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Hey, all! I hope everyone is hanging in there and staying healthy through these very difficult times. For this Spotlight, I'm going to once again highlight an underutilized, but richly informative area of the site: our videos! Since many of us are...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

A couple of months ago, I re-posted my “old” Easter Cookie Box, a tutorial I wrote two years ago. The idea was that the sides of the box would look like a fence that had its vertical planks replaced with Easter cookies. I was surprised to see how much love this box has still...

Brush embroidery is one of those techniques that has so much potential, yet seems to be stuck in a perpetual rut of ruffles, flowers, and beach scenes. It's time we change all of that. For this challenge, I want you to...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Did you ever imagine that something as simple as decorated cookies - a straightforward mixture of sugar, flour, and a few other things - could connect us so powerfully? When I started this site, I certainly had hopes of making cookie friends outside...

These aren’t the cookies I intended to post. I started weeks earlier with a completely different concept. I was excited about the idea and the progress I was making. However, on the final and most risky step, after investing more hours than I’d care to admit, I decided I...

Seeing as this is my last Spotlight before Christmas (more on the Cookie Connection holiday schedule below), I'm just going to say this now in case I miss you on the 25th: MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! May you have a...

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...

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...

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...

Wow! The coming Easter holiday has certainly made you all even more prolific than you usually are! Given the wealth of bunnies and eggs still hitting the home page feeds (they started earlier than St. Patrick's Day), it's remarkable...

Ok, it’s not really that dramatic. But it’s also not a fabulous, perfect tutorial with a happy ending either. Despite the fact that this is one technique that didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, I do want to share what I learned...

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...

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...

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...

If you've been a member of my Stencil of the Month Club or following my stencil journey for the last year or so, then you'll probably remember my Bridal Party Dynamic Duos™ release, which was designed specifically for brides and bridesmaids. Judging from its sales, you guys really liked it, making it a no-brainer to...

Ooh, this is an ultra exciting Spotlight , as (I think) we have five newcomers to our weekly hot list! Special congrats to...

It's that time again - that wonderful moment when you can set aside COVID-worries, social media drama, and the too-often-crazy news of the day and simply focus on cookies - lots of beautiful cookies...

With Memorial Day fast approaching and so many American first responders, healthcare workers, and other heroes to honor for helping us survive this pandemic, it's high time for a patriotic set! While originally designed for...

This cookie swing project has been sitting in my mind for a long time, mostly because I was looking for a way to make it completely food-safe, if not edible. I imagined it as a centerpiece or a cake topper. But I couldn't come up with an easy way to make an edible crossbar and swing chains, so I ultimately resorted to...

Hi, everyone! It's great to be back to the Saturday Spotlight routine after a brief breather for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Though, admittedly, it hardly feels like I had any vacation at all after being back to work for a week . . . it's been a zany one, what with complicated site updates and all!) From the looks of this week's hot list, I can see that, while I was away, everyone...

Vacation is wonderful in so many respects, isn't it? My one last week to the Amalfi Coast not only gave me the opportunity to spend time with my niece and to explore a new place, but it also gave me a newfound appreciation for the stunning work that you all routinely do...

Unbelievable. That is the only word to describe the entries we received for Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #34 - Inside the Box. Cookie creations that are 3-D take an extra level of planning, an extra level of skill, an extra level of patience, and, yes, an extra level of luck to pull off. Despite...

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...

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...

First off, please bear with me . . . I've had perhaps more champagne than I should have had before writing this post. But, hey, I'm entitled . . . it's my 22nd wedding anniversary after all...

Wow! Last month, we had one of the liveliest chats in recent history with Dotty Raleigh of Sugar Dot Cookies, another fabulous CookieCon 2015 instructor. The chat room was buzzing! People came craving solid, practical advice about how to launch...

Now that October is in full swing, it’s time to get crazy with all those Halloween designs that you still have left to do! One way to come up with a truly unique cookie design is to create your own cookie shape. A shape that no one else has in...

Hi, everyone! This month, we’ll be getting to know our May 2020 featured site artist Icingsugarkeks, aka Gabi, a whole lot better! Hurrah! Gabi also happened to be the brainchild and graphic designer behind our current June site art. Gabi would prefer...

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...

Hi, all. In an effort to keep you on your toes, I am once again changing up this week's Saturday Spotlight to focus on another less oft-visited area of the site. Last week, it was the blog, and, this week, it is the...

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...

SURPRISE! I've decided to change things up in this Spotlight! While the photos on this site are always fab, they have a way of overshadowing our equally fabulous blog content. Raise your hand...

Hi, all! Another update on some site changes . . . As you hopefully know by now, our last site upgrade was the Reactions Release, which, about two months ago, replaced our liking feature for clips, blog posts, and other content with many, many more options for reacting. I love the...

Who needs cookies and milk when you can have cookies and beer? I mean, think about it . . . a pairing of a robust stout with a spicy gingerbread cookie . . . How delish! Or a not-too-dark ale with a chocolate chip cookie . . . Or a sweet golden ale to complement the tartness of a cookie with lemon zest . . . Mmmmm, I might just start a new trend (at least among dads, that is)! But beer aside, let's talk a bit about...

My apologies, it's now been more than few weeks since the results of my 2020 cookie art competition at That Takes the Cake Show were announced! But, promptly on the heels of that show came CookieCon and then...

I knew the year 2020 would be one of change and challenge for me personally, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that no one could have predicted where we all would be just three months into the new year. Y'all, I can't deny that my heart is heavy...