Tag Archives: Helpful Tips

Extra! Extra!!!!

“When you ship an order of cookies, do you ship extras?”  That was the question I posed a few nights ago to cookie business owners on my Facebook page.

Granted, this was hardly a Quinnipiac poll, but I did get a lot of answers rather quickly.  In a nutshell, the preponderance of responders (or is it respondents?) said ‘yes’ to the extra cookie shipping.  Isn’t that interesting?

You KNOW I have an opinion on this.  And, let me preface this entire post by saying it’s ONLY MY OPINION!  I’m not judging, preaching or telling you how to run your business by any stretch of the imagination.  This is just a platform for discussion because, well, it’s an interesting discussion.  Okay?

May I ask you another question?  When ordering something fragile from Tiffany’s, Neiman Marcus, Sears, Walmart, Target, Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, or any other big retailer, do you get an extra bowl, wine glass, vase or dish?  Do these merchants ship extras because they know the product is fragile and that breaks are inevitable?  No, of course not.

So, why are you shipping free extras?

You told me you’re doing this in case some cookies break, like an insurance policy.  But, you’re still giving away product and there’s no guarantee that they all won’t break. Want insurance?  Then check off the little box on the shipping form that asks if you’d like your package insured.  If there are breaks, your client can document them and you can claim the damages from Fedex, UPS, or even the Post Office, if I’m not mistaken, provided you’ve paid to have the package insured.  Returning money or redoing the cookies (time permitting) shows great customer service on your part.  Your clients will be grateful and are bound to use you again for another occasion.

Then there’s the ‘engendering good’ will reason.  Think about it.  Let’s say you charge $48 for 12 cookies.  That’s $4 per cookie, right?  Add two extra free cookies and you’ve just brought your cost down to $3.43 each.  A difference of $.57 per cookie.  Now, let’s say you have orders for 12 orders of 1 dozen cookies per month.  If my math skills are correct (and notice I’m using easy numbers so I don’t get myself screwed up) you’ve given away 24 cookies and roughly $13.68.  Multiply that by 12 months a year and bingo:  you’re up to $165.00!  And, that’s if you only make 144 cookies per month!!!   I understand including a few bonus cookies to a client who orders frequently and hypes you to friends.  But, new customers?  I think you’re subliminally telling your clients that the price you’ve quoted isn’t the real price at all.

Which brings me to the next subject:  the importance of proper packing.  Bridget shares her packing expertise over here.  I ship alot of cookies, but I agree with Dani Fiori who wrote that she only ships certain styles.  I will not ship a champagne glass cookie.  Even with a piece of cardboard slipped into the bag to shore up a structurally unstable design, I won’t do it.  BUT, I do use a lot of bubble wrap, foam sheets, crumpled newspaper and FRAGILE stickers in and on every box I ship.  And, when faced with a cookie disaster,  I file the appropriate paperwork with the shipper, and then quickly return money or credit the customer.  Thankfully, this hasn’t happened often.  But, it’s happened.

It’s becoming more apparent to me that this cookie business has a split personality.  It’s a business/it’s cookies.  You and your cookies nurture and cuddle your clients/friends.  You probably have a never-ending supply of taste-testers and reject-acceptors ready and willing to ‘help’ you out day and night.   It’s complimentary, I realize that.  But that’s not a business where goods are sold in exchange for money.  I can’t imagine saying to a banker “hey, if you have any reject 100 dollar bills, I’ll take ‘em off your hands.” You wouldn’t dream of it, right?  But, that never stops anyone from making mindless remarks like that to us.

If you have a retail shop and inventory is mounting up, slashing the price at the end of the day to move product is how spent money is salvaged.  Donating to a food bank  is a great way to get a tax deduction and build strong community relationships.  But, as owners of small, custom order businesses, we don’t have inventory waiting to ship. We create new product for each and every order that comes in.  And that can make it even harder to eke out a living, especially when clients don’t realize that labor is the major component of the price structure.  Add to that the skyrocketing cost of ingredients!  So, to me, I might as well tape dollar bills to my boxes, sooner than including the extra cookies.

Your clients have chosen to place an order with you because you’ve enticed them with the offerings on your website, and/or prior experience with your product.  Many of you said you include the extras as a ‘thank you’.  Does your butcher give you an extra steak to say thank you?  How about the gas station owner; is he offering up a gallon or two to be nice?  I thank clients, new and old,  by sending a short email after their event asking if everything went well and thanking them for choosing me to create something special for their celebration.

So many of us open our businesses with wide-eyed optimism, only to be broken by the harsh reality of  15-16  hour days and very hard physical labor involved to sustain the work we love.  It takes time and patience to keep the love in the cookies.  And the money in the till.

What do you think?  I’ll be right here waiting for your response.
I think I’ll have a cup of tea and an extra cookie while I wait.

Another Darned Elephant

In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined the conversation this little rant o’ mine caused recently.  If anything, I truly expected an avalanche of negative comments, and I braced myself for that onslaught.  But, it didn’t happen.  It struck quite a chord with you all, and I thank you for all positivity!

So I thought to myself, I COULD write a post for you now about the nuances of ten different royal icing consistencies.  But, it seems that these fine cookie makers (and many more) have that covered.   You don’t need me for that right now.

You’re different.  You like to dare me to talk about these forbidden subjects.  And I fall for it.

That said, the next runaway circus elephant that has showed up in my living room is tattooed with the word discount.

Here’s a sample of that scenario:

A potential client phones and wants to place an order for, say, 100 cookies.  That’s a tidy little order, you think to yourself.   Before you can say “vanilla or chocolate cookies?”, the question is asked:  ”Can I get a discount on this because I’m doing volume?”  Which do you do:

1. Become paralyzed from head to toe.
2. Cave instantly by saying ‘of course’ and fumble over your words because you don’t want to lose this order, no way no how, even though you’re livid        with rage.
3. Calmly and sweetly tell the client that these cookies are being created expressly for them and the largest portion of the cookie costing formula is labor, and you can’t possibly discount labor, much as you might like to.

If you said ‘C’ unequivocally, then shut this thing down and go do something productive with your time.

If not……

WHY O WHY would you give a discount?  Because you’re getting Trump wealthy on all these cookies you’re making?  It doesn’t make much sense, does it?  If you’re creating cookies especially for this client, then there’s no real reason to give a discount.  It’s not like you have a big inventory of baked and decorated cookies that are sitting in your cookie warehouse, and you just have to make room for all the other cookies that need storage.  No-siree.  You’re making these cookies expressly for this client.  And, as we went over in the last post that made my blood boil, you and I both know you’re not getting rich doing it.

What happens if you do give in and provide a discount?  It could be a percentage, a few cents, maybe even a few dollars off each cookie because you believe this client is IMPORTANT!  You begin the work.  And, low and behold another person wants to order cookies.  No mention of a discount.  Hhmmm….take the order and give up overrated showers and sleep?  Now you start to really get steamed because you’re working your decorating digits to the bone for less money than ever, AND turning away business.

Do not fall into this trap.  Re-read #3 and repeat after me:  my labor is what fuels these cookies.  It is my work that you admired and made you come to me for my product.  Without my labor, these cookies mean nothing.  Chances are, if you explain honestly (like you’re letting them into your world) that the labor really is the biggest expense of the cookie, the client will understand, especially if that client is a small business owner, too.

It’s okay to say no and not feel guilty.  You are the master of your cookie domain.  But remember, once you give a particular client a discount, they will always ask for a discount.  The precedent will have been set.

Ultimately, you have to answer this question: is it better to take a huge order at a discounted price that may or may not cover your costs, time and labor, or is it better to take smaller orders with a larger mark-up for the week?   And have time to shower?

No matter what you decide, I have a feeling that you’re going to be answering these queries with a lot more confidence now.  Reward yourself with a cookie. And send this elephant back to the circus.

Or this cake.

The Halo Effect

You’re familiar with the halo effect, right?  The theory that (and I’m paraphrasing) if something is packaged beautifully, its contents will be looked upon more favorably.   A term paper, for instance, neatly assembled in a beautiful folder with fancy writing, might be thought to be better  than the paper that’s been written in crayon and stuffed into a back pocket before being turned in.  Or, that a present wrapped within an inch of its life in gorgeous paper and tied up with an abundance of silk ribbon will contain a similarly spectacular gift, rather than a gift given in a wrinkled brown grocery bag.

This theory can be applied to cake, in my opinion.

Picture if you will, a very special celebration cake, tiers stacked expertly, or carved into a sculpture that would wow Jeff Koons. The fondant or buttercream is as smooth as satin, the gumpaste decorations, the buttercream flowers,  have been modeled to a level of perfection that even Kerry Vincent would die for.

Magnificence.

Except for one thing.

This beauty is sitting on naked foil cake drum.

Why, oh, why would a cake decorator spend all that time sketching, baking carving, piping, schmearing only to cast a blind eye on how to display this masterpiece?

It’s like wearing a ripped hose with a cocktail dress (that’s IF one wore hose these days.).  Scuffed shoes with a tuxedo.  Grandma bloomers with a bias cut charmeuse dress (I’m not making this one up.  I have seen a MAJOR TV star in the flesh flaunting this glamour don’t).

Cake people, if you do this, in my opinion, you’re devaluing your own work.   The presentation is flawed.  You want the cake to be a centerpiece that is oohed and aahed over, right?  You want ‘the halo effect’!!!

Now, if you’re planning on using a cake pedestal like any one of these, in the words of the great Rosanne Roseannadanna, “never mind”.

If you are not using these and are using a gold or silver topped cake drum for your base, here’s a look at what I do to set up my cakes so they look like this:

I attach my ribbon around the circumference using Magna-Tac.  It’s a wonderful adhesive that doesn’t seep through to leave wet dots on the ribbon.

After the ribbon has dried for at least an hour, I shpritz about 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup of royal icing with water so it’s pretty runny and pour it on top of the cake drum, evening it out with a offset spatula.  I’m not worrying about spreading it all over the board, just the perimeter that will show.   Working like greased lightning  is key here; I don’t want the royal to begin to form a crust at all.

Now I heavily sprinkle  AA Confectioner’s Sugar onto the wet royal while holding the board over a bowl.  AA Confectioner’s Sugar is a very, very coarse sugar that I think is best used for decorating.   Then I deftly (I use the term loosely) turn the board over and knock the excess off into the bowl, just so I can scoop it up and resprinkle it again.

This is far from a beauty shot, since I’m holding the camera AND trying to sprinkle the sugar at the same time.

But, you can see the bowl catching the sugar, which is being sprinkled from the container in the upper right corner of the photos.

Now, let the board set up over night and by the next day, you can start building your cake.

Oh, you don’t have to use the sugar, I just like how it looks.  I like non-pareils, too.  Piped royal decorations, like leaves or grass are also sweet.  Use your imagination and explore other options.

If you cover your cakes with fondant, schmear a little piping gel on your board to act as glue, and cover the board with the fondant.  Affix the ribbon after it’s dried.

When your cake is the center of the dessert table, believe me, no one will say “Now THAT’S a nice cakedrum!”  But that cakeboard will enter their brains in the most subliminal of ways and those guests will think your cake is the most gorgeous creation ever, beg the hostess for your info so they can book you immediately for their next fete.  And, you can raise your price now, too, since you’re so in demand.

And you know what that is?  That’s the halo effect.

Elevate Your Work

Embellishing a cookie or 200 with meticulous detail can be back-breaking work.  If you’ve ever written, swirled, dotted or piped intricacies on a 3 inch edible canvas, you know what I’m talking about.

You might, if you’re anything like me, work standing, not sitting.  Standing, leaning, bending, hunching sometimes for hours on end.

I NEVER sit while decorating cookies.  First of all, I can’t outline a cookie to save my life while sitting.  My counters are higher than most kitchen counters.  My torso is short and my legs are long, so when I sit, that counter is practically at the same level as my neck.  Definitely not a good angle from which to work.

Years ago, an accomplished wedding cake designer told me she never lets her employees sit while working.  With a packed daily production schedule, she was concerned with employing assistants displaying deft skills and record-breaking finishing times.  Allowing workers to sit, she discovered, made them too comfortable, extinguishing the spring in their pastry bag wielding steps.

So, the question becomes how to work effiiciently and quickly, without becoming the next Hunchback of Notre Dame?

Answer:  Cake turntable, or, as J calls it, the twirly thing.

It’s not just for frosting cakes.  By balancing your tray of cookies on the turntable you can stand, bend from the waist, as opposed to hunching over, and, because it twirls, you don’t have to reach unnaturally over to that cookie in the far left hand corner of the tray.  Twirling the tray means you’re less likely to drop something on a freshly flooded cookie, because you’ve easily turned it out of the way.

If you don’t have a turntable, think about investing in one.  Your straighter back and your un-huched shoulders will thank you.  So will your cookies.