This week we have a wonderful e-book featured called Cooking Up Some Dough. It gives all the ins and outs of selling your baked goods to earn extra money for the holidays.
Mom has done this for years and I was so excited to see this great e-book give all the info. in one place that’s needed to do this.
For the last 20 years mom has made these cute gingerbread men for Christmas. She just sells them to friends and family but has made up to 600 dozen of the littles in November and December. She packages them by the dozen in cellophane bags tied with a piece of red curly ribbon.
A few years ago she came up with the big ones (at the top). They are about 12 inches tall and the kids just loved them. She gives one to each of the grandkids each Thanksgiving and most of it’s gone by the next morning! LOL
The best part is they taste even better than they look! She found a great recipe years ago in an old cookbook and has used it ever since. (Sorry, we can’t give it out. When we are done with the book business we will go into the gingerbread men business. 
If you want to earn some extra cash with your favorite recipes be sure to check out this week’s featured e-book Cooking Up Some Dough.! Until Nov. 14th you can get it 40% off if you use the coupon code LOAD when you order. You will also get our special e-book Gifts in A Jar if you order before then too so hurry over today and get your copy!
Tawra
Jill, your gingerbread men are so cute, and I bet they taste wonderful too. I love to bake, so I have thought that if in dire straits, I would try to sell my delcious banana bread. I know that some women around here are baking to supplement their income.
When I make cookies with chocolate chips and nuts (or meat based dishes) I use 1/2 as much of the expensive ingredients. They still taste great but are less expensive and healthier.
Funny story: when I was stationed in overseas the only thing I wanted for Christmas was Mom’s Vienna (cream cheese dough) tarts. Unfortunately they sent our presents to Egypt by mistake so it took a long time for us to receive our gifts. When I finally received assurance of my mom’s love for me, I ran home with the package, and in the privacy of my room opened it up. Inside was a cool whip bowl that I knew my mom had loving packed with Vienna tarts. When I opened the bowl I wondered “Why did Mom use green powered sugar on the tarts?”, and placed one in my mouth. About a second later (and before I had time to actually taste the tart) I realized that the green powered sugar was mold. With great sorrow, I spit Mom’s love gift into the nearest trash can. With great regret, the entire cool whip bowl of cookies followed immediately thereafter. Thirty years later I still wonder if I should have kept the cool whip bowl as a memento of my Mom’s love for me my first Christmas away from home, and on the other side of the world.
Please consider sending love offerings to the troops overseas and others far from home.
I have a question, how much do you charge for a dozen?? and do you sell them as a dozen or per cookie, just curious?
I used to make large gingerbread men like these and sell them at our church bazaar each fall. I would cut pieces of cardboard to size, lay the cookie on it and then wrap it all in plastic wrap tied with a ribbon. They were always a hit! And my daughter and I had a ball decorating them and making each one different.
I bake alot of cookies for Christmas to give as gifts, and store them in tins. Sometimes, they get start to get hard or stale. If you put a slice (or two) of white bread in with the cookies, it makes them soft again.
Crystal I sell the small ones by the dozen and the large ones individually mostly because I was having a hard time pricing them individually. I felt $.50 was too high but $.25 was too little so it was better to sell by the dozen because my customers got a better deal and I didn’t lose money on them.
I have charged different prices because the prices of my ingredients change but generally I sell the large ones for $5 and $4 per dozen small ones to people in town because they usually pick them up unless they have large orders.
I then charge out of towners or people I have to ship to $7.50 for the large and $5 for the small because I don’t have the packaging to ship them yet and it takes a bit more work. I really try not to ship too often because I can’t guarantee they will get there in one piece and would feel bad it they arrived all broken.
Jill
Grizzly Bear Mom, I loved your story. With my dad being a retired service man I know just what you are talking about. When we were overseas we received some strange looking things from my grandmothers.
We once received a jar of Tang. Since there had not been anything like it on the market when we left the states we weren’t sure what it was but we were excited about it.
We read the instructions on the jar and put a 2 Tbsps. in a glass of water and stirred and stirred and stirred but it wouldn’t mix up. Come to find out it wasn’t Tang at all. My grandma had just used a Tang jar to send us some jelly she had canned.
You are right about sending love offerings and packages to our troops and others. We would live for those boxes from “home”.
Jill
With regards to “Cooking Up Some Dough” .. .. .. I am MIGHTY curious to know how to get around health department regulations for operating a cooking business from your home - that was a major stumbling block that Paula Deen mentioned in her book.
Alas….I shall have to wait to find out; the price of the ebook is not in my budget.
Health dept. regulations aren’t always as much of a problem as most people assume. Of course different areas have different regulations but where I am if you sale what is called “non toxic” foods your have very few restrictions.
When I first heard the word non toxic I thought who would sale toxic foods? But what that refers too are foods which spoil easily like meats, potato salads etc. Cookies, candies and baked goods have a good shelf life and don’t spoil easily.
Where I am if I sale out of my home I have no regulations at all. If I sale at places like craft shows or “peddle” my things I only need to just buy a license for $50 a month which could be easily taken out of my profits.
Even then I have no health department restrictions. You need to check your own personal area. I too thought for a long time I could not sale things because of these awful restrictions I had heard about but when I made a couple of simple phone calls I found out there were no obstacles.
In Paula Deen’s case if I remember right she was selling things like sandwiches, mayo based salads etc.so she may have had more restrictions.
Please don’t just assume you can’t do something. If you are serious or as desperate as I was you will find out what you need to do. Where there is a will there is a way. Even if you are selling “toxic’ foods you can find ways like asking if you can use your church kitchen or some place like that.
Jill
You can use church, daycare or senior centers to do the cooking if you state doesn’t allow it to be done in the home. Tawra