Last year was the first time I tried baking and selling cookies for Christmas and I did really well. I even had orders that came from an hour and a half away, my husband's boss sent about 20 containers to their home office in Connecticut and I had several cake customers need refills 2 or 3 times...I did really well last year. 
I did just cookies last year. Chocolate chip, peanut butter, white chocolate macadamia nut, monster cookies, butterscotch, mexican wedding cakes (pecan balls, as we call them) and cut outs.
But I have been thinking all year about what to do differently. I would love suggestions...should I do fudge, peanut brittle, caramel popcorn, etc.?? The biggest pain for me was the cut out decorated ones...time-consuming!! 
I would love to hear what you all do and curious as well about what you price for things. I like to see if I am in the ball park or just in the parking lot!!! 
Thanks for all your suggestions. You're the greatest!
Hi mocakes,
I, too, make cookies over the holidays. My theory is this: people will pay me good $$ to make something they can't or don't have time for, so the fancy decorated cookies are really popular. I can charge anywhere from $1-$5 for each, although I have some really large cutters and put a lot of detail into them.
Obviously, not everyone can do that or is willing to, so I also offer a variety of other products. I like to think about what the finished platters might look like at my customer's house. In my mind's eye, I envision all different shapes and sizes of things. I see nuts, chocolate, fruit and coconut. I see big and small. Most of all, I see variety. To me, a festive cookie plate is never boring ... so, it will be consumed much quicker and, therefore, my customer will have to order more quantity and more frequently. A good thing for me!
I generally include things like: mini pecan tarts, baklava, pumpkin pie squares, chocolate mint layer bars, bicsotti, cutouts, anise drops, etc. I try to stay away from "the basics" like chocolate chip, peanut butter, peanut blossoms, oatmeal, etc., because I can do those any time. The holidays are for something special.
I try to make my cookies smaller (except for the cutouts), so there is less waste if someone took something they don't care for.
Cut bar cookies into different shapes: not just squares, but make rectangles, diamonds, triangles, too. This adds interest to your platter.
Caramel corn is very popular here in Michigan, but I would avoid fudge as everyone has their favorite Mackinac Island fudge shop that delivers worldwide and I don't want to compete with that.
I also offer chocolate-dipped pretzels. Use mini twists and sprinkle with various sprinkles to make them festive. The smaller pretzel rods are fun to do, too: dip them in caramel, then (after it's dry) white chocolate, then drizzle with dark or milk chocolate to make "birch logs". Very yummy.
I price whatever the marked will hold. If I'm too high, I don't get the orders ... but around here, the economy is really bad, so we don't have the people with limitless budgets who can afford to pay $20/dozen for designer cookies. I just try to make the customers I do have very happy and they keep coming back for more.
Best of luck to you and keep up the good work. We are doing a great service to our communities because I find that not everyone is willing to step into the kitchen and make that "home-baked holiday" in the 21st Century. But WE make THEM look good!!!
Wow, I like this topic and funny, I have been creating my "holiday" desserts flier all morning! I'm stumped on my prices though!
Thanks, aobodessa! You gave a LOT of great ideas/advice!
I can't wait to start putting my new flier together with some new ideas for this holiday season!
I LOVE that everyone on this site is so quick to share ideas to help the next person out!!
Time to get busy.... 
How do you all best get the word out there to the office about the holiday goodies? Most people around here know I do cakes...but what about the rest of the lot? Do you just bring some in and sell from work, or do you take orders? What about pricing...seems most commercial places charge more for holiday stuff....Thanks!!! 
I don't sell cookie trays (maybe I should start thinking about that!) but do them as family gifts every year and get quite into it all...
I agree with aobodessa, and always aim for a variety of colors, shapes and textures.
Faux Thin Mints got rave review : http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/ThnMntCrckrs.asp
As did cheese cookies. There are many recipes for them out there using different types of cheese. They are great for people who don't like the sweet stuff, the cheddar ones people referred to as "homemade cheese nips". They're great with lots of wines also.
Some got a kick out of homemade dog treats too. They're super-easy to make, can be frozen, and left plain or decorated with carob or yogurt chips. To me, as a dog-lover, it's a simple add-on that's cheap and simple.
In my office, anything with intense coffee or mocha flavor is a hit!
Mini muffins are quick and easy, plus they can be decorated up lots of different ways. Maybe mini-cheesecakes could be made in them?
I'm kind of rambling now, thinking out loud as I also plan what to do for holiday cookies! Though, with my newly-found-again cake obsession, I don't know if I'll have the heart for all those cookies now! LOL
How do you all best get the word out there to the office about the holiday goodies? Most people around here know I do cakes...but what about the rest of the lot? Do you just bring some in and sell from work, or do you take orders? What about pricing...seems most commercial places charge more for holiday stuff....Thanks!!!
COLOR Fliers in all the mailboxes. Flier on the fridge. Samples- cake balls- on the kitchen table. Realtors LOVE freefood! I'm trying to figure out how to upload my flier so you can get some ideas but I cant quite seem to get is right...
Faux Thin Mints got rave review : http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/ThnMntCrckrs.asp
As did cheese cookies. There are many recipes for them out there using different types of cheese. They are great for people who don't like the sweet stuff, the cheddar ones people referred to as "homemade cheese nips". They're great with lots of wines also.
Thank you for the recipe for the thin mints. Now that my 4 year old DD lives on the cheese nips, I need to go hunt for that recipe. Thanks again.
You could put a sample cookie tray in your break room or common area with one of your fliers attached to the top with the little tear off tags with your name and number on it. Happy Baking!
I LOVE thin mint cookies!!
I bet you could use the chocolate mint chips that come out around christmas...and I've often wondered how vanilla wafers would taste versus the salty cracker. YUM!
I've seen recipes using the vanilla wafers too. But I think that they need the saltiness and that crisp break that the Ritz crackers give, and they're a nice thin portion. They look soooo neat stacked in a plastic sleeve tied up with ribbon too!
Do you all have professional kitchens, or do you bake from your home? And do you know if you have to be licensed to do this? Thank you!
I assume that every state has different regulations, but I would think that they ALL would "require" us to have a licensed kitchen AND be paying taxes, and fees, and taxes, and unemployment, and taxes, and .... well, you get the picture.
As for myself, as of yesterday, coincidentally, I have been decorating cakes for 36 years. It started as a birthday gift when I was 9 ... I wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. I branched out to doing wedding cakes when I was 14, for my parents' 25th Anniversary, and I've been going strong ever since. I still work out of my own kitchen. I can't tell you how many mixers I have gone through in 36 years, but it's plenty.
I don't feel too badly about not having a licensed kitchen because I look at it this way: all of my Clients are considered my friends. If my friend doesn't have the skill to make her own baked goodies, and I do have that skill, who can tell her NOT to pay me over and above the cost of ingredients to bake things for her? I set prices so that a) my costs are covered, and b) people who want to pay me over and above my expenses don't pay me too much (or, conversely, too little!). I don't feel I overcharge for my talent ... I have been known to give a refund for a Client who was unhappy with the results of their order. Sometimes two minds AREN'T on the same page, even though they think they are.
I don't do "commercial" advertising, but I am just starting up a small website with a few photos and some of my philosophical ideologies. That way, if someone really wants to take a peek and remain anonymous, they can do that without any problem. And it may lead to more work for me.
I also belong to a trade (barter) association. This is a really great way to get my name out there and make some noise about my work. It works a bit like a credit card ... when I "sell" something, I get the buyer's "trade credits" which I can then "spend" within the system. Very little cash ever changes hands, and there are a lot of different types of companies in the association. It has been a good way to afford travel with my family, but even better, it was a way to get flowers and photography for my daughter's wedding last Sept.
But I digress...
My point is really to make up some sort of a flyer and give it to a few select places you think will respond. Don't take it everywhere, or you may end up with WAY more work than you can comfortably accomplish. Be selective and start small, working your way to the point where you want to be. That way, you can work out all your shortcuts, etc., without compromising your quality.
Best of luck!
I cant seem to figure out how to upload my inter-office flier, but Id be happy to share it. Just PM me with youemail address.
Several years ago I made a flyer and put several copies in the teachers' lounge where I worked. I had orders for cheesecakes, truffles, specialty goodies, and more. It was crazy but fun. Last year my DH helped me make several flavors of fudge. I set out samples in the teachers' lounge where I work now (we moved). I also set out order forms. We priced the fudge at $5/ 1/2lb and I did over $200 in sales at my school alone. I don't know if this is a low price but we looked at Rocky Mountain Choc Factory's price sheet before we decided.
I decided that the next time I do this, I will make and box up several batches and put them on the table for the teachers to purchase right away. I have a 6 month old and a 2 year old so I'm not sure if I'm doing anything this year.
Schools are always great places to leave samples!! Good luck!!
aobodessa.........put your photos on CC..........I wanna seee your cakes.......you must have tons after 36 yrs.
I'm trying to get them here, but every time I make attempts, it seems they are in the wrong format and the site won't accept them. I'm not as web-friendly as I would like, but I will make attempts. 
As for having "tons", there are lots that I just don't photograph now. You'd think with the digital age I would take more pics, especially since I don't have to pay for "film" and "developing", but if only you knew how many rolls of film I still have sitting in my house that were never developed ...... LOL
But I may have time to try again this weekend and if I do, you'll know.
My best to all here!
aobodessa - What great info! And what an interesting story on how you progressed! My very first cake was in an easy-bake oven - I didn't do any decorating on it, though! Wonder if they even make those any more? Thanks so much for sharing!
Yes, the Easy Bake Oven is still around, and even the Mrs. Fields' Cookie Oven (basically the same thing). I did lots of Easy Bake stuff, too. And I actually baked when I was younger, with my Grandma (she would have been 116 on 9/20 if she was still with us), who always encouraged my talent. But that was just learning how to bake. The learning how to decorate came later...
yes, I have an interesting story. Maybe I should write a book. Wonder what I'd call it ..... Crisco and Coffee Talk, My Life asa Cake Decorator????? LOL
It's funny that you mention the easy bake oven.. I have a funny store about that. My first cake was also in the easy bake oven. I have always loved being in the kitchen, and I loved to cook and bake. I remember that my dad loved the cakes that i made in that easy bake oven so much, he would buy me the mixes by the dozens, and even at the tender age of 7 I would invent recipes, like icings (i would mix nestle quik with milk to form a paste and heat it up to get out the lumps and using it as icing). My dad would make fun of my mom, because she was not a good cook, and he would say "look our 7 yr old can cook better than you can".. i know it wasn't nice, but it sure was funny...
Oh and as to suggestions for holiday goodies, what i do is that right before the holidays (around now) i start making some pies, and cookies, and holiday type goodies and sending them as samples with my husband to work, along with a sheet with what i make and flavors/prices.. and that gets me lots of orders, cuz people know what they're getting.
HTH,
Jenn
[quote=]COLOR Fliers in all the mailboxes. Flier on the fridge. Samples- cake balls- on the kitchen table. Realtors LOVE freefood! I'm trying to figure out how to upload my flier so you can get some ideas but I cant quite seem to get is right...[/quote]
PLEASE BE AWARE!!!!! Putting anything IN or ON a mailbox is a federal offense. This can bring a fine of $1000 per mailbox from the USPS if you are caught. I am a paper carrier and know this from that business. If you want to do this make sure you attach the flyers with tape or thumb tacks to the mailbox POST ONLY!!
[quote=]COLOR Fliers in all the mailboxes. Flier on the fridge. Samples- cake balls- on the kitchen table. Realtors LOVE freefood! I'm trying to figure out how to upload my flier so you can get some ideas but I cant quite seem to get is right...
PLEASE BE AWARE!!!!! Putting anything IN or ON a mailbox is a federal offense. This can bring a fine of $1000 per mailbox from the USPS if you are caught. I am a paper carrier and know this from that business. If you want to do this make sure you attach the flyers with tape or thumb tacks to the mailbox POST ONLY!![/quote]
Mailboxes as in inter-office. The conversation was about advertising in a office.
I want to make up samples and flyers for my office and get selling too. I would like to pre-make baskets of cookies or mini-muffins to sell right away, but when something is in the kitchen it is usually not to be sold, just to consume (and like vultures they do despite all of them on diets). Guess that would not be nice to bring in things but not allow anyone to eat them unless they pay, so samples it will be. I did find some nice baskets and may display my mini-muffins in that.
I want to make up samples and flyers for my office and get selling too. I would like to pre-make baskets of cookies or mini-muffins to sell right away, but when something is in the kitchen it is usually not to be sold, just to consume (and like vultures they do despite all of them on diets). Guess that would not be nice to bring in things but not allow anyone to eat them unless they pay, so samples it will be. I did find some nice baskets and may display my mini-muffins in that.
Can you place a basket or something on your desk with an "honor system" jar for payment? This way, you're not looking like a hard nose demanding $$, but the vultures know that you that need to pay for your treats.
BTW, I just saw your location. I used to live 20 minutes North of you off the Exit 82 on the GSP. 
I am wondering if anyone has ever gotten together with other bakers and created a business? I read alot about single bakers and wonder if it would not make sense to join someone else. I have a marketing background and have started working hard at my baking and would like to start a small business. Any thoughts?
Hi, I am new to the site and have found thus far, all of this information wondereful. I havee recently decided to start selling my cakes, cookies, etc., afteere the demand suddenly increased. I have been baking since I was 9, this being almost 30 years. my very good friend who is also a baker is joining me this year in our endeavor. We compliment each other well. She is a marketing guru and bakes the best pies, tarts and cheesecakes I have ever tasted. I on the other hand make cakess and cookies that are beautiful to look at and taste heavenly (if I say so myself!)
I'm really thinking about looking into getting a "partner" so to speak but I'd be looking for someone who only does party type cakes and would be looking to be licensed or already is and I havent be able to find anyone around me for that. Everyone seems to do weddings and such and that's not where my overflow is!
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