My first cookie decorating class went very well. Everyone had a great time and thought this class was a fun and relaxing distraction from the holiday stress.

I know the owner of a small Mexican restaurant who allowed me to use her dining area for this class. I charged $30 for a 2 hour class which included lunch. Each student got 5 pre-baked cookies (4 sugar and 1 gingerbread), 3 disposable pastry bags, 2 couplers, tip #2 and #3, 2 tablespoons merengue powder, and a mitten cookie cutter, and a laminated practice template I downloaded from karenscookies.net.

I limited the number of participants to 15 and I had 3 on a waitlist. They learned how to pipe, flood, sugaring, and wet on wet. They most enjoyed the wet on wet technique because it was easy and quick. I was amazed at how creative many of them were too.

One other thing I realized was how much more money I can make in 2 hours teaching these classes than I do selling cookies.

For the demographics of this neighborhood, $30 was enough. This neighborhood is deeply affected by recession and high unemployment. For one woman who attended, this class was her Christmas present from her daughter.

Unless you live in this town, you can't make a judgement call of what "enough" is.

Fine. I'm sorry. I was trying to pay you a compliment. Obviously my depressed area is not as depressed as yours.

That's ok. And thanks for the compliment.

Sounds like it went very well, congrats!

Good for you! It is so much fun spreading the cookie joy, isn't it? I have found that my students really appreciate the starter kit (tips, couplers, bags, etc.).

Yes it was fun. My next cookie class is already scheduled for February.

I think your really onto something. Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year! It sounds like you are quite the entrepreneur !

congratulations - it sounds wonderful!

I don't do cookies - - ever - - but it sounds like a fun class. Congratulations and good luck with the teaching side.

I live in Los Angeles where I could charge much more. But I come from and visit Detroit where I would give classes to people if I thought they could later earn money from what they learned. Trouble is,in Detroit most people barely have enough for food let alone a class. It does depend totally on demographics.You did a swell job.

I live in the Philadelphia suburbs where neighborhoods vary financially. The one I held this class in was a lower middle class area with high unemployment and I did well charging what I did. Some of the wealthy areas are minutes away and I could get away with charging more, as long as I give them good value for what I charge.

My next class will be slightly higher, $35 and will be held in an upper middle class neighborhood. We will be decorating Valentines Day cookies and Mardi Gras cupcakes using buttercream and Royal Icing. Plus I'm going to introduce them to edible wafer paper. I can justify the increase because the supplies cost more for this class and the people living there can afford it.

I've also been asked to do private parties, Girls Night Out parties, and to do a class for a group of girls in a group similar to the Girl Scouts. All of these leads came from my last class.

The wafer paper is expensive. Are you getting it from FF. It seems her prices are really high.Where do you get yours. Have you been to Sweetopia's site? She has great ideas for cookies. I think it talkes far more patience to make cookies than cakes. Good for you.

I bought Wilton's sugar paper at Michael's using their 50 percent off coupons they kept sending over the holidays. So I got them for $2 per sheet and each sheet covers 4 heart cookies. They will be receiving 4 cookies in addition to a cupcake but only one cookie will decorated with sugar paper so it amounts to $.50 each for the paper.

How did you advertise for this class?

The owner of the restaurant I held it in gave me access to her customer e-mail lists and she posted it on her Facebook page. She also posted a flyer by the cash register and put flyers in the bags of all of the take out orders. One of her customers who received the flyer posted it in the hospital she works at.