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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...

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...

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...

My husband’s birthday is coming up, and I know exactly what he wants. He’d love for us to take scuba diving lessons together. I can understand the appeal. Who doesn’t enjoy underwater landscapes and interesting sea creatures? There’s only one problem...

Upcoming Mother’s Day and orchids are the inspiration for this month's tutorial design. It couldn’t be any other flower, as I am currently living in Thailand where orchids are everywhere, in every color and in every shape. In fact...

First, my apologies (especially to Timea) for getting seriously behind on these Close-ups! My 3-D cookie competition planning and some personal distractions (mostly my home renovation) have left me with little time for anything else! But onward – this interview with...

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...

Hello, my intrepid cookie peeps! Welcome to Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #33. This challenge comes to you thanks to a suggestion by the winner of our last Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge - Talia! Inspired by Sonja Galmad's entry to Challenge #32, Talia suggested that we...

I love to take inspiration for my cookie designs from nature. There’s an imperfect quality to organic objects that I find very forgiving; things don’t have to be perfectly straight, smooth, or symmetrical. So I try to...

Hi, all! As I will be away next week on my first (and only) vacation of the year and will be trying desperately not to work, I wanted to alert you early to three upcoming stencil sales...

I love the idea of stained glass cookies; the shine and transparency are so striking and delicate. I’m not too crazy about any of the mediums I’ve used for the effect, however. I tried...

Halloween is my favorite cookie holiday. There are so many fun themes to use; I feel like I’ll never run out of Halloween ideas. Designs can go in a million different directions too...

The early bird gets the worm, as they say - or that's my hope anyway! :) Between our live chat tomorrow with @Anne Yorks (10 am central, don't forget!) and my ongoing prep for shows and classes, I have a...

I bet you're thinking, "EEK! How is it possible we're already talking about Halloween cookies?! Wasn't it just January?!" Yes, fall cookie deadlines are definitely creeping up on us, but please put aside any fear...

When I was a little girl, every morning my sister and I would hop into my mother’s bed. We would sit there beneath her cozy comforter and eagerly wait for her to return. After what felt like an interminable amount of time...

While this Easter cookie box may look complex, it is actually quite easy to decorate and assemble, and a very manageable project for beginners. Imagine each side built as a fence with two vertical planks nailed onto two parallel horizontal planks. In this case...

Wow! We're almost to the end of another wonderful year on Cookie Connection. Imagine me cracking open a bottle of bubbly and giving you all a virtual toast, because that's exactly what I'm doing...

The initial idea for this project came while sketching Christmas trees on paper. The triangular shapes soon became a pyramid, which reminded me of the playing card towers I used to build as a child...

I love lanterns, their warm light, and the ambiance they create in every season, both inside and outside the house. And so, for this tutorial, I decided to create a 3-D cookie version...

Hi, all! I’m back this month with another round of our CookieCon 2017 instructor interview series. Today, we’re joined by the talented Teri Lewis of tweets…cookie connection, who, back in March, wowed CookieCon-goers...

After deliberating and deliberating and then deliberating some more, our esteemed panel of judges has finally reached a verdict in our 2016 Cookiers' Choice Awards! Before I reveal the winners, let me just say...

Well, hello, sweet peeps! I have a great challenge in store for you this time. Our subject is lace, and with so many "lacy" holidays coming up - Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter - I am looking forward to...

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...

Hello, my name is Violet, and I love making needlepoint (aka cross stitch) pattern cookies. What you are looking at here is a large (8-inch) heart cookie decorated with a needlepoint rose pattern - my first cookie of this magnitude...

Well, well, the day has finally come! After nearly a year in discussion, design, and development with my new partner Stencil Ease, I'm thrilled to announce the official launch of my new Prettier Plaques stencil series...

November has finally come! The days are shorter, and sometimes cloudy, and the air is colder . . . but the trees put themselves to bed for the long sleep of winter, delighting us with their gorgeous, vibrant leaves.

Icing sugar lies at the base of cookie decorating, be it with royal icing or glaze or buttercream. It was through Cookie Connection host Julia Usher’s comments about her teaching experiences in other countries that I realised that icing sugar isn’t the same all over the world...

Hi, everyone! As Bakerloo Station mentioned in today's Practice Bakes Perfect challenge recap, we unfortunately had to delete an entry from the challenge due to lack of compliance with our "no copying copyrighted work without permission rule" (which mirrors US copyright law)...

Ta da! I’m back – with another Cookier Close-up! This time, it’s with Noriko Forster, who goes by two cookie names on the internet - mintlemonade and Cookie Crumbs!

I might as well have entitled this post "Dads Want Cookies Too!", because judging from the sheer number of Fathers' Day cookies posted to this site, Dads have been getting the short end of the cookie stick.

As I said on our Contributors page, it takes a small community to keep a large community like Cookie Connection going . . . but what I really should have said is: it takes a small (and ever-growing) community of passionate, talented, and tireless volunteers to keep it going!

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!

Okay, so this isn't my characteristic Saturday Spotlight, but I think it's an important one. So listen up, pleeeeze! As you may already know from all the internet buzz, August is Bake to Defeat ALS month not just in the cookie...

I love summer. And I love flowers too. One of my all-time favourite flowers is the daisy. We call them margaritas in Argentina. (Yes! Exactly like that refreshing drink.) Daisies have been adopted as a symbol of...

With just one week 'til my teaching trip to Israel, I can't help but think about how small the world has become - and all because of cookies! Less than two years ago, Cookie Connection had 984 members across 24 countries, and now we have a colossal...

We can all pretty much agree that decorated cookies can be as much about art as they are about being edible. With a blend of painted color and layered elements, the work of Tammy Holmes is no exception. Her creations are worthy of display, in my...

      That's right! Burlap is still a hot trend in the home decorating and wedding industries. What we used to call "gunny" back in the day (because gunny sacks were made from this material)  has sure come a long way in the last...

Well hello, everybody! Hope you all had a fabulous holiday season and are looking forward to a wonderful New Year. I know I'm excited to start this year with my idea of a good time - cookies!    This challenge will be simple to describe, but...

Well, well, the nominations for the 2014 Cookiers' Choice Awards are all in, and they have finally been tallied! But before I spill the beans, thank you to those who cast votes in celebration of the accomplishments of their fellow cookiers. It's...

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...

You know what’s all the rage right now? Stencils. And why is everyone talking about stencils? Cause they are so cool. Yes, so cool. Even if you don’t have an airbrush. (Insert cheers and clapping!) First of all – where did this...

***** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED *****   Hey, all! Cookie Connection is partnering with Zazzle this week on a terrific giveaway surrounding their blow-out Christmas in July sale that's running from today, July 21, through July 25, 2014.  ...

Easter may be a bit later than usual this year, but that's given me plenty of time to come up with a new design to share with you. I'm particularly fond of these little fellows. They're such solemn owls, with an important job of caring for those eggs,...

This past month, I received the sweetest email from Belle of Belleissimo Cookies in Australia. She asked me how I "construct" a cookie. To explain her question a bit more, this is an excerpt from her email:   “One of the things that stumps...

Hello! It's time once again to reveal this week's finalists in our Christmas Countdown Challenge. Reminder: This is no inconsequential contest - $700 in prizes are at stake! Thank you again to our sponsors Designer Stencils, Fancy Flours,...

In our ongoing celebration of gingerbread this month, we turn from the fabulous 3-D creations of last week's Spotlight to honor 2-D gingerbread treats. Though certainly shorter and flatter than last week's honorees, this week's hot list* continues to...

I frankly wasn't sure when I would get around to posting this week's Saturday Spotlight. (I was on vacation this week and inundated - in a good way - with family and other house guests.) But with cookies as exceptional as those topping this week's hot...