, those 72 cookies were gone. I rolled out more dough and cut the missing 72. When all was said and done, guess how many extra cookies I had? Yes - 72. It still stumps me, but I am happy I had extras as opposed to being short!
Lesson #2. I think 900 cookies might just be too many for a one-woman show like mine. Well, perhaps if I didn't have another 1100 to make in the weeks leading up to it, it would have been less stressful. It was do-able, it was just that it was all-consuming for so many days in a row that it stopped being fun (and that rarely happens to me, I always love making cookies!).
Lesson #3. Edible images are not my friend. I invested in an edible image printer last year and it was why I was able to take on this order, but let me tell you this: royal icing does not change colour over time the way edible images do.
Lesson #4. Brides as organized and relaxed as Cristina are able to think on their feet. When I contacted Cristina to tell her the edible images were changing colour, she came up with the wonderful solution of changing the ribbon colour.
Lesson #5. Ask for help. I have a lovely friend who has been a great supporter of my business and offered her time to package the cookies with me. I resisted at first (I have never had any help before), but in the end I asked her to come and they were two mornings of joy and laughter, as well as good work done (she ties a beautiful bow and every bow I have tied since has been inspired by her).
Cristina's wedding day turned out cold and wet, but I am sure weather did not put a damper on their joy. Wishing Cristina and Frank a lifetime of happiness!
 |
| The finished cookies. |
I was thrilled with the order, but admit that I thought about the order weekly and had dreams about it monthly from January until late September, which is when the frequency of my dreams (not always pleasant) increased substantially, as did the stress.
By the time October rolled around, which is a busy cookie month anyway, what with (Canadian) Thanksgiving and Halloween in it, I had 2000 cookies on my schedule, including another wedding order, a couple of baptisms, birthdays and my weekly farmers' market cookies. I prefer 300 cookies per week maximum, so I knew this would be a challenging month for me.
 |
| Placing edible images onto the flooded cookies. |
Because of the other cookie commitments, I had a week to make the 900 cookies. My baking racks limited me to 200 cookies at a time and the steps involved making the dough, baking and flooding on one day, putting on the edible image and piping a border the second day and packaging on the third. Putting edible images and piping a border onto 200 cookies was a 4 hour job. Baking and flooding 200 cookies was another 6 hours. Packing took a couple of hours as well. It was a week of incredibly long days. The statistics include over 29,000 dots piped, 20 pounds of butter, 100 cups of flour, more than 10 kilos of confectioners' sugar and 180 meters of ribbon!
 |
| Piped border - 29,000 dots piped for the entire order! |
When all was said and done, here are some lessons learned:
 |
| One of my many scribbles with totals. |
Lesson #1. Count, count and recount. The first day I rolled and cut over 500 cookies, keeping track of each batch's number of cookies. I rolled and cut the rest over the next few days. When I got close to the 900 mark, I counted again (as if I hadn't already counted 2 dozen times). A portion of the cookies had already been baked, decorated and packaged, another portion had been baked but not yet decorated. Suddenly there were cookies missing - 72 in fact. I counted and counted again. My husband was called in to count. Nope - no matter what, those 72 cookies were gone. I rolled out more dough and cut the missing 72. When all was said and done, guess how many extra cookies I had? Yes - 72. It still stumps me, but I am happy I had extras as opposed to being short!
 |
| Baked, flooded and finished cookies on various racks. |
Lesson #2. I think 900 cookies might just be too many for a one-woman show like mine. Well, perhaps if I didn't have another 1100 to make in the weeks leading up to it, it would have been less stressful. It was do-able, it was just that it was all-consuming for so many days in a row that it stopped being fun (and that rarely happens to me, I always love making cookies!).
 |
| Cookies ready to package. |
Lesson #4. Brides as organized and relaxed as Cristina are able to think on their feet. When I contacted Cristina to tell her the edible images were changing colour, she came up with the wonderful solution of changing the ribbon colour.
 |
| Finished cookies with ribbon #1. |
Lesson #5. Ask for help. I have a lovely friend who has been a great supporter of my business and offered her time to package the cookies with me. I resisted at first (I have never had any help before), but in the end I asked her to come and they were two mornings of joy and laughter, as well as good work done (she ties a beautiful bow and every bow I have tied since has been inspired by her).
 |
| Finished cookies with final ribbon choice. |
Cristina's wedding day turned out cold and wet, but I am sure weather did not put a damper on their joy. Wishing Cristina and Frank a lifetime of happiness!
 |
| Ready for delivery. |
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Z28 Camaro Just Married Cookies
I attended my brother-in-law's wedding this past weekend in London, Ontario. Kevin married his long-time love, Amy, in a lovely backyard ceremony. I was thrilled when they asked me if I would bake something for their wedding day.
While I no longer make cakes or cupcakes for customers (cookies keep me plenty busy), I certainly was willing to do it for this beautiful couple. I created a carrot cake cupcake tower - each cupcake topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting, yum!
In addition, I made custom cookies. Kevin has always been a huge car enthusiast and his second love is definitely his 1980 Z28 Camaro. So some "just married" car type cookies seemed like the right way to go on this occasion. Styled after his beloved car, they were a huge hit!
While I no longer make cakes or cupcakes for customers (cookies keep me plenty busy), I certainly was willing to do it for this beautiful couple. I created a carrot cake cupcake tower - each cupcake topped with a swirl of cream cheese frosting, yum!
In addition, I made custom cookies. Kevin has always been a huge car enthusiast and his second love is definitely his 1980 Z28 Camaro. So some "just married" car type cookies seemed like the right way to go on this occasion. Styled after his beloved car, they were a huge hit!
Wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness! I love you both!
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