Christmas music provided the soundtrack on Saturday morning as Katie Blake worked in her kitchen.
"I love all things Christmas," she said when she sat down to talk about her seasonal business -- Katie's Holiday Baking.
On the kitchen table, bags of premeasured dry ingredients sat atop a vinyl Mickey Mouse Christmas tablecloth. On the counter, Blue Bonnet margarine was stacked, warming to room temperature for the cookies Blake would make that day.
A recipe -- Chocolate Crinkles -- was clipped into the mouth of a duck-shaped recipe holder that her uncle made. It has sentimental meaning and is her companion as she works.
This year, Blake will make 140 dozen cookies and candies for customers who have placed orders. That's down from previous years, but more than she expected. With the pandemic limiting Christmas activities, she wasn't sure when she posted her announcement on Facebook how many orders she would receive.
"My mom helps me," she said. "When we have time, we get one or two things done in the evening."
Both Blake and her mother are employed and do Christmas baking in their spare time. Blake is an assembler at Falcon Plastics, a repetitious job that doesn't provide the kind of creative outlet baking provides. Her mother, Penny Millard, works for Leader Printing. Both have early-morning schedules.
For Blake, baking is a way to connect with her great-grandmother with whom she spent summers when she was a child.
"You'd go to her house and there were always goodies," she said. "You name it and that lady made it. I wanted to follow in her footsteps, so I learned to make the goodies."
The idea of starting a seasonal business arose out of an awareness that oftentimes, during the busy holiday season, people simply don't have time to bake. Since Blake likes to bake, she put an exploratory post on Facebook three years ago to see if anyone would be interested in purchasing home-baked goods from her kitchen.
"The first year, I thought, `We'll see how it goes.' When I gathered up my numbers, my mind was blown," she said.
She offers three categories of goodies: classic cookies, specialty cookies and candy. She will start baking about a week before people pick up their orders.
Most popular are spritz, a sugar cookie shaped with a cookie press. She uses an older Pampered Chef press that forces dough through the design plate when she squeezes the handle, for which she is grateful. She doesn't like the newer model.
"I always color my dough. It's something my great-grandmother did. It's what my grandmother did. To me, a white spritz cookie is strange," Blake said.
Also popular are cutout sugar cookies in classic designs. She chooses those shapes primarily because her cookie cutters once belonged to her great-grandmother. Blake either leaves the cookies plain or sprinkles them with colored sugar.
"I do not frost," she stated firmly. "Families like to order the plain ones and frost and decorate them with their kids and grandkids."
Balancing the more labor-intensive Christmas treats are some that are easier.
"People love the Oreo truffles. They're super easy. They're Oreos and cream cheese dipped in almond bark," Blake said.
On Saturday, she started early. By 9 a.m., spritz and chocolate crinkles -- Blake's favorites -- were cooling on a towel which covered a card table in the kitchen.
"I'm one of those crazy people who likes to get up early," she said.
In the living room, candies which she and her mother made the night before were arranged in neat rows on another card table. Colored Christmas lights from the tree twinkled over them.
She said the selection she offers each year depends upon verbal requests she receives before she drafts her order form. This year, she added snowballs to the list. A co-worker asked for the round shortbread cookies that are filled with pecans.
"It's kind of trial and error. I see what people like, what they are interested in," Blake indicated.
The first year, she offered quick breads. She received few orders for those items, so they were removed from the list. Now, she focuses on the sweets.
She was surprised after her first Christmas to receive calls as other holidays approached. Those who placed Christmas orders checked to see if she was making cookies for Valentine's Day, Easter and the Fourth of July.
"The Fourth of July is huge. I think people like the convenience of it," Blake speculated. They can take something to family gatherings without investing a lot of time or energy.
She adapts the cookies for the season. For Christmas, she'll put red and green M&Ms in her M&M cookies. For the Fourth, she will use the red, white and blue ones.
Blake admits that baking 140 dozen cookies -- or 200 dozen, as she has done in the past -- in her kitchen can get a little stressful at times. However, investing in a professional KitchenAid mixer has made it a little easier.
That has been about the only accommodation she has made. From the start, she had an efficient system and took breaks as needed. Her mother's help makes a difference, too.
"She says she gets the easy part because she just has to do the dishes. I say I get the easy part because I get to make the cookies," Blake said.
The important thing is that it all gets done and gets done in a timely manner. And, it does generate a little extra income. However, that's a secondary reason for doing the work.
"I get so much enjoyment out of it," Blake said.
It's another way to celebrate her favorite season of the year.
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