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1. You can use almost any cookie dough, but sugar or shortbread usually work best. Working with chilled cookie dough will produce the best results. Use a sheeter or rolling pin to sheet the dough to ¼-in. thickness. Dough that is too thick or unevenly sheeted will result in misshapen cookies and can affect the baking process. The cookies need to bake evenly, maintaining a flat top.

2. Use cutters to cut the cookies into the desired shapes and sizes. Nesting cutters work well as they allow you to produce cookies of the same shape in several sizes. You should price the cookies according to size.

3. After baking, dip the cooled cookie in liquid icing. You have several options: royal icing or chocolate/candy melts that have been thinned with vegetable oil, or any other thinning agent, or ready-made icing from suppliers. The most important factor in choosing the type of icing is that it must dry completely so the cookies can be handled, stacked and packaged. A thin icing also coats the cookie completely without rippling, but it shouldn’t be so thin that you can see the cookie through it. After dipping the cookies, allow the excess icing to run off, and place them on a wire rack over a sheet pan to dry. It should take about an hour.

4. If your customer has provided a sample of the monogram they would like, you can replicate it using any word processing program to print it out in the desired font, style and size. You can then use a projector to trace or pipe the design onto the cookies.

5. Pipe the monogram with tip No. 2 using a thicker version of the icing in a contrasting color. For example, use blue piping on white icing, pipe white onto a blue-iced cookie or use chocolate icing on top of white royal icing. Use the same tip to add some finishing detail work, such as straight accent lines, dots or swirls. Allow the icing to set again for about an hour or until the monogram is dry.

6. These monogram cookies are great for cookie trays and platters, stacked in a cake box or packaged individually. However, if you package them individually, make sure you account for the packaging costs in your price. Clear plastic bags, such as those used in candy stores for lollipops, work well for the smaller sizes and 4-in. by 6-in. bags are ideal for the larger cookie sizes. Use ribbon or metallic wrap to add the finishing touch to the individually wrapped cookies.

7. A variety of color combinations and different cookie shapes allow you to create monogrammed products that are unique to each customer and add to the personal service you offer.

Ashley Vicos Like many girls of her generation, Ashley Vicos’ love of baking began at age 5 with an Easy-Bake Oven. That love has become her career as she now owns Atlanta-based Sweet Ashley’s, a commercially licensed cake studio, where she creates custom cakes and teaches cake decorating classes. Vicos stars in her own show–Have Cake, Will Travel–airing on the Food Network, and has competed in several televised decorating challenges.