COOKIES BY DESIGN - Tips/Tricks Thread - Page 2

Where are the stores located? Those cookies look good. . .(pun intended)

I think theystack two or more large squares of tissue paper and wrap the center around a dowel or stick. The top gets puffed around then you can just tuck the paper right down in between the cookies. You can put a dab of glue on the end before tucking it in so that it sticks to the styrofoam and stays where you want it. Very fussy and particular but it looks nice and professional that way.

Hi,
I was just curious so i checked your city for a store, here is the link.
http://www.cookiesbydesign.com/shoppelocator.aspx
Check it out...

edited to add
Cookies By Design
14150 West Center Rd.
Omaha, NE 68144
PHONE: (402) 758-0101
TOLL-FREE: (877) 986-9861
FAX: (402) 758-0505

I loved working at C by D, but I am not necessarily loyal to them. I tried to check on the non compete thing, but the store I worked for has since closed. I assume that my noncompete was for two years. If others say that is what theirs was, then I'm sure mine was too. Being a franchise, everything is pretty standard.

I worked there from 2002-2003, so it has been more than two years.

What are you curious about? I will tell you that there are no great mysteries to how they do stuff.

Are the cookies they make close to the NFSC recipe on this web site? I love the the white picket fence they use is that something you made at the store or something they ordered from another company?

I never made the cookies myself. The lady that baked the cookies was the store owner's mother and she didn's speak a word of English, so we never talked because I don't speak a word of Spanish (other than counting to 100) . I am pretty sure it was just a typical sugar cookie dough similar to NFSC on here. Pretty thick though.

Designs were freehand, unless I couldn't do something. Then I would use the pinprick method. Copywrighted materials had to use stencils.
Decorated cookies could be frozen, but they came out with a more matte finish than freshly decorated cookies.

I don't know why they think they have to hold their secrets under lock and key. There are really no secrets, becuase everything I learned there, I have seen here on cake central. I've got news for C by D, their "secrets" are out and have been out for a long time.

The one thing that does puzzle me is the icing. I never made it from scratch, so I'm not sure how it was made (premade was also used). I know it had to be a hybrid of buttercream and royal. It dries hard but has a buttercream texture and taste. I think I have seen a recipe on here that uses butter in a form of royal icing. Probably super similar to that.

As for volume, it totally depends on where the store is at, how the store markets the product, and the demand for the product. The cookies are so expensive probably because the owners have to cover their costs, make and profit, and pay franchise fees.

I worked for a company that uses them a lot and I've also ordered/seen things from Houston and Louisiana. I have seen LOTS of the bouquets as a result and I can honestly say I've never seen one as perfect as the pictures. That's not to say some of them weren't wonderful - some of them were very poorly done - most were somewhere in between. It depends on who's doing the decorating.

It would be interesting to get the scoop on the icing though...

I'm so curious as to how they train the decorators, does anyone know? Do they have an experienced decorator that comes in, do they send employees to a central location, train at a franchise location, etc? Better yet, what about when a new design is created?? Afterall, I'm assuming that regardless of all the franchise locations across the US, all the cookies have to be decorated exactly the same way, right?

Thanks nefgaby. I, too, looked to see if there was a CbyD in Omaha, and wouldn't you know it, there is! I'm not real familiar with that area, but I remember there being a cookie shop in the strip mall, though not a CbyD. When I'm out and about, I plan to stop in.

Franchisees are trained and then in turn train their employees. You pretty much just look at the picture and go for it! That's why some are so poorly decorated. No "formal" training for employees, just on the job training.

That's what I thought I heard as well a few years ago.

the owners go to "Cookie College"