Before The Graceful Baker Videos: When Cookies Were For Sale [About Me: Part 4]

Two of my most-asked questions are: 1) what did my first ever cookies look like? and 2) do I sell my cookies?

To the first question: You can check out this post here for the very first cookies I ever made from 2010 to the beginning of 2017 (before The Graceful Baker® was born).

To the second question: today, I do not sell cookies. But, I did start out my cookie journey selling cookies. After The Graceful Baker® was born in April 2017, but before I became known as the (unofficial) Cookie Video Queen (around the end of 2018), I dipped my toes into taking orders and creating cookies for events (while still making cookies for friends and family).

So, here is a post dedicated to just that year of cookies! It’s always fun to see the evolution of skill and style (and at the end I share my very first cookie videos).

Buckle up for ALL OF THE PHOTOS 🥳

My Very First Cookie Orders in 2017

For my first ever order, I made cookies for a spirit day at a local school (my very first order for a dear friend and colleague whom I lovingly dubbed my “cookie patron”–she was my biggest supporter from day one and placed the most orders for my cookies):

I made cookies for a fundraising event (my first time color matching a brand and doing a logo…WOW was this a stressful order with very long days and lots of tears…and I’m pretty sure there were around 100 cookies for this!):

For my mom’s birthday (I started to get smarter with my cookies…the same color palette/icing as I used for the fundraising event):

For a bridal shower (also an order for the friend of a dear friend and colleague):

For a colleague’s last day:

For a visit to my aunt’s house (I still loved any excuse to experiment with new designs):

For teacher appreciation at a local school (my first repeat customer and my first order where I delivered my cookies in nice boxes):

For wedding favors (when I learned just how much more stressful orders for weddings are!):

For the 2 year anniversary of a local business (when I learned the pressure of accurately representing the vision of a a business owner):

For a book club (matching the imagery from the book):

For a Christmas party (complete creative freedom, but a huge order!):

For my family’s Christmas dinner place cards (for a hot second I thought I had a real future in making personalized dinner place cards):

And for Cookies and Carols 2017 — one of my favorite sets every that I will be forever bummed never made it into videos (maybe I will have to remake these??):

And of course I needed to make a sugar cookie option for the Christmas party (design courtesy of Sweet Sugarbelle):

My First Cookie Videos

It was during Christmas 2017 that I made my FIRST ever cookie videos.

I’m honestly not sure what inspired me to do this! I would imagine I saw some on Instagram and thought to myself: I can do that! This was at a time when videos on Instagram were still square and most people were just holding their camera with one hand while decorating with the other.

For this one my sister held the camera:

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A post shared by Grace Gaylord | Cookie Artist & Content Creator ~ NYC (@thegracefulbaker)

And for this one I held the camera with my left hand and decorated with my right hand (it’s both challenging and easier than it sounds!):

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A post shared by Grace Gaylord | Cookie Artist & Content Creator ~ NYC (@thegracefulbaker)

The Cookie Orders Continued in 2018

Even after I started making cookie videos, I continued to sell my cookies in various capacities. While my heart was in the videos, the increased exposure gave me opportunities to sell my cookies that I didn’t have before.

My cousin’s baby shower:

The opening of my best friend’s business (making logos are HARD):

Spirit day at the school I worked for:

Favors for guests at a concert:

For my family reunion:

Samples I made for my first order for a stranger’s daughter’s birthday party (that ended in the person ghosting me…oh the joys of taking orders!):

Cookies ordered by a cake artist to complement the cake at a sweet sixteen:

Cookies for a painting party:

My First (And Only) Pop-Up Shops

After taking orders for a bit, I decided to venture into pop-up shops when a local business approached me.

I preferred pop-up shops because I had more creative freedom to do the designs I wanted. But, the most nerve-wracking part was how many cookies to make. Will they sell out? What if I’m left with a bunch of cookies that I don’t know what to do with?

(Spoiler alert: I didn’t sell all my cookies both times which was both heartbreaking in the moment and a great lesson.)

I did my very first pop-up shop in November 2018:

That was such a success that I did a second pop-up shop in December 2018 (I also took pre-orders from colleagues for these cookies–I MUCH prefer pre-orders because you know exactly how many cookies to make instead of having to guess):

My Takeaways from Selling Cookies

I’m very grateful for this time when I was able to experiment with taking orders for different kinds of events.

And honestly… I learned quite quickly that I didn’t like taking orders and selling cookies. Decorating with royal icing is already stressful enough, but add the layer of it being for someone else AND paid… the stress level is through the roof!

I was also still pretty new to cookie decorating, so it took me a lot longer to do everything than it does now. I had many, many long days and late nights of decorating and a LOT of tears.

I was still working my full-time job, so I did cookies evenings after work (after 5/6pm) and weekends. Sometimes I would spend my entire weekend (12 hour+ days) doing cookies.

I had never been the kind of person that loved to work that much, but I had finally found something that I loved: cookie decorating.

There was one catch though: I did NOT love taking orders and selling cookies. It quickly took the joy out of something that once brought me so much joy.

I thought for sure I’d never have a future with cookies. That is, until I starting posting cookie decorating videos on Instagram…

Coming soon: a post about why I finally quit my job to be a full-time cookie artist and content creator!