Yes, it's almost time for the cookie event of the year - Cookie Con! Sadly, I can't make it again this year due to preexisting classes and other commitments. However...
Winter still has about a month to go, and I am yearning for spring. Not that there is much difference between winter and spring where I live, but still...
Even if you're not Irish, it's hard not to love impish leprechauns, frosty mugs of green beer, happy-go-lucky shamrocks, and pots of gold - especially when rendered in cookie dough...
A new movie is in theaters, which is getting lots of Oscar buzz: La La Land. Have you watched it? It's the story of a pianist and an aspiring actress who fall in love (and dance, sing, and dream) in Los Angeles, the city of stars...
The inspiration to make cookies can strike anywhere, at any moment. At the beginning of January, I went skiing with my family and friends. Both of our families have kids who are now young adults and fast skiers...
Every Christmas, for over ten years, decorating the tree at home has been impossible for me. The reason is called Nero, my beautiful, fluffy, and fat, but curious and naughty cat...
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...
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...
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.
Woo hoo! I am thrilled to announce that we have two more recipients of our Milestone Award this month: Liesbet Schietecatte and Tina DeLuca Tsourtsoulas. As a reminder, our Milestone Award is given to those contributors who have served the site for a year or more...
Phew! I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to spotlight the crazy-fabulous cookies that topped the hot list* this week. You see, I finally upgraded to a new computer last week, and transitioning from PC to Mac has been a lot harder than I thought...
Now that I’m about to start my summer vacation, I have more time to do one of the things I love most: going for long walks with my pet Bruno...
Welcome to the latest Practice Bakes Perfect challenge! This time around we are going to work on a specific, and very versatile and useful technique - stenciling. And, I must confess, this challenge is challenging for ME!
Roses, roses, EVERYWHERE! I don't think I have been surrounded by this many roses since my wedding. In 1993. Seriously, people! You shattered the Practice Bakes Perfect participation record, with a whopping 76 entries for Challenge #16!
Heck, after four straight days of cookie decorating, cookie teaching, and cookie chat in my Ningbo classes, even I wasn't sure I ever wanted to see another cookie again. Especially one of my own designs!
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...
Summertime is wedding time! I am simply ignoring the fact that it is not summer, but has recently snowed here, and that I don’t know anyone who’s getting married this year...
May first was Mothers' Day here in Spain. In our home, it is a very special day, and so, each year, my brother and I thank our mom for all she's done with a Mothers' Day gift that surprises her.
It's curious how our most beloved memories can be a huge source of inspiration. Now that spring is here among us, and we can get out and enjoy the good weather, a wonderful memory came to my mind: my days in Tuscany.
It's that time again to shine the spotlight on the top-trending cookies of the week! Woo hoo! With Easter just one day away, we've, of course, got the requisite number of bunnies and eggs on our hot list* today. But leave it to our Cookie Connection members...
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!
Can you feel it? The sense that winter is past its midpoint, and spring is just around the corner (or at least, here in Chicago, that the risk of days in the single digits is behind us).
Wow, did you all kick off January with a bang, or what?! If the cookies on this week's hot list* are any indication of what 2016 has in store for us, then it's going to be a banner cookie year!
Happy belated New Year, everyone! I hope you all welcomed in 2016 with a bang - and lots of cookies, of course! (So sorry for the delayed Spotlight, but I was otherwise occupied this weekend with various renditions of Auld Lang Syne...
With one week 'til the big day, it's still all about Christmas cookies here on Cookie Connection! If you're like me - with all of your shopping and baking left to do - then you're in luck, because this week's Spotlight has plenty of ideas for both...
Hi, all! SURPRISE! It's me, Julia, not your usual lovely Christine. Since it's the holiday season and the time for giving, I wanted to give our hardworking contributors a crack at a challenge for a change. So, since most of them entered this time, I have flown solo through this recap...
Deck the halls with bowls of cookies, fa la la la la, la la la la! See the blazing oven before us, fa la la la la, la la la la! Oops, wrong lyrics! What can I say, all of the amazing holiday cookies posted this past week have gotten me way into the yuletide baking spirit!
Hello, and welcome to Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #13! In my family, 13 is a very lucky number, and I hope this challenge is lucky for you too! As I said in the recap for the last challenge, Lucky Challenge #13 is special and a...
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...
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...
Hi, all, as you may or may not know, to mark the site's two-year anniversary, I recently conducted a survey to collect feedback about how to improve your overall experience on Cookie Connection. At the same time, I also gathered input on the desire...
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...
Yep, you read it right! This week, we're putting the spotlight on those cookies that have been riding high on our hot lists* all month! And for good reason - they're all stunners! Enjoy the sights that follow! (I'm keeping my...
I'm sad to announce that this will be my final blog post as a tutorial contributor on Cookie Connection. I've got some personal matters that need my undivided attention and therefore I've decided to take a break from...
I was able to meet Katy Metoyer of Sugar Dayne at CookieCon 2014 and have been following her ever since. Over the last few months, I have noticed a shift in her decorating. Her style has become more expressive and free, filled with bright colors...
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...
Seeing as it was a 60-degree (Fahrenheit) day here in St. Louis, and we're on the verge of springing forward tonight in the US, I thought I'd get us all in the mood of the imminent season by spotlighting the week's most popular spring creations....
Hello, everyone! I've got some good news, and some other news for you today! Other news first: After much reflection, I've decided that these Practice Bakes Perfect challenges are too much of a time commitment for me at...
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 ...
Hands down, teaching is the thing I like most about cookie decorating. Not only do I get a huge kick from seeing students’ eyes light up when they master my projects or a new technique, but I also learn a ton from everyone attending –...
Pamoda Vanderwert of Sugar Pearls Cakes and Bakes certainly has my attention lately! She has posted many great clips here on Cookie Connection , from cookie collages to puzzle-like designs, but most recently it seems she’s got a mixed media...
What a whirlwind these challenges have been! So fun, and so many incredible cookies as a result! Can you believe we are already on Challenge #4? I still have a lot of challenge ideas up my sleeve, but for this one, let's keep it simple. A...
A flower necklace: My attempt at an advanced tutorial. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Per members' recent requests for more advanced tutorials, I've asked all of our site contributors to push cookie boundaries for you! As you'll soon see, Kari's done a great job with this challenge - of course, I expected nothing less from this very talented lady! ] I can’t say that anyone said, “Hey, Yankee Girl! How would I make a flower necklace?!”, but I figured that since I was going to making...
What do these cookies have in common? I made all of these sets last fall, while I was doing another great cookie challenge, one hosted by the wonderful LilaLoa . All of these cookies were made with the same set of icing, with...
With tomorrow being the official first day of spring, it seemed only appropriate that we celebrate with a giveaway! Woo hoo! Thanks to the very generous and talented cookie cutter designer Michael Bonne , dubbed America's Favorite...
At a loss for clever St. Paddy's Day designs? Got angst about coming up empty-handed at next weekend's big céilidh (psst . . . that's pronounced kaylee)? Worry no more - the cookies celebrated in this post could very well be your lucky charm!...
I would like to start by saying thank you. I was nervous about my first post, but you guys gave it an overwhelmingly positive response. For that, I thank you. And because of that overwhelmingly positive response, I wrote up a tutorial to answer the...
Day 16 (February 18), 9:00 am to 10:00 pm. I haven't planned much for today other than transit to Portugal. Though I am sad to leave Spain, I'm pretty darn excited to meet more cookiers in another part of the globe! I prep for a long day of...
Today marks my last day of classes in Spain, and it's bittersweet. Sweet, because my host Claudia Cetro and her team of assistants (aka mis amigas queridas) were absolutely fabulous in every respect. I don't even know how to express the joy of...
With a mere four days to go to my favorite cookie decorating holiday, my second sweet Valentine's Day Spotlight, promised over three weeks ago, is long overdue - but well worth the wait! Without further ado, here you have it: the hottest...
