Blog: Trending Over Last 24 Hours

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...

Well, I wouldn't have guessed it, but after a week of being on vacation with nary a cookie in sight, I was overjoyed to return to work (aka  Cookie Connection ) on Wednesday, and to be inundated with all of your fabulous creations! I couldn't...

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...

With Mothers' Day just around the corner here in the US, it seems only fitting to highlight the top-trenders in this clip category tonight! And because we all know moms everywhere...

Hi, all! Happy fall! We're in that inexplicably odd time zone where people tend to jump from Halloween cookies right into Christmas ones, forgetting about that wonderful Thanksgiving holiday that falls in between! Fortunately for us...

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...

It may be very late on Saturday (or maybe it's Sunday already?), but I'm baaaacck, nearly on time, with another wonderful hot list full of festive fall vibes. (Say that three times fast!) As with last week, tonight's roundup features everything autumn...

Even after I finished the cutwork lace cookies showcased in my previous tutorial, that embroidery technique kept developing in my mind. In fact, it developed to the point of this project...

Years ago, my husband and I decided to bring in a sofa that we’d been storing in our garage. After lugging in the unwieldy piece of furniture, we plopped down on it in triumph. I turned to look at my husband, and my smile melted into horror. Perched on his neck was a...

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...

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!)...

We're still three weeks away from trick-or-treaters descending on Webster Groves (my little Midwest suburb), and only a few of my neighbors' homes have taken on their usual spooky garb for Halloween, but you Cookie Connection cookiers are no slackers...

The cookie season is kind of relentless, isn't it? I mean, no sooner do Christmas and New Year's pass than we're dusting off our heart cutters and cranking the ovens and mixers in prep for Valentine's Day sets...

I love flowers of all kinds, but I have a special fondness for flowers that look a little unique. The coneflower, with its spiky, vibrantly colored seed cone and skirt of purple petals, definitely fits the bill. Apparently, bees are just as partial to them as I am, so...

When we last spoke in a Close-up with our February site artist, Evelin Milanesi, it was August 2014 and she had only been decorating cookies for two years, yet she was on the cusp of heading to Genoa, Italy for Cookie’sCool, the first international cookie decorating convention. Those event organizers had...

With winter now in full effect, I've been thrilled to catch a rare glimpse of snow on the far hills across the valley. Snow angels are an iconic and joyful celebration of the winter season. I imagine happy children thrashing in...

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...

Thank you all for participating in the first-ever survey of Sugar Dot Surveys! I wanted to find out what (if anything) you use to speed-dry your icing, and how you use those tools and why. You sure did come through. Those who participated range from...

It's "cookie kryptonite" time again here in Practice Bakes Perfect land! Since it is either spring or fall for you, depending on your hemisphere, now is the perfect time to wrestle with the ever-changing temperature and humidity conditions that play such a critical role in executing wet-on-wet cookie designs...

Not to be confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is two-day celebration spanning September 15 and 16, Cinco de Mayo actually commemorates the Mexican Army's win over the French Empire in the 1862 Battle of Puebla. But over time, here in the US anyway...

Hey, gang! This week, we've got a great assortment of top-trending fall cookies as well as Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #51 entries in our Spotlight. Speaking of the challenge...

First, thanks to everyone who watched judge Laura Saporiti and me live on Facebook on July 25! You all had some great questions about my cookie art competition. If you missed the live, don't fret! You can . . .

These delicate floral Easter cookies were inspired by a lovely (free!) vintage graphic from an old greeting card. The image depicts a cluster of daisies forming an egg shape, framed by a spray of dark greenery. I was immediately...

'Tis the season for cookies! We have SOOO many festive Christmas cookies flooding the site right now that, even if you've just glanced at the home page photo feeds, there's no way they won't put you in the holiday spirit. Kudos to all who have been posting this delightful work - keep it up, please...

There are so many reasons to love sunflowers. Their cheerful, sunny yellow petals always brighten my mood, and their late-summer blooms are a welcome reminder that autumn is just around the corner. But perhaps the best thing about sunflowers is...

Congrats to this week's honorees! Most are still-high-trending Easter cookies, though a smattering of springtime and Mother's Day-themed cookies also registers among the hot list. Special kudos to...

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...

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...

My mini-vacay in the Big Apple last weekend was just what I needed to recharge. Escaping the treadmill of daily life (and the confines of my basement work kitchen!) opened me up to sights and sounds I hadn't experienced in quite a while...

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...

The sun is shining; the birds are singing; it’s a warm, wonderful spring that's quickly turning into summer. It's a time for new beginnings! I’ve missed all things cookie while I’ve been away, and so it’s with great pleasure that I...

Well, it seems like we've finally emerged from winter here in St. Louis. Temperatures dropped below freezing only a couple of nights this week, my newly planted perennials didn't seem to object to the light frost on their leaves, and...

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...

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...

Halloween is quickly approaching, so it's time to get planning for it! The big question is . . . do you have the coolest, most scary costume of the night picked out? And what about your Halloween cookies? They...

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...

By now, I'm sure everyone's ovens are cranked into high gear, what with Christmas just around the corner. But before you get all of your cookies safely stowed on cooling racks, I urge you to stop and smell what's been baking here on Cookie Connection ...

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...

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?...

Fellow cookiepreneurs, the holidays are upon us, and I hope this month’s post finds you in high spirits and looking forward to the coming days. Before I begin, I wanted to share that I recently received feedback that some of you would be...

OK, gang, with Halloween now behind us, it's time to ditch the witches, ghouls, and sugar skulls (my, were those skulls ever popular this year!) and make way for more Thanksgiving-y things. Think leaves, acorns, turkeys, drumsticks, green bean...

Cookie blogs. They come in all shapes, sizes, and readership. They contain wonderful information on everything “cookie” and give you a peek into another cookier’s world. For me, however, there is just one hiccup with blogs: I...

High on spice yet relatively delicate in texture, this dough is perfect for 2-D cookies and small-scale 3-D construction projects, like my sandwiched baskets and Fabergé egg cookies shown in the attachments. It also spreads less than my...

Hello, all! I'm on vacation this week through next Sunday, so I'm going to keep this post short and sweet - and I mean that! Without further ado (I told you so), I present the cookies that topped our hot list this week. They include...

I wasn’t trying to pick favorites when I made a cookie inspired by one of my dogs. But ever since, my daughter has been campaigning for our cat to get a cookie of his own. I’m not surprised; they have always had a special bond. We’ve had our cat since my daughter was little, and they’ve been an inseparable pair. While the décor in her room...

Aha! I'm back for the second Spotlight in two weeks! That must be a recent record! I wish I could say things have settled down, but as soon as my new site launched, I kicked into high gear with video production for my new stencil-cutter-video kits (coming in mid-September) and prep for the debut of Challenge #51 in our new Watch-Learn-Create series hosted by Manu. Speaking of that challenge, it...

This month, we reunite with Ryoko Hayashi (aka Ryoko ~Cookie Ave.), our March 2022 site artist and longtime contributor to Cookie Connection and our Practice Bakes Perfect challenges. Ryoko, who hails from Fukuoka, Japan, joined Cookie Connection in June 2015 and, since then, has...