FORT MORGAN — From the kitchen of his Fort Morgan home, Hugh Harmon and his partner, Brittney Hatcher, run a digital decorator that produces delicious results.

Hatcher said their inspiration behind Blue Crab Cookie Lab traces back to Shayna Turner, owner of Bash Bestie, an event design group based in Gulf Shores, who they are good friends with.

"She does all the balloons and I'm like, 'Oh my God, that was so smart. We need a little niche that somebody's not doing around here,'" Hatcher said.

That led to them to sign up for cookie-making classes, which taught them the ways of baking and decorating cookies. Harmon, a retired Army veteran, got really into it and started looking into the technology aspect of cookie making, They purchased an Eddie printer, a food-safe printer that allows them to print any image on a cookie in a matter of seconds.

"We like to hand-decorate cookies also. It just takes a lot more time," Harmon said.

Every morning, they bake around 10 dozen cookies and let them cool completely before icing each one by hand and letting them dry for at least 12 hours. Then they begin printing an image on the cookie through the Eddie printer. Each cookie is packaged individually after drying overnight.

Their cookies can be tailored for any occasion, including birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and events for businesses and organizations.
They can also make different shaped cookies by producing cookie cutters using a 3D printer located in the bedroom of Harmon's house. They can print out several shapes, from something simple like circles and squares to more elaborate shapes like a heart, a train, the outline of a house, numbers or even a cowboy boot.

Their original cookie is vanilla-almond flavor with royal icing, but they are starting to try other flavors such as lemon and are thinking about branching out even more into raspberry to give customers more variety.

Having launched in May and running on a cottage food certification, they hand-deliver cookies in Baldwin and Mobile counties, selling through Facebook and word of mouth. The couple has estimated that they have made more than 75 dozen cookies since they started, with some of their customers including local realtors, Airbnb hosts and FedEx Freight in Mobile.

"I didn't think it would grow this quickly," Harmon said. "I thought maybe, you know, as much effort as we put into it we would see the results of, and we've been working really hard. I didn't realize how hard it is to make a good cookie. That's something that I take pride in is our cookies taste good. Not only do they look good, but they taste good. That's a really important thing I think."

Blue Crab Cookie Lab can be contacted by email at bluecrabcookielab@gmail.com and by phone at (251) 324-9396.