Holiday baking is a much-loved tradition, but most of us limit ourselves to making just a few dozen cookies for family and friends. Not so with the Lawrenceville cookie lady, a k a Bernadette Ogurchak.

Hers are the talented hands behind the city neighborhood's annual cookie tour. Mrs. Ogurchak and her helpers will have baked close to 11,000 sample-sized treats when all is said and done. That's on top of her regular baking duties at Heaven's Scent Pastries, the gourmet bake shop she opened two months ago at 2205 Ardmore Blvd., Forest Hills (412-271-1303). Oh, and did we mention she's also the chef at St. Maurice Roman Catholic Church just down the street?

Starting a new business is often a young person's game. Yet Mrs. Ogurchak, who graduated from Pennsylvania Culinary in 1992, made that leap relatively late in life. Last year, the North Versailles native and her twin brother, Bernard, turned 60. He celebrated by retiring. She marked the event by (finally!) making good on a lifelong dream to bake for a living.

"I thought, 'If it's not now, I'm never going to do it,'" she says with a laugh.

Mrs. Ogurchak's love for all things pastry-related grew out of helping her mother, Alice, who worked at Nill's Bakery in the Great Valley Shopping Center in North Versailles, in the kitchen; she gave her daughter a cake decorating kit when she was 12 "and I've been baking ever since," she says.

Nill's has long since closed its doors. But its memory, as well as that of her mother, lives on in the fluffy Sunshine Orange Chiffon Cake she offers at the bakery (Nill's recipe) alongside Heaven's Scent's signature scones, specialty cakes, gourmet pies and a wonderful rhubarb shortcake cookie. And like her mom, she's passed the torch to a new generation. Daughter Alissa, who got her first cake decorating set at age 2, helps out at the shop.

"I love it," says Mrs. Ogurchak. "The people here have welcomed us with open arms."