Growing up, I was fortunate enough to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. At our house, Hanukkah was always a quiet affair with an understated elegance. As a child, I would have called it “fancy”. Maybe it was the colors, the deep blues and shiny metallics, that made it feel so sophisticated. Maybe it was...
What makes the difference between a cookie aficionado and a cookiepreneur? Profit! Remember we are talking business here, and the bottom line is the bottom line. I am going to dive right into this two-part series. Part I, Creating a Successful...
Deck the (Cookie Connection) halls with boughs of holly! Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! 'Tis the season to be jolly! Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! I just love-love-love-love all the...
Oh my! We went from seasonal ambiguity to full-on Christmas cheer all in one week! Half of the honored cookies on this week's hot list are clearly working double time to get us all in the Christmas spirit, and, I must say, they are succeeding! The other half is...
Many thanks to Gingerland, aka Berni Solti, for once again so generously donating content to the site. She's been a prolific contributor of cookie art for our site banner and backdrop, but, this time, she's gone all out with this adorable guest tutorial! Enjoy! Much gratitude to Berni!...
In this edition of Toolbox Talk, I'm zooming in on another ingredient that can mystify cookiers outside of the United States (US): corn syrup. It is sometimes listed in royal icing recipes, but it is not available all over the world...
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?...
The internet is such a treasure trove of cookie design material. Across all of the different social media platforms, we have an unending stream of art right at our fingertips. Years ago, while scrolling through some images on Pinterest, I came across these beauties...
Despite my love of Halloween cookies, I absolutely hate horror movies. Jump scares send me flying. Zombies give me nightmares. The screaming, the dark, the blood . . . no, thank you. This is all just to say that I can be...
I don’t know about you, but I have faced many challenges in my lifetime, the biggest of which knocked me down so hard I thought I would never survive. Oddly enough, it was through that challenge that I found my true calling and built a small...
I just returned from my first holiday party of the year, and, boy, did it ever put me in the Christmas spirit! (And solidly remind me that I need to get cracking on my decorating!)...
When I used to work in a bakery, I spent most of my days making pastries and pies. It was relatively rare that I was asked to make a wedding cake - thankfully, because I dreaded those occasions...
There is something about painting on a cookie that I can't resist. People say it's a great stress release and outlet for self-expression and creativity. For me, painting is not only a very accessible and enjoyable...
Well, after a very long fall season in St. Louis (my neighbor's golden gingko tree still had all of its leaves until last week), I can officially declare it's winter! I had to don triple layers today to...
Hello, all! I’m Hallena and this is the Fantastic Bakes and Where to Find Them 's first tutorial. I will be showing you how to create your own Kopykake copycat for a fraction of the price. What is a Kopykake? According to the...
Greetings from Chiberia! In case you are wondering what Chiberia looks like, it pretty much looks like...
Ah, summer. When my kids were in grade school, those first few weeks of summer vacation were like paradise. Sleeping in, staying up late, slumber parties, and lazy days - summer was everything they thought they wanted. As the days passed, however, they’d always reach a point when...
What could be more basic than water? On one level, water is so essential that no life would exist without it. And yet, on the other hand, few things are as complex as water. It can be...
This month's tutorial is all about royal icing transfers, which are decorations piped on parchment paper or acetate and then attached to cookies once they are dry . . . but we are not using cookies! Although I like the idea of decorated cookies as place cards, I like less the idea of...
With one of the year's biggest cookie holidays barely behind us, it's already time to get the creative juices flowing for the next big one - Valentine's Day! Phew! The work of the cookier is never done...
Ooh, I just love this time of year on the site, don't you? I mean, who needs visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads when there are so many glorious Christmas cookies dancing across our screens?! Tonight, I'm featuring this week's top ten cookies, but it should come as no surprise that...
Well no one's ordered any autumn cookies from me this year, and I do love a collection of pumpkins and gourds. I always have a few in the window where I work. I particularly love the quirkily shaped, knobbly gourds, both beautiful and funny! Though...
The chalkboard shelf is a popular item among cookie decorators. It is used to display cookies at farmers' markets, during pop-up sales at home, during birthday parties, and so on. Here are a couple of pictures of a real display shelf with cookies, kindly shared with us by...
Hi, everyone! I’m back with our second (and last) installment of Cookier Close-ups featuring our 2017 Cookiers’ Choice Awards winners. A couple of months ago, we spoke with Cookiers of the Year Ginny and Doug Levack of Creative Cookier (here), and now we’re chatting with none other than swissophie (aka Sonja Galmad), our 2017 Cookie Artist of the Year...
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here on Cookie Connection! While most people ramp up for the Christmas season after Thanksgiving, we cookiers have to start planning our cookie sets well in advance of the holiday rush...
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.
Just mention the word "marketing" to a cookie maker, and she'll most likely want to run and hide under a blankie. We all know marketing is really important, and we know we need to do it, but we don't entirely understand what it is or...
This Close-up is special not only because it's with the super fabulous cookier-now-author Lisa Snyder of The Bearfoot Baker, but also because it marks the start of our CookieCon 2015 interview series. Over the next several weeks in the...
Just as we’re supposed to be bundling up in thick sweaters and downy coats, I’ve experienced the run of all possible seasons and weather this week – and not just in my travels from Washington, DC to Stonington, Maine, but in my journey through the site in preparing this Spotlight! Naturally...
Thank you all for participating in the most recent questionnaire in my Sugar Dot Surveys series. In this one, I asked you questions about taking payment for cookie orders. I was curious about how you go about getting paid and why you do it that way...
Hi, everyone! I've got some BIG and EXCITING news. First, some background . . . If you didn't already know, shortly after the conclusion of this year's Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™, my host show in St. Louis closed its doors, just as the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show did the year before. So...
A few months ago, I made a water lily pond cookie set inspired by a couple of real ponds that I saw during a trip. One pond had pink flowers, and the other pond had white ones. That set was my...
Food coloring is arguably the second most important element in cookie decorating after the royal icing itself. The art of choosing colors and/or mixing the exact shade are the subjects of many blog posts...
Cream of tartar is one of the more mysterious yet most common ingredients in baking. It can also be one of the more elusive ones to find in some countries!
Hi, all! I'm back with our "usual" Spotlight after a whirlwind week of triaging the vast amount of CookieCon coverage generated by our talented team of correspondents ! Congrats again to Barb Florin, Beverly Parker, Jen Wagman, and...
Just two or three weeks ago, I was worried that I might have sprung fall cookies on you too soon. But now I'm wondering if I didn't start early enough! Given the abundant crop of autumn-inspired cookies posted to Cookie Connection in recent weeks, I...
Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier each year, doesn't it? And I have no shame about helping it to arrive even sooner with this month's fun and festive holiday sets!...
While many of us are great when we're behind a piping bag (or under the light of a projector), we struggle when it comes to taking photos of our work. Customers often buy with their eyes first, so it's important that we...
The summer of 1989 was one of my favorites. I spent my days with friends by the pool and my nights camping in the backyard. We watched scary movies, giggled about boys, and crimped each others’ hair. And all the while...
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday and is ready to jump right back into cookies! I took a few days off from decorating cookies myself to...
Years ago, I received two mini hot water bottles from my sister. They had plain knitted covers. One of them was red with a white heart on the front, and the other had the same knitted cover with the colors inverted. (They were too cute together for my sister to buy only one of them!) This memory...
As I am nearly on my way out the door for a week of vacation, I decided to bring you this week's Spotlight a day early! And, as turkey day is nearly upon us all (here in the US, that is), there's no more fitting subject matter for this Spotlight than Thanksgiving...
I'm back from Japan - and from the associated jet lag (I think)! Thanks, everyone, for granting me a little reprieve from Spotlights as I tended to my cookie courses. While the classes and whole experience were magical, it is nice to once again feel home turf underfoot and to be...
The last several months leading up to this release have been a lot like the road trip my family took each summer to get to our vacation spot in Maine. Every few minutes, a chorus of kids would ring out from the back seat, asking my Dad, "Are we there yet?!"...
This project is halfway between a cookie platter and a 3-D cookie project. It is once again intended to be a treat to share with friends, with the 3-D mug offering a new and different way to arrange and serve cookies...
What makes something vintage? For me, it has always been more of an "I-know-it-when-I-see-it" kind of thing. But then I got to thinking: what actual qualities of a thing, when put together, make my brain think, "Yes, that's vintage!"? In this 25th "Silver Anniversary Edition" of Practice Bakes Perfect...
The recent Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #21 about lace was the source of my inspiration for this project. Each challenge is a wonderful experience because it focuses participants...
Valentine's Day is just around the corner and what better opportunity to talk about love? In this case, love for a cookie decorating technique: the crackle effect!
The first time I heard about shortening was when an American colleague couldn't find it for a recipe she planned to make for Thanksgiving dinner. When she served sweet potatoes covered with melted marshmallows, I wasn't immediately...
Whether you attended CookieCon this year or simply read about the happenings here on Cookie Connection, cookiers near and far have gone through some form of withdrawal since its ending! This month, I hope to ease the withdrawal symptoms...
