SANTA ANA — Nellie Carlen is always looking for an edge that will turn a corporate gift into something special. And, increasingly, she said, customized gift baskets provide that extra something.

"If a client likes golf, I'll make that the theme for the basket," said Carlen, who buys hundreds of corporate gifts each year for ISS Building Maintenance Inc., a Santa Ana-based janitorial firm. "I might add golf club covers, chocolate golf balls, a mug with a golf design and a nice golf shirt."

The idea of putting gifts into a basket is as old as legend.

"Everyone knows what Little Red Riding Hood took along when she visited Grandma," said Wally August, co-owner of FanciFull, a gift store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. "What's different now is how we package the gifts and what we put inside. The stereotype used to be booze in a basket or fruit tied up in a bow."

FanciFull, which caters largely to corporate clients in Hollywood, recently forwarded a six-foot coffin stuffed with gourmet goodies to the set of "Interview With the Vampire." A few years ago it sent violin cases stuffed with edibles to a crew working on "Godfather III."

Magazines aimed at entrepreneurs have targeted gift baskets as "one of the hottest businesses to launch in the 1990s," according to Liz Skelton, editor of Gift Basket Review, a trade magazine in Jacksonville, Fla.

Hard sales data is difficult to gather because the industry includes thousands of mom and pop operators. But Gift Basket Review estimates nationwide annual sales of about $700 million. Holiday orders accounted for more than half of annual sales for a third of respondents to a recent Gift Basket Review survey.

*

The magazine said corporate gift orders are the top sales growth category for the basket industry.

Corporate gift-givers prefer baskets because they're "safe gifts," said Howard Gorman, a Tustin-based gourmet confections broker who sells products to basket packagers. "You don't have to know someone's shoe size . . . and you usually can't go wrong with candy, wines, coffees and confections."

Lori Foster, owner of San Francisco-based Gifts A La Carte, caters almost exclusively to corporate clients. Though Foster wants to tempt taste buds with unique pastries, wines and candies, she takes care not to stray too far from the center and risk alienating gift recipients. "We have to exercise caution," Foster said. "We don't include unusual dressings, mustards or oils because that's not safe."