Cookie creations blossom     In-laws mold business delivering edible bouquets to tucson area< By Shelley Shelton  arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.20.2006

Societally speaking, Tami Peek, 41, and Joyce Schulte, 70, should hardly be able to tolerate each other.Peek has been married to Schulte's son, Clint, for 15 years. How in-laws relate to each other has been fodder for comedians and self-help gurus alike for decades. Yet these two women hatched a business together last Fourth of July, and they've just passed their first anniversary having spent much of every day together during that time. It all began last summer when Schulte wanted to brighten the day for her daughter, who works at University Medical Center.Schulte decided to send a cookie bouquet ? a collection of decorated, frosted sugar cookies on long, lollipoplike sticks, arranged in a basket, tub or other carrier. Schulte chose an arrangement of 10 cookies in a basket. The cost: $65. Then she paid another $10 for delivery. Tack on $8 for the delivery person to take the basket out of the box and present it to Schulte's daughter. Plus tax.The total was $91 and change, Schulte said. "I said, 'Tami, we can do this,' " Schulte recalls telling her daughter-in-law after the experience. Schulte has always enjoyed baking. And Peek used to paint yard signs. Decorating cookies is "like a yard sign. You just paint it on a cookie," Peek said. After formulating their business idea last year, the twosome spent several months doing research. They wanted to make sure they had the recipe just right.Turns out, it's a tricky prospect, getting a sugar cookie to stay on a stick. It needs to be soft enough to be fun to eat, yet firm enough to remain attached to the stick. By the beginning of September, Copper Creek Cookies was ready to begin serving customers. Now the business offers bouquets at a fraction of the price of the one Schulte ordered last year. A 10-cookie basket is $45, delivered anywhere in the Tucson area. There is no fee to take it out of a box and present it to the recipient. And most of the time it comes in a flower pot hand-painted by Peek. Smaller baskets are available for $25 and $35, and for those there is a $5 delivery fee. All deliveries in Oro Valley are free.The women also do cakes decorated with sugar cookies on top, and one of their favorite offerings is what they call a business card cookie. They put a person's name, telephone number and logo on a collection of cookies, and that person suddenly has a unique way to get a business name into the community. Grant Deakin, who runs his own American Family Insurance office near East Camp Lowell Drive and North Swan Road, met Schulte at a business networking group several months ago. Schulte does much of the public marketing, while Peek does all the decorating and keeps up the Web site."She's an honest, caring person," Deakin said of his experience with Schulte. He said he was impressed by how she worked with him to see what could suit his needs. "She was interested in helping me build my business and not just in making a sale," he said. He ordered some cookie platters and found they were a hit, so he moved on to the business-card cookies. "The only thing is, they eat my advertisement," he said, laughing. Despite that, he continues to order the novelty because people remember his name after eating it on a cookie, and people look forward to getting them. The business already has grown faster than the women anticipated. From the beginning, they have paid Mona's Danish Bakery, 3701 W. Ina Road, to use the kitchen two or three times each week after the bakery's regular hours. Now they're getting so busy, they are exploring the possibility of moving into their own kitchen. Peek's dream is to have a storefront where people can come in and choose their own bouquet pieces or decorate their own cookies. She would like a place where the business can host children's birthday parties, she said."We're not competitive," Schulte said. "We're just here doing our thing. We're doing what we love."

'Cookie bouquet': heavenly scent for bakers
By Joyce Bertschy Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.04.2008

In September 2005, two local women started a "cookie bouquet" company using ovens and space they rented from other businesses. Almost three years later, Joyce Schulte and Tami Peek finally have a space and ovens of their own.
Copper Creek Cookies in May moved into its new digs ? complete with shiny, new baking equipment ? in a shopping center on West Ina Road between Thornydale Road and Interstate 10. The store is not set up for retail sales, but it provides a place to bake and the space to handle constant cookie deliveries. The first day at the new place was memorable for the two women and their families, said Schulte, 72. "The five of us put one finger on the new mixer, said a prayer and pushed the button together." The five are related. Peek is married to Schulte's son, Clint. The couple have two children, Jordann and Hayden. "We never took our children to the other businesses," said Peek, 43. "Now we bring them here, and it's comfortable." The business's specialty, the cookie bouquet, consists of about a dozen cookies on sticks arranged in a basket or vase. Unlike a conventional floral bouquet, a cookie bouquet is yummy. Customer Robyn Raley talked about the cookie bouquets she has ordered since the two women got out their cookie cutters. "They bake them fresh," Raley said. "The pots they create and the colors that they use just seem so creative to me. The cookies are a great, unique way of saying thank you." Schulte, a retired nurse, came up with the idea and an old cookie recipe. "I was thinking about something we could do as a family," she said. Peek works part time as a teacher in the after-school program run by the Community Extension Program at Copper Creek Elementary School. "I take care of everything online. I designed the Web site," Peek said, adding that Joyce Schulte "is the business side of it, and I'm the creative side." Peek experimented with the family recipe for two months until she discovered the perfect dough. When the experiment was done, she had created a soft cookie that stays on a stick. Once the cookie recipe was ready, it was time to start baking from rented ovens at Mona's Danish Bakery and Busy B's Bakery. The women realized they needed their own space from the start. "We were there at 2 a.m. baking," Peek said. "We were afraid to grow, and we had to turn down orders. But since we've moved into our own space, we haven't turned down any orders." Customer Joan Rebaza has ordered cookie bouquets, business-card cookies and other cookie creations from the pair. "The people are very gracious and warm," Rebaza said. "I swear they bake that into the cookies." Clint Peek, 50, says he's the professional cookie taster and the heavy lifter. "After three years, we bought this, and here's why," he said, pointing to the business-card cookies. "We sell these by the thousands." Two years ago, a customer asked for 25 cookies with his logo, and Tami Peek hand-painted them with edible "ink." The business-card cookie took off, but they had to rethink drawing the logo by hand when the sponsor of a local home show ordered 70 bouquets. "I got online and found a machine that creates logos on edible 'paper,' " she said. The machine makes it possible to create intricate logos on edible paper with edible ink. The custom-made paper is then placed on each cookie. The owners never have advertised; they say the business grew by word of mouth. "We call it 'the cookie chain,' because once someone gets a cookie, that new customer calls and orders," Tami Peek said. "Of course it's about money, but it's more about all the wonderful people we meet," Schulte added.