Hi, everyone! I have been back from my Australia teaching trip for a week, and am still catching up on sleep, LOL. Yes, it was a long trip to and fro, but it was worth it - especially to see students and fellow instructors in the flesh after two years of working in isolation. In addition to the long travel, it wasn't...
Just a few days ago, I had the pleasure of touring Stencil Ease, the country's largest manufacturer of household and industrial stencils. Conveniently for me, it's located in Old Saybrook, Connecticut which is mere minutes from my family homestead in Guilford...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Meet my muse for this cookie: my Great Dane, Atlas. Atlas is a giant goofball, literally and figuratively. He jumps like he’s on a pogo stick, he flings slobber to unfathomable heights, and he sleeps folded in half like a pocketknife.
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...
Man, dads always seem to get the short end of the stick when it comes to cookie decorating and gifting. While Mothers' Day cookies started posting here in March and April, and were even spotted as late as last week...
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.
So, as you've probably heard by now, Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™ is going virtual AGAIN in 2022! While I am tremendously saddened that That Takes the Cake (TTTC) Show, the usual host of my usually in-person competition, has cancelled this year's February event in Austin, "the show must go on" as...
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...
If there’s one thing my current trip to my childhood home in Connecticut is teaching me, it’s that I’m way too overreliant on high-speed wifi! I can’t upload photos to my video team without it; I can’t review videos or post them without it; and, worst of all, I can’t post Saturday Spotlights without it...
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...
Considering the thermostat topped 104°F here in St. Louis today, I probably should have entitled this post, "Top 10 (Dog Days of) Summer Cookies"! Even when it gets this hot outside...
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...
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 week, we’re incredibly fortunate to be joined by party designer and cookier extraordinaire Angela Rudy of Oh, Sugar! Events . She’s also one of the lovely ladies who’s headlining at CookieCon in a few weeks. True to my word (at...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Happy Easter to all who celebrate! And what a splendid Easter it is here on Cookie Connection! We've got quite the holiday showing of Easter eggs, bunnies, chicks, flowers, and other springtime themes. Hopefully, you'll find...
Hello and welcome to the recap of Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #50! I must admit that this challenge was by far one of my favorites, as it gave everyone a chance to...
My tutorial for this month is focused on honing piping skills: basketweave, rose buds, and leaves, in particular. All of these things just require practice - and sometimes...
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...
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...
Wow, what fickle people we cookiers are! A couple of days ago, even before Valentine's Day had passed, chicks and spring flowers were beginning to lure us away from hearts, Cupids, and other love-themed sets. Or maybe it was just the sudden cold snap that turned us on to warmer, springier motifs? (It was 6°F here yesterday! Yikes!)...
Even though we're in the midst of the last lazy days of summer, when most of the rest of the world is lollygagging on beaches or in parks, you folks never cease to amaze me...
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...
Many years ago (almost thirty), a friend of mine and his girlfriend found a way to make some money by selling framed sailing knots. The knots, each labelled with its name, were glued onto a nautical chart together with other embellishments like mini anchors and ship wheels...
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...
Too often in recent weeks, I've been posting our Saturday Spotlights on Sundays and using the "better late than never" excuse. Well, not this week! (Let me pause while everyone breathes a big sigh of relief . . .) Thanks to my husband...
Fall (or I should say autumn, as it sounds more like the Italian word "autunno") is one of my favorite seasons. I love the explosion of warm colors on the tree leaves, especially on those sunny days when the sky is crystal-clear and the air is chilly...
This month, we’re fortunate to be chatting with Miki Shibasaki of Atelier Detour, our August site artist, whose charming beach-themed cookies are brightening up our site as we speak. We’ve already learned a bit about Miki in her recent forum introduction...
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...
I was inspired to create these cookies by this odd little thing (below). Doesn't look like much, does it? But it's the most exciting thing I've seen in my garden for years! It's a tiny flower bud on my wisteria...
Okay, so it's still Friday, but better early than never, as they say. Okay, maybe no one on this planet has ever used that expression before, but I'm taking the liberty with this Spotlight...
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...
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...
Hi, everyone and, in particular, my wonderful Stencil of the Month Club members and stencil customers over time. In case you missed my big announcement in my March 2022 stencil release post, I wanted to repeat it here in plainer view so everyone sees it. So, without further ado, here it is . . .
Woo hoo! It's the official start of the sponsorship drive for my second virtual edition of Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™! The competition is one of the industry’s most recognized ways of highlighting and honoring cookie talent. It’s also a great opportunity for cookie businesses to...
A few years back I shared a Cookie Connection tutorial featuring hot water bottle cookies with cable-knit covers. Actually, given their size, I named them hand warmers. Later on, I decorated cookies of the same shape with...
Déjà vu?! Yep! As you may know, the 2021 virtual edition of Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™ just concluded and it’s already returning to its usual in-person format at That Takes the Cake (TTTC) Show on February 26/27, 2022 in Round Rock, Texas. I am...
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...
Hi, everyone! I am starting this Spotlight in an unconventional way with a special mention and an explanation. Many of you have been wondering why a certain fabulous dragon cake (pictured below) has been in our "Top 10 Cookies" home page photo gallery, often in the...
As a cookier who has spent hundreds of hours piping thousands of lines, it was only inevitable that a Practice Bakes Perfect stringwork challenge would eventually happen. This challenge is all 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...
While digging in my memories for inspiration, hiking came up as the theme for this Father's Day cookie tutorial. I envisioned a landscape in the morning at the beginning of a hike, surrounded by a rock...
