A little summary... continuation

So here is my little short summery of what I learnt attending the 2 markets for the very first time.

First, I learnt that I have some really awesome supportive friends! Whom I threw a little party for after my last market-do, where I forced more of my cooking and baking on them, heh ehhe...

Second, I have been in the food business for a very very long time, but never a baker, and I am glad that this event gave me the chance to test drive and fine tune my products, not so much the recipes, but mainly the packaging and displaying of my cookies and cakes.

Unfortunately, all this time, I have been taking photos of my cookies with a camera I borrowed from someone; and managed to photograph only some of the cookies I made thought out the few weeks of daily baking.

I also didn't have a camera during the market days to take photos of my cookies and cakes, nor of my table at the markets to show you my display. I also did not have the time to step outside of my table to take a photo when I actually did have the camera that one day.

Bummer, I promise you that my table display was kinda cute, all decked out with my gingerbread trees of all sizes, a festive green and white table cloth, couple of white square ornate plates for my cookies and red glass cake stands for my baby cakes, plus a basket for my decorated festive cookies.

So, I'll give you one guess as to what I received for a present this Christmas from my special someone, he he heh... score! Just as well, I was planning to treat myself to a new camera anyway. Now I'll just have to reward myself for all the hard work with something else, like ... more baking stuff!!!!

Anyway.... I baked almost every cookie recipe I had on my little menu on the first day, and I baked A LOT if it!

Lesson no.1, don't over bake.

Lesson No.2, its all about the packaging. I went from baking individually wrapped large cookies, to turning some of my cookies into bags of 'Mini' cookies, and they were a hit! And the best sellers were the Peanut butter and Chocolate Fudge Cream cheese cookies.

Lesson No.3, check out the other vendors and streamline your products and make it visually clear why your product is different form the rest. So not only did I make some mini cookies, I also limited the kind of cookies I made each day, so that I can better inform the customers why they were special :O)

Lesson No.4, I need a second pair of hands during the holiday season :OP

Thats all I can remember for now. I have been lazy from over eating during the holiday season, so I am now taking everything that I have learnt, and spending some time to rethink, plan and create more recipes and designs for Easter and Mothers day. Yummo!