By Preston Knight — Daily Staff Writer

WOODSTOCK — Angie Breuer's kitchen fills with an unrelenting sweet smell, but her taste buds refuse to budge.

For Breuer, she has programmed herself to accept the fake — the smell of a candle labeled "Sprinkle Shortbread Cookies" — in place of the real thing.

"It's reverse psychology on myself," she said. "If I smell it all day, I won't eat the cookies."

Breuer, 36, leaves that job to others.

Angie's Cookie Creations, certified by the state just last week, is a one-woman operation based out of Breuer's home on Washington Street. For the most part, it's a one-room operation as well, since Breuer holes herself up in a small pink and purple room full of cookie cutters, supplies and other business necessities.

She specializes in making cookie bouquets — think flowers, just with sugar cookies on sticks — and also offers individual cookie designs and 3-D cakes. Breuer got the idea from her hometown, St. Louis, and honed the skills to do it after taking a cake decorating class locally.

"I just thought it'd be kind of different," she said.

Breuer and her husband, Eric, moved to Woodstock eight years ago. She wanted to get closer to water and he wanted mountains to ski. Breuer took a job in the commissioner of revenue's office and now is a substitute teacher until she makes the business a full-time job, while her husband teaches in Winchester.

"We get that question a lot," Breuer said. 'Why move here?"

She got as many inquiries when she floated the cookie bouquet idea around.

"People said they had never heard of that," Breuer said.

Cookies, though, are a universal vice, so the idea didn't scare people away. And the taste, Breuer said, is only part of the appeal.

There's her ability to personalize the cookies — one bouquet she just sent out had a Canadian flag and a couple's name on cookies — plus the reasonable price, $5 per cookie, and heavenly sugar-rich smell that make the arrangements a fine alternative to flowers, she said. Her goal, however, is not to make people turn away from flowers, Breuer said.

"It's just a different option," she said. "It's edible. You can easily put them in freezers. I'm a sugar fiend. Everybody I know likes cookies. Flowers are beautiful. You can't replace a beautiful rose. But mine tastes better."

People who have taken cake decorating classes have gone on to open their own businesses before, said Kitty Miller, who taught Breuer in a privately sponsored class at Ben Franklin and now teaches through the Shenandoah County Parks and Recreation Department. It takes a special type of student, though, she said. Breuer was one of them.

"She was one of my prize students," said Miller, of Strasburg. "She just really had the touch. Some students just have the touch. Her expertise just blossomed in the first few weeks."

Breuer's idea to start selling cookie bouquets was a great one, she said.

"I think there's certainly a market here," Miller said. "No one around here does cookie bouquets."

Any occasion can call for a cookie arrangement. Breuer has handled Christmas cookies, Valentine's Day and random requests — someone who wanted a police car — to this point. She is readying herself for Mother's Day and Easter, but can dip her hand into her collection of cookie cutters and pull out a dog, cat, tools and more to make a variety of cookie shapes at any time.

Making a bouquet takes about two days. Breuer outlines the cookies first, then "floods" it in with a paintbrush. That process gives the cookies a base layer of icing, and one that is flatter than if she took a knife to spread it on them. Breuer must be careful not to have the icing go over the edge of the cookies, or they will stain and she has to start over.

On top of the base layer, she can further decorate the cookies, personalizing them to the customer's liking. She puts them on a stick and in a vase — or in a coffee mug, if there are only three — to make the bouquet. No more than seven cookies will go into a bouquet, and they also can be purchased individually.

For cookies that are shipped, Breuer offers a breakage guarantee that she will send more if they come to your door broken. She has shipped cookies to Texas and Arizona already.

Breuer's daughter, Willow, 8, serves as the business' official taste tester.

"She tells me exactly what I want to hear," Breuer said. "She shoots me straight."

That's because in her world of baking, decorating, smelling and looking at cookies, Breuer needs the relief from eating.

"I'm to the point I've almost had enough," she said.

For more information, contact Breuer at 335-9032 or visit www.angiescookiecreations.com.

*Contact Preston Knight at pknight@nvdaily.com