Valentine Cookie Bouquet

We were invited by Jennifer from Jennifer Lewis Photography to participate in a Valentines Party photo along with Rebecca & Co Events.  It is always great to have the opportunity to get awesome pictures of your product taken by a professional photographer, but working with Jennifer was really a blast.

When were contacted by Jennifer and asked if we would be interested in creating Valentine cookies  for a photo shoot she was creating we thought it would be a great excuse to try some new designs.  We were given carte blanche to create something fun and exciting following the broad theme of Valentine’s Day.

For the most part new designs are only created in the few weeks leading up to a particular holiday, or when we get an order asking for some specific design.  It had been a year since our last Valentine Cookie’s were created, but there were other ideas we wanted to try.

We designed new Valentine Cookie Bouquet’s, a few large hearts inspired by those little heart candies that are so popular this time of year, and even a few “for adults only” naughty Valentine cookies.

The experience working with Jennifer was great, and Rebecca’s work was just awesome.  The pictures came out terrific, we couldn’t be happier.

Check out all of the photos in our gallery.

Bend Cookie Company is really two (2) businesses in one, we bake, decorate, and sell delicious cookies, but we also own a commercial kitchen that we rent to other small food businesses.  In almost 2000 sq. ft. we have lots of space for 2, 3, or more business to use and share at the same time.  We have 3 ovens, 2 stove tops, lots of storage space, 5 commercial refrigerators, dish washer, and lots of small wares that people can use.

We have 5 or 6 regular monthly tenants and in any given month will get a couple caterers that rent the kitchen for weddings or other big events they have booked.  Because of this we are fairly well plugged into the local food scene, we know the owners of the food carts in town, and are contacted by all sorts of small food businesses looking to get started making their products for sale.

Gina and I were running a few errands last week and pulled into the parking lot of a local grocery store to pick up milk and a few other items.  As we pulled into a parking spot we noticed a bright red “building” on a trailer being pulled by a small SUV.  Besides being red, and being a building in the middle of a parking lot, these types of things catch our eye because of our Commercial Kitchen business.

I walked up to the trailer and poked my head in the window, there was only enough room for 1 person to work comfortably in the space…maybe a second if both of you were small and didn’t mind rubbing up against each other all day long.

As I peeked around the side I noticed a man standing at the door of the SUV and decided to say hi and ask more about this little food cart.  His name was Bob, and he owned a local paper for 23 years but is now “retired” and builds these trailers for fun.

After talking for a while, we exchanged cards, and he told me that his son had just called from a local snow park where he was using one of these trailers to sell coffee, hot chocolate, hot dogs, and other small items.  His son told him that he set a new record for the most cups of hot chocolate sold in a day, 380 cups!

Wow I thought, that is a lot of cocoa.  “You charge $2.00 for a cup” I asked.  “Nope, just $1.00, we like to charge a reasonable price”, he said.  “So you made $380 selling cocoa today”, I said.  “Nope, we made $380 selling cocoa for 4 hours he said, and made almost $900 total.”

I asked Bob how old he was, he told me that he was 67 years old and that if he knew years ago that he did not need to work 60 hours a week to make a living, but instead work at something he enjoys and pays his bills he would have made the switch long ago.  I smiled, we shook hands, and Gina and I let him get back to his business.

“That’s a good story” I said to Gina as we resumed our errands.

I Want to Start a Baking/Cookie Business

We get asked about how we got started in the cookie business, and often these inquiries are from someone that has dreams of operating a small bakery or getting some money selling their favorite baked goods.  We have discovered two ways to profit from the current Food Cart trend that is popping up in cities all across the country.

We have thought about buying a food truck and selling our cookies and brownies out of this portable bakery, but have not yet pulled the trigger instead wanting to focus on areas that are a better fit for our business.  However, we DO sell cookies to other food cart operators in town.  A couple of these customers are tenants of our commercial kitchen business and rent space from us each month to prepare and cook the food that they sell on their carts at local events.  Most of this business is seasonal, but at the high we will make an extra $1000 a month selling cookies at wholesale to food cart operators.

The other method is obviously to purchase your own food cart, or as another of our tenants have done, to create a full blow bakery truck that they can drive to any event, and then bake and serve right from the truck.  There is a huge difference in price, maybe $3000 on the low end to over $100,000 for a full blown truck with custom paint, new appliances, etc.

As Bob and his son have learned, spending $5K on a small trailer with a generator that lets you serve hot coffee and chocolate and a few other items can gross $1,000 a day.  Maybe instead of hot dogs you sell homemade baked goods, maybe a sausage roll or quiche would be great items that you could bake at home or in a commercial kitchen, and then serve at a local event in your community.

These are a couple of ideas that don’t require a huge amount of money to get started, but that can have you up and running your small cookie or bakery business very quickly, and are only limited by your imagination.

Valentines day is just around the corner.  February 14th is the day reserved for this holiday and is observed by many countries around the world as a time to celebrate love and affection, with giving gifts of flowers, confectionery, and perhaps a cookie or two to express their love.

“Love is the condition in which
the happiness of another person
is essential to your own.”
- Robert Heinlein, American science-fiction writer (1907-1988)

It is not quite known where these traditions started.  The catholic church recognizes three different saints named Valentine, but neither the known facts or the legends have any romantic elements associated with any of them.

We do know that beginning in the middle 18th century it was common for lovers to exchange small gifts or handwritten notes, and became so popular in the early 19th century that they began making them in factories.  The earliest Valentine cards were made with real lace and ribbons.

According to the Greeting Card Association, Valentines Day is the 2nd largest card sending holiday of the year (2.6 million sent during Christmas), with an estimated 1 Billion cards sent.

This says nothing of the billions of cards that school children make each year to give to classmates and friends…along with those little candy hearts that everyone loves to give.

I am sure many of us want to support the post office and help keep them out of bankruptcy, but e-cards are another way to send the perfect Valentines gift card.  These electronic cards are often animated, play music, and are capable of being personalized.

You can find great e-cards at Funny Ecards for Valentines Day or any other occasion you may want to send a card to a friend or family member, and they were free at the time of this writing…check them out.

Valentine Gifts

Besides cards, larger gifts are often exchanged on Valentines Day.  Romantic items are common and traditional lingerie, roses and chocolate are a pretty good combination.  I am guessing that electronic items probably do pretty well also…get your mind out of the gutter, I mean something like a new iPad.

Cookies might be a great gift idea as well!

Hi,

Gina and I are trying to regroup after the crazy holiday season we had! Kids are back in school and christmas and holidays are behind us so we have some time to reflect on our first Holiday Cookie season, get ourselves organized, order supplies and begin planning for Valentines day.

One of the questions we recieved a bunch during the past couple of months is whether our cookies ship or not? The quick answer is yes, we ship to continental U.S..

Most folks think of Bend Cookie Company as a local business and our friends in other parts of the state come to see us as an Oregon cookie company. Most of our business comes within the state and a lot of it is still generated by friends or contacts we make here locally in Bend, so it makes sense that we are viewed as local.

BUT most of us have friends or family in other states and we think cookies are a great gift for any celebration. Gina’s custom sugar cookies are the perfect way to send a personal gift for birthdays, holidays, or anytime a gift is appropriate.

So, help us get the word out that Bend Cookie Company ships!

Well we wrapped up our holiday season at the Bend Indoor Market this past Saturday.  While the market will continue to run each weekend, we have decided to take a little bread, spend some time with the kids, and enjoy the end of the year as a family.

We had a great time at the market!  We were able to introduce Bend Cookie Company to a whole host of new customers and made some great new friends along the way.  All of the cookies were a hit, but Gina’s hand decorated sugar cookies continued to “wow” everyone and were snatched up as quickly as we could produce them.

We are thinking about working the market around Valentines day, we already are working on some great designs that we think everyone will love and are sure to be a great way to ask “will you be my Valentine?”

Thanks to everyone who helped support our business this past year!

___________________________

Apparently the city of Bend has concerns about the market occupying its current location…something to do with zoning, etc.  I received an email from Jennifer White this morning about an upcoming city council meeting:

We are hoping that all of you will attend the meeting to show support for the Market.  Please feel free to make copies and give to as many people as possible.  We need to let them know how important this issue is to all of us.  Be there, help save the Bend Indoor Markets.

We have a new home through this holiday season!  If you are looking for a cookie fix or need festive cookies for your holiday entertaining and gift giving you can stop by the Bend Indoor Market.  We will have available our delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies, Toasted Pecan & Toffee, Cinnamon Cranberry Oatmeal, Snickerdoodles, and lots of other items like our Cranberry Nut Granola.

Haven’t heard of the Bend Indoor Market?  It opened in September 2010 and offers great shopping from local Artisans, Craftsman, Farmers, and even little ole’ cookie companies like Bend Cookie Company.  The markets is located next to Sparrow Bakery in the old iron works building.  Click on this link to view the Bend Indoor Market website.

Besides our gourmet drop cookies, we will have Gina’s Cookie Art for purchase!  She has designed a full selection of hand decorated holiday cookies for your gift giving or entertaining needs.  They are amazing!  As always, feel free to give us a call or email us for an custom cookie creations.

See you at the market.

Well, you haven’t heard from me lately, so you may have wondered what I have been up to. In one word: BIRTHDAYS! There’s been a run of birthday requests here at Bend Cookie Company, and we have had a lot of fun creating one-of-a-kind sets for the birthday boy/girl or woman/man! We started off the month with a request to create a unique cookie set for Harlan, a scuba enthusiast. Thanks to the internet and Scuba.com inspiration struck!

Scuba Hand-Decorated Sugar Cookies

I thought they came out pretty cute — and tasty too!

A few days later, we had a request for a birthday bouquet for Sam, a 14 year old heading off to Mountain View High School.

Mountain View Birthday Cookie bouquet

She was getting a Canon Rebel XT for her birthday, and she loves music, so a stunning bouquet with a black, white and red color scheme was created just for her!

That same day Wyatt was celebrating his 9th birthday. Wyatt loves baseball, playing the guitar on Rock Band, and the Bone series of books. This cookie platter could not have been more Wyatt! He loved them! And the wrapping allowed everyone to see the cookies!

Wyatt Birthday Cookies Wrapped

I had never heard of the “Bone” series before, but with the help of Amazon.com and a steady hand, voila! A Bone cookie was born! (Do you see a theme developing here…not sure what the cookie should look like? INTERNET TO THE RESCUE!)

Bone Cookie

And then, there was Tara! Tara is a dynamic young woman with a strong faith, who loves to act, play Rockband, and hang out with her friends and boyfriend, Danny.

Tara Hand-Decorated Sugar Cookie Platter

I laughed out loud when I saw the pictures of Tara and Danny enjoying their cookies! Can you tell they are actors?

Tara and Danny as ACTORS

Tara and Danny Rocking Out

Tara and Danny in Love

So what are your interests? Do you think we can make them into a cookie? Try us! We would love to make your birthday celebration even SWEETER!

MOM – just saying her name and you think of home-cooked meals (/reheated Costco chicken), a clean house (/weekly chore list with your name on it), fresh laundry (/yeah, you know where the detergent is), hugs and kisses (okay, that part I can 100% get behind), and your number 1 cheerleader (that goes without saying). She either made you or picked you, and she has spent a huge chunk of her life ensuring you have become the quality human being you are.

So, what does Mom want for Mother’s Day? Just a little acknowledgment that you know how much she loves you and that you appreciate all she does. The best gift you can give Mom is to go hang out with her this weekend, but a little extra something-something wouldn’t hurt either. For me, I would be ecstatic with a bunch of peonies, a bar of bacon-dark chocolate (yes, you heard me correctly – I saw it in Goody’s and can’t let it go until I actually try it), and a batch of Toasted Toffee Pecan Cookies baked my resident baker/husband, Sean.

Toasted Toffee Pecan Cookies

Mother's Day Shell Cookie Gift Box - 9 cookies $29.00

Mother's Day Flower Cookie Box - 9 Cookies $29.00

Mother's Day Ladybug Mother/Child Gift Box - 8 cookie pairs $34.00

College Logo Cookie Gift Box - 8 Cookies $34.00

If you are interested in any of these selections, either call at (541) 977-9177 or email me at gina@bendcookie.com and just put the name of the gift box in your email request – they are not on our Mother’s Day Page, but they are available!

I read some sad news yesterday. The Cakegirls, Mary and Brenda Maher, cake-makers extraordinairre, and many-time winners of Ultimate Cakeoff and Food Network Cake Challenge,

Cakegirls, Mary & Brenda Maher

Cakegirls butterfly cake

Cakegirls Wrigley Field Cake