A Cookie to Celebrate. Jana Douglass

       Introduction

       Everyone Celebrating with Cookies!

      I was in my early twenties, weeks away from holding a college degree in my hands, with no job lined up. Cue the stress baking. Sound familiar? I pulled my grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe out of my beloved recipe book and slaved over cookies for my own graduation dinner. They were awful. The text was piped so badly you couldn’t even tell which school I had graduated from, and I’m surprised everyone left the dinner with all their teeth! But there was one thing that always stuck with me: cookies bring people joy. Those attending my graduation dinner didn’t care that the lines weren’t straight or that the texture was off. From then on, I was hooked.

      I spent the next nine months giving all my spare time to baking and, like a true millennial, humbly bragging about my new set of skills on social media. My cookies evolved from an unattractive mess with cavity-inducing icing to photo-ready designs that are so tasty you won’t even think twice about digging in.

      A business was born: I had gained a humbling number of followers (anyone else do a happy dance when you hit 1,000?!) and, most importantly, had enough clients to take a crack at pursuing my passion full time. I’ve never looked back. It hasn’t always been the easiest, or as happy as my Instagram feed might make it seem, but I have kept going, bringing JOY into people’s lives one cookie at a time. People choose to include my cookies in life’s biggest and most special moments; I mean, how cool is that?!

      Jana Lee’s Bake Shop is my baby. I spent more time curating the brand’s name than the majority of expectant parents spend awaiting their new child. I turned to the internet to find artistic talent to make a logo, with one requirement that I know will shock you: it had to be pink! I found the best bakery boxes, made my own website, and took on my first clients who weren’t friends with my mom. I was emailing and working by day and baking and decorating by night out of my one tiny oven. At this point, I was personally hand delivering every single cookie, mostly because I was afraid of the internet and giving out my address, but I also knew quality and service mattered! I didn’t have a storefront, so the extra cost of perfect packaging and the added headache of fighting traffic was worth it. Almost immediately after opening for business and being overwhelmed by orders, I started the process of building my own commercial kitchen. Within five months, Jana Lee’s Bake Shop had a new home. It wasn’t fancy, it could have been prettier, but it did the trick and has gotten us to where we are today. I’m writing to all of you in the middle of designing a bigger and much prettier home for Jana Lee’s Bake Shop, and let me tell you, this is all pretty surreal.

      Before we dive into the cookies, the real reason you’re all here, I have a few things for you to keep in mind. I am not a professionally trained baker. I do not have an art background. I had never even set foot in a commercial kitchen until I built my own. This book is my self-taught knowledge, creativity, and skills, all fueled by my passion for entrepreneurship.

      I hope this book provides you with a new skill, a fun activity, and an excuse to celebrate. Remember, your