bake with an empty material(white) and ao on. Do a full bake and you will have ao and shadows in one pass. Assign the texture in another material after the color. BTW: I am uploading a quick and dirty tut now to you tube. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts7sXIzw1X0[/video]
That was fast! Enjoyed it! Gave me even additional hints how to use blender for such tasks! Great job!