Rather large cookie undertaking... need advice

Surely it depends on the size of the cookie? And are they decorated?

For that many, I'd be looking to make them a decent size (no harder to cut out a larger cookie than a small one) so you can make 1 per person.

That will allow for those who don't want any and those who want two?

It does depend on cookie size. If they are rolled cookies, then one 4" cookie per person is enough. I just did 350 for a wedding. I am jealous of your 20 qt Hobart!

Are these rolled cookies or drop cookies? Hand decorated, simple frosting, or plain? How much time do you have? Will you have assistance? The key to a big job is organization. Plan out how you will accomplish this and make sure to leave extra time.

If it were me and I had no direction other than coffee flavored for 1000 people, I would be getting more direction!! But if it were up to me, I would do about 2 or 3 spritz type cookies each. They are small, but since they are pressed through a cookie press, they are quick! I could make 3 dozen of these before I could roll out the dough for cut outs They are visually interesting without and decoration at all, but you could dust them with a powered sugar or small round jimmy or espresso powder or flavored jimmy. You could even use a 24" pastry bag and a star tip to make them! Even faster than the spritzer because it holds more. Though you'd have to be careful to make them the same size.


As far as storing them, I know about restaurant workers! ( I was cleaning the walk-in one day and moved a skid and found 11 empty chocolate milk cartons! ) but with a helper, you could make them all in one day. ( I made 250 large wedding cake shaped cookies and iced and fondanted them in 9 hours with 1 helper. I think you could make 10 times the amount (at least) of spritz cookies in the same amount of time, but I would make the dough the day before, and refrigerate it in flatened n pastry bags so it warms up quicker and you can grab and go.

I have 5 full size racks in my oven and could get 54 small drops on a sheet, so it would take 47 sheets to do 2500. But with 2 ovens you could bake 540 at once so you'd only have to fill your ovens less than 5 times each at 10 baking time . It will take as long to squeeze them all out

You can do it! But I would get a helper to put them in the oven, remove them from the sheets, and put a fresh parchment down. I'd take them out of the oven myself to make sure they are baked properly.

Hopefully someone can help me out on this as well....didn't get to see the results of your cookie undertaking so I'm curious!

I need to come up with a quote for different price points for cookies for a company - 200, 400, and 600 cookies. I've read the threads where people talk about pricing out smaller quantities of cookies, but what would you do for pricing this many? The cookies would be smaller size to go with a saucer and mug of coffee, a latte, etc. So I think possibly round cookies would be about 2.5in diameter, and then rectangle probably 1x3 or so. They would be RI and decorated with either the logo or the company name. I'm thinking for the logo it might be best to just get edible images printed up (there are images that are nearly 1.5 inches in diameter) and then the rectangular cookies will need to have the name piped onto them....or that could be edible image too - which will all add to the cost. Any help would be appreciated!!

I was hoping to do square cookies, but I don't think that a circular edible image would look right on them - not sure though as I've never tried doing it this way before so advice on that would be good too! Thanks

Use the same wholesale pricing method you already use for smaller quantities and multiply by 200, 400, and 600.

That's part of my problem though. I am literally just starting out more professionally and this will be my first time doing something like this. I've done a few little things for before, but it was more 'bartering' just because I wasn't fully ready yet and they were 2 small jobs. Otherwise, I've just done a few paid cakes for friends/acquaintances and then cookies/cakes for friends/family/fun. Now I am registered, have a certified kitchen I will be renting from, and have a connection that I made randomly with a national company, so I need to be able to figure out how to do these cookies for them as the CEO said he would help mentor me to build up my business and go into production (they are not a baking company, they are a coffee company). So any further advice would be appreciated!! Thank you!!

I dont know what your pricing is, but For wholesale, I would give them a better deal for each 200 they order. So if 20 cookies cost $30, then 200 would cost $285, 400 would be $550, and 600 would be $800. That is taking 5%, about 8% and about 11%. You can use your own math, if these numbers don't look right to you.

I suggest you get CakeBoss software today!! And put in your ingredient costs, and your recipe, and put in all your materials, packaging and rental for the kitchen and such so you can see how much it costs you and how much you will make from it.
If you can wait until Sunday, and don't want to buy CakeBoss right now, I'll run it through my CakeBoss then, but you'll have to get all your ingredients, cost and recipe, and share it with me .... Don't know if you want to do that.

I'm not sure about the pricing, but the first thing that popped into my head when I saw you were doing small cookies that go with a saucer and mug of coffee are the cookies that hang on the side of a cup. Perfectly adorable and perfect for what you want! You can get the cutters or adapt a mini cutter. Good luck!