As a cookier who is somewhat partial to royal icing stringwork, I must admit that I was really looking forward to seeing what type of designs our Cookie Connection members would come up with for Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #44. And after seeing all of the entries, I have to say that I was...
This is not my first project with cookie spools. The first one, back in 2017, was my entry for Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #21 (the bimonthly challenge series organized by Bakerloo Station here on Cookie Connection). On that occasion, I learned to...
This year's 3-D Christmas tree cookie was inspired by a project that my kids made in elementary school: a Christmas tree composed of stacked cardboard tubes (like those inside rolls of paper towels), all stapled together. Here, I made thick cookie rings and baked them close together so they would fuse into a sturdy structure. I then...
Halloween is my favorite cookie holiday. There are so many fun themes to use; I feel like I’ll never run out of Halloween ideas. Designs can go in a million different directions too...
Hi, everyone! Thanks so much for the brief reprieve from the Spotlight over the last two weekends. Having a week off did me a world of good! I can finally think clearly enough to resume my cookie work! I sincerely hope you...
Creating dimensional royal icing designs on my cookies is one of my favourite techniques. I especially love the more complex designs that make cookies a thrilling challenge.
It's spring! It's really taken its time, and I'm sorry to those of you who are still feeling chilly (and those who are heading into autumn!), but we've finally had some warm sunny days here and I'm in the mood for blossoms!...
It's funny how there often seems to be a space for a little honeybee or two on my cookies, and on occasion I've made a honeycomb for them to sit on. In this two-part tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a honeycomb cookie...
While contemplating paths in the cookie world, a Cookie Connection member recently commented in one of our forums about the seemingly endless choices for cookie expression. Should she blog? Expand her for-profit cookie business? Teach classes?...
Hi, everyone ! Today we travel virtually all the way to Tokyo, Japan to meet Noriko Forster aka mintlemonade (cookie crumbs), the featured guest of this Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #56. Noriko is best known in Japan as...
We are in full Thanksgiving mode at my house. There will only be a small gathering this year but I am still pulling out all the stops. The bird, the sides, and, of course, all of the sweets! I like to do...
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in my Kitchen Club! This month’s release, simply called my Holiday Snow Globe kit, shakes up the traditional snow globe cookie (pun fully intended) with some very festive designs...
I may have mentioned once or twice that Halloween cookies are my favorite. I pretty much wait all year for that one month. But it’s peak summer right now - time for sun and seashells, not ghosts and ghouls. So...
In my last tutorial, I lauded rice paper as an incredibly versatile medium and listed off some of the different ways I've put it to use. Here, I have yet another example for you. This jellyfish design plays to...
Hi, everyone, and welcome to a new Watch-Learn-Create challenge! In this 53rd challenge, our featured guest Laura Saporiti shares all of the tools, techniques, and tips needed to paint watercolor florals on fondant...
I am celebrating winter with a 3-D winter wonderland tree cookie, and I hope you'll come celebrate with me! This 3-D project doesn’t require any icing "glue" to stand, so it's more like a 3-D cookie platter. The concept behind its construction is similar to that of mug-hugger cookies, which are . . .
When I was younger, my sister and I used to scramble to grab the newspaper to read our horoscopes. I’m a Virgo. My horoscope was always predictably mundane - “Today you will clean the house . . .” or something equally boring. The symbol for my zodiac sign is a...
My mother recently installed some lattices on her terrace and, with that image in mind, I immediately envisioned a Mother’s Day cookie project: a lattice cookie decorated with royal icing flower transfers. The transfers for this project are a...
I've always worked hard to hide the seams of my past 3-D cookie constructions by mitering the edges, or by mitering and then covering the edges with royal icing. My goal was to...
When I was a small child, we had a family friend who was very old and well-travelled. I loved to visit her house because she kept a display of souvenirs from the various countries she’d visited. There were...
Styles and designs in the cookie world are constantly evolving, and it seems as though there are always new techniques and trends to capture our attention. At the same time, there are the "classics"...
At long last, we’re picking up where we left off in our June 27 (!) chat with Cookie Connection challenge host Sweet Prodigy, aka Christine Dutcher! In addition to organizing and recapping our bimonthly Practice Bakes Perfect challenges, Christine is a precision-piper extraordinaire, best known for her...
My son is getting ready to head off to his freshman year of college, and our talks lately have centered around his future life of independence. The other day, he sat at the kitchen counter daydreaming aloud about...
A felt letter board is the inspiration for this short and easy tutorial. From humble beginnings as vintage signs, letter boards with quotes have become very popular elements of...
Like everyone else, we’ve been cooped up inside for some time now, feeling anxious due to the uncertainty of recent events. The view from my front window, however, remains largely unchanged...
I’ve always had a love of blue and white china. The patterns are classically beautiful but with a striking contrast that makes me want to look closer. Recently, I came across this blue and white dinner plate. With its large-scale flowers, it felt like a...
Happy holidays! I hope everyone has been having a festive, or even restful, couple of weeks. And if you've had more than your fill of quality time with aunts, uncles, and cousins, just sneak away to...
Judging by the number of entries we had for this Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge, I would say that many of you spent more time in your kitchens than at the beach this summer! We had a whopping 55 (!!!!) entries for this challenge...
Most of my cookie projects are inspired by my memories, and so is this one, inspired as it is by some beach huts I saw in La Mer, Dubai (UAE), a beachfront with restaurants, shops, activities for children, and more. It was...
Easter is just around the corner, so I thought I’d make a chocolate Easter bunny cookie (or an egg with a pair of ears, in actuality)! This project is super easy, as it's done simply by combining basic cookie cutter shapes and decorating techniques. We'll use egg cutters to make the bunny's face and ears, and then we'll...
Ho, ho, ho! How are everyone's holidays going?! I must say I am busy and joyful. Although, honestly, right now, I am mostly very busy, and waiting for a little downtime for more of the joyful to kick in. Which, brings me to my first point...
Hi, everyone! I'll cut to the chase . . . After much long and very hard deliberation, I've decided to shutter the Cookiers' Choice Awards, at least for the foreseeable future. For five amazing years, we've celebrated the incredible cookie contributions of our community through this awards program...
Wow! Wow! Wow! That's the best way to describe this year's Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show (OSSAS)! From start to finish, the show was full of surprises! Heck, it was surprising even before it got started...
I’m really terrible at piping people. I give them a try every once in a while when I’m inspired by some tutorial or image, but my people never look right. Their eyes might be uneven, their noses too large, or their hands so full of fingers that they look...
Icing sugar lies at the base of cookie decorating, be it with royal icing or glaze or buttercream. It was through Cookie Connection host Julia Usher’s comments about her teaching experiences in other countries that I realised that icing sugar isn’t the same all over the world...
Welcome to the latest Practice Bakes Perfect challenge! This time around we are going to work on a specific, and very versatile and useful technique - stenciling. And, I must confess, this challenge is challenging for ME!
Hi, all! Usually I put admin posts like this in the forums, but to ensure that this post gets maximum visibility, I'm putting it front and center on the blog! As you may know, we had a large site upgrade last week, dubbed "The Recipe Release" by my site guys at Hoop.la...
I know, I know, you've all been waiting with bated breath for this announcement! Yes, the nominations for the 2015 Cookiers' Choice Awards have been cast and tallied! Hurrah!
Hello, and welcome to the latest installment of Practice Bakes Perfect! This time, we are reaching, once again, into our big bag of "cookie Kryptonite," and asking you to face your decorating demons. What fresh hell could I possibly have in store for...
I'm sad to announce that this will be my final blog post as a tutorial contributor on Cookie Connection. I've got some personal matters that need my undivided attention and therefore I've decided to take a break from...
I was able to meet Katy Metoyer of Sugar Dayne at CookieCon 2014 and have been following her ever since. Over the last few months, I have noticed a shift in her decorating. Her style has become more expressive and free, filled with bright colors...
Well, in case you hadn't noticed, it's 2015, and that means I've almost completed a year's worth of these tutorials! So to celebrate, I'm going to do things a little differently today. You might notice there aren't many photos . . . that's...
[EDITOR'S NOTE: It is with hugely mixed feelings that I announce that this post will be the last in our beloved Dear Yankee Girl series. I'm sad, because Kari is just about the best tutorial writer I could have ever imagined, so she will be greatly missed! (A gross understatement.) But I am happy, because Kari wanted to clear the decks to pursue some new and different things - which, knowing Kari, can only be great stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing where she takes her cookie...
Thank you for this opportunity to share a fun Christmas gingerbread collaboration project. For me, it started when I found the cookie community, nearly a year ago now, and just fell in love! I loved the art, the clear camaraderie of everyone blogging...
It's the start of crunch time for me (and many others, I'm sure)! There are a lot of cookies to be made and mailed, and a limited time to complete them. I feel like a...
It really seems as though the top-trending cookies on this site are aligning perfectly with the feeling in my community. I noticed an increased number of Day of the Dead celebrations (my goodness, those decorations are beautiful!) and now...
At long last, we’re catching up in depth with our wonderful July 2023 site artist Lori Todhunter, aka Cookies on Cambridge. (Aside: I always love finding out the real names behind cookies names, don’t you?! They seem so much more personal to me.) As we learned in...
This month, I have a fun and super easy summer project that relies on basic wet-on-wet decorating (wet icing applied to wet icing) and 3-D cookie construction techniques. The end result will be a cute...
Like so many others, I’m smitten with the golden and crimson hues of autumn leaves. But they shouldn’t get all the love. On close inspection, the leaves of each season have their own unique beauty...
Whether for a belated Valentine's Day celebration or any other day of the year, my February 2022 Dynamic Duos™ release is the perfect way to tell your loved one (or secret crush) that you care! With charming clover and bee background designs and messages such as...
