Just started doing cookies. What I am TOTALLY confused about it WHAT FROSTING DO I UASE ?? I have tried royal--too hard. I have tried Alice's--did not like the "thinned out" look.

Is there a frosting that is both shiny and not too hard that you might lose a tooth ??

Made Mother's Day cookie bouquets for family and friends for the first time and I already have several people asking about them.

Would not mind making them to sell, but want to make sure the frosting is ok.

Oh and while I'm at it--to save from "clogging" the board with all my NEWBIE questions--how do you price cookie bouquets ?? Can I get some pics and a price you charge, just to get an idea ??

Thank you all so much--you are turning my little hobby into an outright AdDiCtIoN!!!

I use Antonia74's icing and method, as she described in her tutorial (How to bake and decorate cookies). It's a version of royal, but does not dry hard like royal flowers. I've gotten lots of positive comments, and what I had thought might someday be a cake business seems to be turning into a cookie business, as I keep getting orders!

It doesn't turn out super shiny, but it's not exactly dull like crusted buttercream, either.

She has lots of pictures posted of her cookies, and I have a few in my photos also that might give you an idea . . .

As far as pricing, I've figured out how much to charge per cookie based on the size of the cookies. Antonia74 charges $1 per inch of cookie (so a 3 inch cookie would be $3.00, etc). I'm pretty sure that's Canadian, so I decided on .75 per inch. I just figure out the total for the cookies, then add on between $5 and $10 for doing the bouquet, depending on the size/price of the container, since the larger containers use more foam, a larger bag to put over it, etc.

I've had a couple of people tell me my prices are a bit low, but nobody has complained about them being too high, and I figure I'm happy with them until I get so much business that I can't keep up with it, then I'll raise the prices a bit!

There have been some good threads lately on cookie bouquets in general, and pricing specifically - if you do a search for "bouquet" on the cookie forum you should find lots more information!

hth!
Laura.

You could try the Wilton's Pour Cookie Icing which is similar to the Toba Garrett's icing. If you have a chance, check out her book on cookies. She also has a website http://www.tobagarrett.com. You can see her cakes and cookies on the site. AWESOME! I don't have the recipe handy but you can find it all over the internet or the Pour Cookie Icing on Wilton's website. It's basically powder sugar, milk, and corn syrup. It's got a great taste, dries hard for stacking but much softer than royal icing.

I can't help you with pricing. I'm not that good....(yet)

kos

I charged $20 for the mother's day cookies in my photos. I used royal icing and got rave reviews.

Kay,
Great bouquets !! How many cookies did you have in each.

Thanks for all the info guys !!

Each bouquet had between 9 and 13 cookies. The watering cans had around 9 and the other green containers (in the back) had about 13. This was my first time selling them so I was unsure how many cookies I would fit in there. I probably should have charged $25 for the bigger containers but I priced them before I actually made them so I didn't realize the size difference. I promised everyone 7 cookies but just kept stuffing them in there until I didn't have any left. (I didn't want them laying around the house for myself to eat).

I am attaching the flyer I made for my Mother's Day Bouquets. I priced them low, and ended up selling around 35 bouquets. I have people requesting Father's Day and Graduation. I am going to price a bit higher for Father's Day. I put 9 hours into my 35 bouquets and profited around 400 bucks. Not too bad for two evenings worth of work.

HOLY COW! I just looked at Toba's site, and can't believe those prices! Beautiful stuff though!

OMG! I put two days and two evenings into mine and I only made 9. I could have sold more but really didn't have time so I kept it small. How do you do it so fast?

I made these for Valentine's Day for my mom, MIL, and best friend, son's teachers, and bus driver (the smaller ones)...The larger ones were fetching 30-40 bucks each....and this was not me quoting a price this was people saying.....could you make something like that for me for around 30 or around 40 dollars??? I said I could make the same bouquet for that and they were so happy ......they thought it was an awesome deal!!! Then after looking at www.cookiesbydesign.com I realized.....it was a deal! LOL

It's just from years and years of experience. I've been baking and decorating sugar cookies since I was very young (5 years old with Mom) - so for 35 years I've been perfecting my craft.

I made myself a cookie dough roll out board (sort of like the Doboard) and that speeds up the process. I don't chill my dough. I use MMF and Wilton fondant writers for details.

I told my girlfriend that I roll out fast because of my Mexican heritage, and rolling out tortillas is the same thing as rolling out dough. It's in my blood to be quick. LOL!! She told me I was wrong for making that comment, it was all in jest. But I am quick at it. And when making orders its fast because it's all assembly line and pretty much the same cookie over and over again. I have seven cookie sheets I use so I always have at least three waiting to go into the oven. I'm working on getting double ovens. Just imagine how many more I can bake with two more ovens in my kitchen.