With a mere four days to go to my favorite cookie decorating holiday, my second sweet Valentine's Day Spotlight, promised over three weeks ago, is long overdue - but well worth the wait! Without further ado, here you have it: the hottest...
Day 7 (February 9), 8:00 am. Hmmm . . . I'm a little less spritely than yesterday when the alarm sounds off this morning. I chalk it up to the extra concentration required to teach without being conversant in the classroom's language. All of my...
Day 6 (February 8), 8:00 am. My iPhone alarm sounds off a full two hours later than usual, and I'm showing none of my typical hit-the-pause-button-and-roll-over predispositions. We were so organized at the conclusion of yesterday's class...
Day 5 (February 7), 6:00 am. iPhone alarm sounds off, but there's no point to re-setting it as I "slept" fitfully all night and, though exhausted, I'm strangely wide awake. The pent-up enthusiasm about the start of today's classes is the clear...
The diary of my Barcelona trip continues . . . Day 3 (February 5), 8:00 am. iPhone alarm sounds off. I reset it for 8:30 am, roll back into bed, and promptly fall back to sleep. Day 3 (February 5), 8:30 am. iPhone alarm...
WARNING: What you are about to read (a daily - or thereabouts - travelogue documenting my cookie teaching trip to Spain and Portugal) may be TMI for many of you. But for those contemplating similar trips, I hope it will serve as a healthy dose of...
This week, our CookieCon 2014 series continues with the talented and oh-so-entrepreneurial Susan Schmitt of The Painted Cookie. As it turns out, Susan harks from Wilton, Connecticut, not far from my...
Maybe it's my non-stop cookie decorating of the past week. Or the fact that all of the projects I'm doing are ones I've done before . . . Or the sheer quantity of cookies (about 3,000) that have passed before my eyes, hundreds of which are the EXACT...
[EDITOR'S NOTE: It takes a small community to keep a large community like Cookie Connection alive with content, which is why I'm so completely thrilled to be adding another regular contributor to the site. I'm sure many of you already know our newest featured blogger - Kari Arroyo aka Yankee Girl Yummies - for her amazing cookie work posted here on Cookie Connectio n and elsewhere online. She's a top-flight decorator with a strong grasp of many techniques and an amazing...
I don't know about you, but Valentine's Day has got to be my all-time favorite cookie decorating holiday. The very shape of a heart allows for so much design versatility, and there's no shortage of pithy puns ("Bee mine", "I love ewe", "My...
We’re back again with another amazing CookieCon 2014 instructor – Anne Yorks of Flour Box Bakery! I first stumbled upon Anne’s cookies about two years ago – and then promptly fell head over my gaping-to-the-floor...
Say hello to our new site sponsor, Mama & Madison , maker of lovely custom aprons with a definitive retro flair! They're perfect for CookieCon 's Blinged Out Apron Contest or milling about CookieCon and other baking events in style. Heck, they're even great for those stay-at-home decorating days when your sweats are taking a few much-needed cycles through the wash! As our luck would have it, Tracie Esposito, owner and chief apron-maker of Mama & Madison, has very...
I promise to make this post a pithy one. Considering how patiently you've been waiting for these results, it's the least I can do! First and foremost, thanks again to the team at BRP Box Shop - namely Kip Simpson, Connie Davis, and...
This month, we begin the first in our series of Cookier Closeups focused on the oh-so-talented presenters at CookieCon. Over the next few weeks leading up to CookieCon, and possibly some to follow, I aim to interview all seven of these lovely ladies!...
So it seems choosing Best Cookie of 2013 was tantamount to asking, "Who's more talented, Picasso or Monet?"!! All of the 39 finalists' cookies were remarkable in their artistry, each just in a different way. And, yes, as predicted, the popular...
