Jun 1, 2007

Custom cookie business fills sweet nicheBy Luci ScottAZCentral.com

Over here there’s a pirate, a green ogre and Uncle Sam.

Over there a sailboat and a yellow smiley face with a mortarboard perched on its head.

These and many other cookies have been dipped in white, brown or colored chocolate and decorated as party favors for baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries and holiday parties, part of a booming niche business in Chandler.

“The challenge becomes how many designs can you get on a round circle,” says Kelle Bingham of Ocotillo, who owns the cookie decorating business Favorz along with her sister, Kathie McAfee.

The business is tucked away in the old Compadres baseball stadium, the building with the blue roof just north of Snedigar Sportsplex.

The base cookies, which the businesswomen buy ready made, include Oreos (the best seller), Nutter Butter, fortune cookies, sugar wafers and vanilla creams. The foundation for the pirate ship is a graham cracker and pretzels.

McAfee discovered the concept of decorating commercial cookies while she was shopping in a cake decorating store in Rochester, Mich. She was instantly taken, so she bought the necessary equipment.

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