More than twenty years after Mark Spencer entered a cookie recipe contest at a Kentucky mall, he has launched his own bakery out of Brentwood.
He entered the contest when he was 28 years old, and although he didn't win, he got hooked on the thrill of developing his own recipes. The contest opened his eyes to the delicate art of cookie making: How do you develop a crunchy exterior without making your treat dry? How do you add loads of flavor, but keep it from being overpowering?
“What are you going to do to make it special? That was the challenge I had," he said.
And now he has Little Pink Box Cookies.
The dream of opening his own cookie shop had lingered in the back of his mind, amplified when those in his circle began paying him to make a batch of his cookies. Before long he was in business out of his kitchen.
He tried to officially enter the cookie market a decade ago when he launched SJ Weatherby (a nod to Spencer's radio persona from his college days at Southern Illinois University). Then as his 50th birthday approached, his wife, Heather, gave him the push he needed: It was now or never.
So in December 2019, he launched Little Pink Box. Just as he found his footing and started taking regular orders, the coronavirus barreled through Tennessee and forced Spencer to close the doors until July. Now almost a year after reopening, he's found his sweet spot fulfilling corporate orders by the dozen.
He uses a shared commercial kitchen, and he likens being surrounded by tubs of sugar, globs of butter and pounds of flour to a scientist in a lab experimenting with recipes in an effort to discover the perfect mix.
Spencer has found great success with his take on the snickerdoodle, which sometimes can taste only like a dressed up sugar cookie. His version is chock-full of sugary sweetness with crunchy cinnamon chips inside the soft cookie. But the s'mores cookie recipe has eluded him for years. No matter what he's tried, he can't crack it.
“That happens, but that’s the beauty of getting in there," he said. "You might find a dud like that, but sometimes you’re going to find magic. And if you find it more often than you find the duds, then you’re in great shape.”
He looks at his cookie names as a promise to the eater: What he calls it is what you'll get. You can expect a crunch with the SuperDoodle Cinnamon Crunch, a shot of coffee flavor in the Mocha Double Chocolate Fudge and a mouthwatering trio of chocolate in the Triple Chocolate Chunk.
“The flavor has to be true to what you say it is," he said.
To order Spencer's cookies, visit littlepinkboxcookies.com.
Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman. To stay updated on Williamson County news, sign up for our newsletter.
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The Link LonkApril 26, 2021 at 06:01PM
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Little Pink Box Cookies owner 'finds magic' in the kitchen - Tennessean
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