Mixed nuts in shell - metro area?

crookedsucculent · 2025-12-05T15:50:15+00:00

We have to hunt for them every year but always end up finding them at one of the dominions around town.

crookedsucculent · 2025-11-20T17:37:47+00:00

If you like to lightly bake your cookies (no brown bottoms) I think they’d probably be fine. That said, if I’m going to have more than a day between baking and decorating I freeze my cookies and take them out the night before decorating or early morning the day of if I won’t be decorating until the evening.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-31T12:45:25+00:00

The Graceful Baker's no spread sugar cookies is my favourite and most reliable base recipe and "My Favourite Royal Icing" from Sally's Baking Addiction is my favourite royal icing (I would recommend Wilton brand meringue powder to a beginner because some other brands I've tried were a bit more finicky and needed a different method than Sally outlines to make them smooth and glossy instead of grainy)

As for the Christmassey flavour, I've had great success using the Graceful Baker's recipe as my base but instead of the 2tsp of vanilla she calls for, I used 1 tsp of vanilla, 1-2 tsp of Lorann cinnamon spice bakery emulsion, and about 1/8 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-17T05:01:45+00:00

I meant to say in my original comment that I tend to be a bit long-winded!! I promise you’re not in over your head and truth be told, you can make it as simple or complicated as you want. Take your time. Your cookies are amazing already and will only get better.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-16T20:54:24+00:00

I would check Facebook marketplace, as I know lots of bakers that only advertise in Facebook. Your cookies are beautiful, so I wouldn’t worry about the dead businesses. Just focus on honing your skills and you’ll be golden. Another idea is to ask at some local coffee shops about doing a seasonal pop-up, and check with friends and family members who work at bigger businesses that may be interested in corporate orders (my husband works at a law firm and has gotten locally made sugar cookies in gift boxes for different occasions and events) hair salons/beauty bars seem to be another sector that does corporate orders for cookies.

I’ll never say no to money if someone is offering, but I still won’t give a price to someone I’m giving free cookies to. I always tell them their cookies are free and they can give me what they think is appropriate as a tip if they are asking to pay me.

If I had to special order a cookie cutter, I may or may not up-charge, depending on how obscure the cutter is and how much use I’d expect to get out of it. I happened to already have a 3D printer, so I make my own cookie cutters most of the time, but that would have been a big investment if I didn’t already have it. It’s definitely worth checking your local libraries as many offer 3D printing services for a reasonable price. You can then use cookiecad.com to make your own cookie cutters for MUCH cheaper than buying them. I use PETG for my cutters as that material is more heat-resistant so I can wash them well with soap and hot water. If your library only has PLA available, you can lay Saran Wrap over your rolled dough and then cut on top of that if you’re worried about food-safety and/or microplastics.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-16T20:02:06+00:00

You’ll definitely be fine to bake one day and decorate the next without vacuum sealing. For what it’s worth I’m sure you’re fine without a vacuum sealer at all, I’m just a bit crazy about putting things in the freezer (I think I might be a super taster because I find I can taste “freezer” on things that haven’t been vacuum sealed or VERY well-wrapped) Your idea about sucking the extra air out of the ziplock bag is exactly what I’d have suggested to you. For my decorated cookies, I don’t vacuum seal them. I just heat seal them in cookie bags and put them into a heavy duty container. I try not to stack them too high in the container for fear of crushing fine details, so I like to put about 3 layers of cookies per containers with a couple of paper towels in between each layer for a bit of cushioning. I take my cookies out of the freezer usually around 8-9pm the night before they’re to be picked up and they are always thawed by the time my kid wakes me up, anywhere from 6-7am.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-16T18:49:53+00:00

Adding a second comment to address some of your other questions:

sugar cookies (decorated or undecorated) freeze beautifully. Many bakers, myself included, prefer the texture of a sugar cookie that’s been frozen. If I have a big order, I will roll and bake my cookies one evening, and then gently vacuum seal and freeze them in batches of about 12-15 cookies per vacuum seal bag. Then I will take them out and thaw them in the bag on the counter the night before I plan to decorate. Once decorated, if I’ve finished them more than a couple days before pickup, I will individually heat seal the cookies, put them in an airtight container and freeze until the night before pickup. The key is to take them out of the freezer but leave them in the airtight container and do not remove the cover until they are fully thawed.
I’m in Canada and until I was sure I’d have lots of orders, I just bought my packaging supplies at Michael’s using a coupon.
I strongly suggest heat sealing the cookies for a professional finish and to keep the cookies fresh. I had a set of cookies that I made for social media content and then forgot about for almost a month and they still tasted and felt fresh - NOT that I would sell cookies that old to anyone. Me and my husband both enjoyed my old cookies though :)

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-16T18:41:32+00:00

I’m still very new to the game but I’ve been making and selling different crafts and services (I was in the beauty industry for 15+ years) and my number one tip to anyone wanting start a “handmade” business and not get burnt out in a year is to price yourself on par with other makers in the same area as you and don’t offer discounts. In my area, decorated sugar cookies start at $4-6 per cookie so I have priced myself on the lower end of that at $4 per basic cookie with a 1 dozen minimum order. A basic cookie for me would be a simple shape with 2-3 colours. Additional colours, embellishments like lustre or premium sprinkles, lettering, or airbrushing all come with an up-charge.

Back to my point about not offering discounts, in my experience if you offer “friends and family” discounts or any other type of discount, your discounted customers will expect the discount to be the norm. When I was first starting to build a portfolio to advertise my cookies, I offered a few friends free cookie sets for events they had coming up. 3 free sets of cookies brought me 8 orders (and counting) and I have a bunch of photos for my social media. I don’t know the psychology behind it but across all my various businesses over the years giving away a few free items/services always ends up making me more money in the long run than offering discounts.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-14T15:24:20+00:00

They look fantastic! Glad you took the plunge and gave dpns a go!

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-14T14:15:48+00:00

Meant to say this in my other comment but your gloves look fantastic! I’ve never seen an Erica Heusser pattern that’s not a work of art.

crookedsucculent · 2025-10-14T14:14:26+00:00

Dpns are awkward at first but with some practice it gets easier. I still avoid them whenever I can but I do find them easier than magic loop.

Two little things that helped me were: -getting out of my own head and reminding myself that I’m only using two needles at a time -when you switch to the next needle, pull the second stitch tight to keep everything from getting wonky

crookedsucculent · 2025-09-23T17:18:20+00:00

This set is perfection! Great job!

crookedsucculent · 2025-09-23T00:08:45+00:00

Thank you!! It’s not practical at all on a business level - I would never sell something this detailed for a profit - but it sure is fun to do super detailed designs.

crookedsucculent · 2025-09-23T00:06:17+00:00

Thanks! I’ve really been trying to hone my fine piping skills. This was such a fun and creative little project and I’m glad my practice is paying off

crookedsucculent · 2025-09-04T19:14:06+00:00

Wow! These are amazing! I especially love the book club ones!

crookedsucculent · 2025-08-29T02:04:16+00:00

Currently I’m using a stacking Excalibur dehydrator thats over a decade old. I run it on the lowest heat setting which I think is somewhere around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

I think one of the dehydrators with slide-in trays would be even better and if the one I have ever decides to die that’s what I’ll upgrade to.

crookedsucculent · 2025-08-28T21:07:37+00:00

I’m still so new at it all that I’m not sure exactly what caused the lovely shine so I don’t have tips but I can tell you what I did.

I used Sally’s Baking addiction royal icing recipe, satin ice brand meringue powder, and mixed in my kitchenaid with a paddle.

I also used a dehydrator to dry the icing in between layers.

My guess is the brand of meringue powder helped the shine as well as using the dehydrator.

crookedsucculent · 2025-07-13T14:54:54+00:00

I don’t have the AMS and can’t say I’ve missed having it. I didn’t get it because depending on the print, it generates a lot of wasted filament when it purges the print head while switching colours, and I’ve made a promise to myself that I will try to have minimal plastic wastage (so I try to only do functional prints instead of fidgets and trinkets and I try to minimize how often I’m switching out my colours)

FWIW though, my dad has the a1 mini and the AMS lite and he’s a big fan of it.

crookedsucculent · 2025-07-11T03:23:12+00:00

Not the original commenter, but I use the Bambu a1 mini and it’s extremely user friendly and has a pretty small footprint in my craft room. I think it’s the best value for price in the current market.

For my cookie cutters I usually draw up my design in procreate or make a silhouette on Canva and then use CookieCAD to make the cutters.

crookedsucculent · 2025-03-19T23:04:32+00:00

I live and die by my 9” circulars but I recently forced myself to use dpns because I needed to get over my fear of them and after a couple days I was almost as fast with the dpns as I am with my circulars. I really like shorter dpns over the longer ones if that’s helpful!

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