The Cost of Custom Cookies

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Published: May 28, 2018

Last Updated: December 2025

Let me guess, you were at a (birthday/bridal/bachelorette/holiday) party last week and saw the most ADORABLE custom sugar cookies. Now you just have to have them for little Sally’s birthday party next month. After finding out who made the ones at your friend’s party, you contact them to request a quote - thinking it will maybe be around $20 or so for a dozen. After all, the ones at Walmart with pink icing and sprinkles are like $5 for the whole box. Surprise and shock run through you when you receive a quote of $75 - $87 per DOZEN. ‘Are you for real?!’ Yes, yes I am very much for real, and let me explain to you why…

Custom cookies are on a whole other level. These are not your standard cookies that you bake in an afternoon and slap some icing on them and call it a day. No, you have to plan and prep, then bake and decorate, wait some time for them to dry, and decorate some more (potentially followed by even more decorating). The whole process usually takes me 2-3 days per order. Which is also why you, as the customer, should plan ahead and try to order your cookies as soon as possible. Because when cookies take that long to complete, I can get booked up VERY far in advance (to reserve YOUR date, fill out the short order form here).

The biggest factors in my cookie prices are ingredients, tools, and time. Let’s start with the cost of ingredients. My cookies AND royal icing are 100% made from scratch. The most expensive ingredients being butter and vanilla extract. No cheap butter here otherwise your cookies will spread when they bake - trust me, you don’t want that. And don’t even get me started about vanilla extract (it's not unusual for an oz of vanilla to cost MORE than an oz of silver!). Add in all the additional ingredients and you’ve got a decent size grocery bill, especially when buying in bulk. We’re not even going to factor in the time spent getting those groceries.

Next let’s talk about the cost of all those fancy cookie tools I have, starting with my bread and butter...the cookie cutters. Sure, they have them for sale at Walmart, Target, Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc, but the cutest designs are sold online by small business owners. These cookie cutter designs are hand-illustrated and made with a 3D printer. They're usually sold via Etsy or on the business's own website. Two of my favorite brands are Kaleidacuts and The Sweet Design Shoppe. 3D printed cookie cutters feature the cutest designs and range in price from about $6 - $8 EACH (not including the shipping). That adds up fast, like real fast. Like say goodbye to your last paycheck because you just HAVE TO HAVE these adorable cookie cutters (I'll use them at some point right??). Additional essential tools include an airbrush, projector, dehydrator, cookie rolling rack, airbrush colors, food colors, piping bags, sprinkles, sanding sugar, cookie sheets, heat sealer, food safe plastic bags, boxes, ribbon, and a subscription to Netflix (but really).

Now for the ‘time’ component. It takes me 2-3 hours (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) to bake every order from start to finish. Once they’ve cooled off, I vacuum seal them in bags until I'm ready to decorate them (usually the next day). Next comes one of the most tedious parts of the decorating process - mixing icing. Y’all, it can take me literally 1-2 HOURS just to mix up all the colors and consistencies of icing I need for an order. Sometimes I’m exhausted before I even start! Once I do finally get seated and start decorating, it’s show time. Each cookie gets a base coat (flood). First I outline them and then 'flood' them with thinner consistency icing (2 hours).

After flooding, I have to wait for them to dry before I can add additional decorating details on top. This is where I use a dehydrator to speed things along. Sometimes I’ll let them dry overnight and add the finishing touches the next day. Finishing touches usually take longer than the flooding stage because it's very detailed oriented (2-3 hours).

Once the cookies are finally done and dry (WHEW!), they are individually bagged and heat sealed in food safe plastic bags. Now you’ve got packaging costs - boxes of varying sizes, paper shred, ribbon, and labels.

When the cookie crumbles (pun intended) and all is said and done - I usually end up working around minimum wage. Did you hear that? MINIMUM WAGE! For cookies! You must think I'm crazy, but I truly love what I do. I love seeing the look on my customer’s faces when they receive their custom cookies. I love when they use me year after year and refer me to their friends. Simply put, I love decorating cookies and being a part of your festivities.

But if custom cookies just aren't in your budget this time, trust me I totally understand. Those soft sugar cookies from Walmart with the yummy frosting work just fine to serve at your party (I've had them more than I'd care to admit). However, if you want show stopping, delicious, Pinterest worthy, completely custom and adorable cookies - then I'm you're gal. And if you’re ever curious why something costs as much as it does, please feel free to ask me.

#customcookies #cookies #destin #30a #dessert #bakinglife