After reading through some other posts I am curious…
I am a work at home mom and live in a small town (about an hour outside of greenville SC). Custom cookies are kind of a new concept for most people around here. They are willing to pay a high price for cakes but they think cookies should be cheap. If I don't charge less than I don't get orders. Sugar cookies and royal icing don't cost that much to make but they are sooo time consuming to decorate. I love doing them and I want to charge what they are truly worth. I also want to keep staying busy. Right now I do good to get $1.50-$2.00 per 3" cookie. Sometimes not even that. :/
Maybe you can do starting price $1.50 and go up as the complexity does and time invested!! I keep having to tell myself that I do A+ work so I have to get what I feel my work is worth.
Good Luck!!
Hi, Guy's i am working in a isopurewater post of marketing executive officer i live in new yark.http://www.isopurewater.com
water quality test strips http://www.isopurewater.com/
I had the same problem here in Port Elizabeth. Perhaps if you have a stall at a market it's a great way to promote it to people that are maybe better travelled and more aware of the costs? Choose fun things that will surprise people to see in edible form.
I found that when I first tried to promote cookies on my site people didn't really show much interest and certainly didn't want to pay what I quoted, but after I started bringing fun charicatures and animal cookies to sell at a market I work at, people and their kids got really excited about them and I've been getting loads of orders since.
Just a thought :)
My cookies were more of a hobby that I started a couple of years ago. Then I started selling cookie bouquets for Valentines Day and other holidays at indoor farmer's markets but people were saying they were too high while other people online were selling them for $30.00 to $60.00 for 7 cookies in a vases or pretty gift boxes.
My cookies were made with premium ingredients, moderately decorated with two colors done with flooded RI that cost between $2.50 to $3.50 a cookie. The cookies were between 2 and 3 ". I didn't think that was too much considering the time and money spent to make them. I realized that was not the market I wanted.
I feel like my hand painted 3x3 inch butter cookies are worth at least $5.00 to $7.00 a piece. So until I find my target market to sale them, I wont be wasting my valuable time selling them for less. They have become something that I do every now and then to relax and unwind. I offer them as unique gifts to the special people in my life that appreciate them.
P.S. GingerPops your work is amazing!
Thanks Enga :) I'm still on a huge learning curve though.
I agree that until you find your target market it should be reserved as something you do for fun and give as a gift to loved ones. Otherwise it can drain the enjoyment of the whole process.
I make my frosted sugar cookies in a slightly different manner for sale. I love for things to look beautiful, but I need to be able to make large amounts of cookies, that taste more delicious than they look. :) So I avoid the completely royal iced cookies, even though that is the method that all those talented cookie artists use. I think those taste too dry. So I use a combination of cookie glace and buttercream, and try to make a pretty cookie, that still tastes delish! I try to select only cookie cutters where I can employ this method (part glace/part buttercream).
Here is a sample - and yes my outline is more than a little sloppy. The cameo is from a silicone mold, and I make that part in advance and freeze them, so I can just pop them on after icing.
Liz
Liz, how do you handle/package cookies that have buttercream on them?
I go the opposite way from everyone else. Because I sell wholesale I can't spend time decorating cookies so my main focus is taste before looks. I used a corn syrup glaze where I simply dunk my cookies into the glaze. Once that dries I pipe on simple royal designs. Costs on that kind of cookie runs about .20 cents tops, I do about 200 to 250 per day and I get around $1.50 per cookie.
Although I love a beautiful looking cookie I don't enjoy eating a royal icing frosted cookie at all.
Stitches - That is the only problem with that kind of cookie - you really can't stack them. If there is a large amount that I have to set out on a buffet/etc., I just deliver in my lidded half pans. For takeout, I use large flat pizza boxes - sturdy and fairly cheap. Single layered. I think this way goes pretty quick also - do all outlines, then buttercream, then flood with glace and add topper.
I've got to make a bunch of cookies next week for some promotional material photos, so I'll try to post more examples of the buttercream/glace combo on different themed cookies.
Liz
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%