More than just a cookie....Behind the lemon lavender shortbread

I am not by nature what I call a planner. I don’t write lists out and plans. I own about 15 planners and have several things written in each one but never have I ever finished an entire year of planning. I am a doer. Sometimes it is in my favor, often times it is a challenge.

4 years ago I need a change. I had burned out of the business after 10 years and needed something new. What was my plan?? I had none. I just knew that I had to start over and rediscover myself and my passion. I often got overwhelmed with figuring out how to make a change. I was looking for a sign.

After I went on a yoga retreat to Bali, I started reading the book “You are a badass” by Jen Sincero. I have ADD and can only read a chapter or two at a time before I forget what happened and have to reread the chapters. This book, I did not have that problem. I read a chapter or two a night and the book completely aligned with my life. I focused on one chapter at a time and later realized that this might have been when I started to slow down a bit and re-evaluate my life.

Baking is my passion and my stress release and the only way I know to express my creativity. I knew that I wanted to create desserts that were memorable for their flavors, but also simply elegant and classic. I would see all of these extravagant desserts that were very time consuming and most of the time, taste terrible. I know that my strength is in the love of baking, and I do not enjoy spending hours upon hours of piping tiny little details on cookies or cakes that are rarely eaten anyways.

I remember buying lavender because I wanted to experiment with it. I started researching what flavors pair well with lavender and the lemon seemed like a good fit. It took me a while before I actually started to play with the recipe. Once I got it, I knew I had something unique fun and full of flavor. The cookie started out in a flower shape because of the lavender in the cookie. I didn’t want it to just be round or square or oval. I changed the shape to a heart simply because the night before my first food photo shoot, I could not find my flower cutter and the heart was the only one that I had.

I wan’t sure what I was going to do with the cookie but I remember being in a therapy session and my counselor asked me what I wanted to be known for or what made me different from any other baker out there. I remember telling her lemon lavender.

From that point on, that became my focus. I started to explore the idea of starting a business and brought that cookie with me everywhere I went. People loved it. I loved it and I knew it was something fun, unique and special.

I have always done my best to do the same with my life. I never wanted to be compared to anyone else. I wanted to be known for my own unique, fun and special talents. I never realized what an impact this cookie would have on me or anyone else that ate it.

To me this cookie has shown me that I am unique, fun, artistic and creative. I don’t know when I actually believed it myself, but between all the struggles and uncertainty, this cookie never disappointed.

I refer to this cookie as the cookie that started this business, gave me confidence and pushed my out of my comfort zone to make sure everyone that I meet knows about the cookie, my passion and how amazing lemon and lavender can be together.

Running a business has definitely had a huge impact on how I see myself, how others see me and how much one cookie can have such a powerful effect on me and everyone else that has had it.

As the world sits in a lot of fear, uncertainty and confusion, remember to take it one step at a time or as I like to say….one cookie at a time.

xoxo

Annie