A couple of months ago, I landed a huge Christmas order of 120 cookies. Then, two weeks ago, I was presented with an amazing opportunity. Liz Morgan with Liz Morgan PR commissioned me to make 10 boxes of a special collection (20 cookies each) to give as a thank you to her contacts in TV & Radio. This is HUGE for La Belle Cookie!!! Let's do the math....that is 320 cookies. These two large orders are due on December 15th. I took a few days off work to complete these orders. I also had a baby shower order that I delivered Saturday morning. I believe this is the last baby shower for the year!
First let me say this......I was in over my head. I didn't think I would ever finish. I even had a mini meltdown of Friday. Ask Jeff....he was sweet enough to listen to me ball like a baby on the phone, then gave me a little pep talk which helped me the rest of the day. I guess it wouldn't have been so hard if I actually had an industrial size mixer, an oven that fit more than one tray of cookies at a time and a machine that could roll my dough for me. Does this exist? If not...I'm inventing one asap.
Before all the cookie talk....I would like to announce my holiday logo. Isn't it adorable? Thank you Julie for creating this logo for me!!!! 
I was asked to make onesies and ducks for the baby shower order. Next to the Turkey, I think the duck is my next favorite cookie!
I was asked to make onesies and ducks for the baby shower order. Next to the Turkey, I think the duck is my next favorite cookie!Liz Morgan asked if I could do bee's. Her gift theme is "thanks for all the buzz". I told her about a collection I did for client that wanted to give a box of cookies in lieu of flowers. So, I created a box of daisies and bees. After Liz saw the picture, she decided to go with this collection. Each box has 16 daisies and 4 bees.
The daisies are super easy to make. But it seems like the easy cookies take the longest to make. I made 40 cookies of each color, plus some extras of each cookie. I timed myself and it took just under an hour to decorate each color daisy. Seems like forever to me! So, it took 4 hours just to pipe the daisies.
First I drop the yellow center and then pipe the petal border.
Then flood the petals with icing.
After the daisies...on to the bees.
This is the assembly line....
All packaged up for delivery. Whew!!! One large order down, one to go...
The Christmas order for 120 cookies included this collection. The cookies will be presented in treat bags with 5 cookies in each bag, then tied off with a holiday ribbon. This will make 24 treat bags.
I ended up tweaking the snowman for this order and used a different type of sprinkle on the stocking.
When all is said and done, this is what each treat bag will look like...but with multiple cookies in each bag. I love the ribbon!
Including some extras, I made 360 cookies in 4 days. Now I need two more days off work just to recoup!!!!
I have four more orders for this coming week and after that I am done! I am not taking on any more orders until next year.
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4 comments:
Wow your work is great!!!
There is an automatic dough roller, it's called a "sheeter" our main competitor (who shall remain un-named)in NYC, has one. The kind we need for cookies is GIANT, and super expensive, say in the tens of thousands of dollars. It's good to be able to say that your cookies are hand made from start to finish, so we aren't investing in one. (Plus Dave can roll and cut 400 cookies in an hour.) And we have 2 convection ovens that can bake 10 full sheet pans at a time.
Good luck, I remember being overwhelmed by orders of 360 cookies, now those are a cakewalk and I cringe at the orders for 3000 cookies!!
If you're ever in VT you can bake your cookies here!!
Take care!
Great work! I love the snowmen!
I feel your pain...although not this year! :) I am enjoying baking for FUN this year, but I was making those big orders the last few years, 1 batch at a time, 6 cookies at a time in the oven. :) Whew...I'm glad you are finished! The daisies and bees are adorable!
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