An online bakery owner claims she has created Britain’s biggest cookie, weighing in at more than half a pound.
The sweet treat weighs 240 grams (8.4 ounces) and is 20 times the size of a standard Maryland Cookie — a brand name produced by Burton’s Biscuit Company in the United Kingdom.
Katie Lester, 31, who makes the delicious delights, has already gone viral just two months after launching her bakery business: Katie’s Big Bakes.
The extra big biscuits are so popular she is being inundated with hundreds of requests for orders- with one woman from America even offering to pay for her recipe.
Each week, Lester sells out her stock within two days, and one of her TikTok videos – of her pouring chocolate over a cookie- has received 1.9 million views.
The cookies cost 4 British pounds (4.80 dollars) each and are sold for 16 pounds (19 dollars) for a pack of four or 24 pounds (29 dollars) for a pack of six.
Fans can currently buy red velvet, milk chocolate, white chocolate, triple chocolate, and caramel cookies, stuffed with chocolate fillings.
Dessert-lovers can even fork out 34 pounds (41 dollars) for a cake tub including a caramel box and brownies.
Lester runs the online business from home in Whitfield, near Dover, Kent, in England’s south-west.
She said: “I did research beforehand and looked up cookies to see how big they are.
“I just searched for the UK’s biggest and found out that cookies average 90 grams with some being as big as 150 grams. The next biggest one was around 230 grams which is 10 grams less than mine.”
She has always had a passion for baking since she learned the skill as a child with her grandmother.
She would always manage to fit in time for it around her old job as an HR manager for Dover Council but didn’t realize she was so good until a pal told her she should go on Bake Off.
Lester added: “People have said to me over the years “you should sell those cookies!”
“I just thought they were being nice and I never thought about it much.
“During lockdowns I would bake more and bake cookies for the weekends as a treat.
“Someone said to me “you are really good, you should go on Bake Off,” which is not something someone would say lightly so I thought “maybe I am actually good.”
“I thought “actually what do I like?”
“I am a greedy person and when I used to bake, my husband and I would finish them all, we would eat so much.
“I wanted to cater to people who like lots of sweet stuff like me and I wanted to give people a large portion.
“I would not like to guess how many calories are in it. It would be so many but the cookies are worth it!”
She said that just a few weeks before she launched the business on April 25, her oven broke down but she now has a better one which can measure temperatures more accurately so the sweet treats turn out exactly right.
Since it launched, her cookie business has gone from strength to strength.
She makes around 20 boxes of cookies each week which sell out within two days and can’t yet meet the demands of the desserts’ swelling numbers of fans, who make hundreds of requests each week.
She said: “Business is going really well. I am actually shocked at how well it is going.
“TikTok has been wild. A video of me pouring chocolate on one of my cookies has got 1.9 million views.”
When popular cake brand Betty Crocker commented on one of her posts saying ‘omg yes pleaseee,’ she said she “nearly had a heart attack.”
She added: “When I started the business I knew friends and family would buy them but I have been selling to people in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
“I had worried that it wouldn’t do well, especially with the cost of living getting worse but it’s actually going really well.
“People keep messaging me saying ‘when are you re-stocking?’ but I am trying to get orders out.
“I had to stay up baking all night last week.
“I even had a woman from the USA asking for my recipe. She said she could not get her cookies right and said she would pay for the recipe.
“I said no because it defeats the point.
“This week we had more than 20 orders.
“I don’t want to keep people waiting for ages and I would not want to be waiting for ages.
“I am trying to increase the demand I can cater for.
“I have got hundreds of people messaging me and some are saying ‘when are you re-stocking, I need them ASAP!
“I would love to expand.
“If you don’t try, you never know. You have to follow your dreams.”
If the business continues its run of success she would like to set up a stall or convert her garage into a shop- but her dream is to one day have a shop in Canterbury, Kent.
Produced in association with SWNS.
