Oooh, so exciting! My all-time fave cookie holiday is nearly here, so there's no time like the present to celebrate our top-trending Valentine's Day cookies with another valentine-themed Spotlight...
You've probably noticed that I always release my stencil sets about two months before the holidays or seasons when they're most likely to be used. That's so everyone gets plenty of time to play with them before they need to be pressed into serious action! So, for instance...
We've now got about one foot of snow on the ground (which is almost unprecedented for St. Louis) and more is still coming down, so it should probably come as no surprise that I was especially drawn to the spring-y colors and flowers in our cover image by...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
While the chats in our CookieCon 2018 Speakers Series are now over (our last chat was on November 3 with Katy Metoyer of Sugar Dayne), the in-depth Close-ups continue! (HUGE sigh of relief.) This month, we’ll be tapping the brain of cookier...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
After two 3-D cookie tutorials in a row, I wanted to make something flat but with some easy added depth and dimension. So I decided to create a simple two-color winter cookie wreath, where the cookies are...
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...
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...
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...
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!
I have always loved those funny little Nordic gnomes that pop up all over the place - in illustrations, as felt toys, as holiday cookies . . . Normally they're long and tall, with high hats and flowing beards. However, I ship most of my cookies, and try to avoid long thin shapes for fear of breakage. But I can't...
Years ago, I received two mini hot water bottles from my sister. They had plain knitted covers. One of them was red with a white heart on the front, and the other had the same knitted cover with the colors inverted. (They were too cute together for my sister to buy only one of them!) This memory...
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...
Hi, all! I'm back from my teaching trip and ready to kick into high gear on Saturday Spotlights again! I thank you all for your patience and understanding over the last two weeks as I worked through some big cookie commitments on this end. I think I've finally recuperated...
Phew! What an afternoon! I spent the vast majority of it trying to rescue a tiny black kitten that was seeking refuge from the cold under my front porch. No amount of coaxing with...
I’ve mentioned previously my experiments with stained glass cookies. Cooked sugar was one of the obvious contenders to create the look, but I was hoping to avoid the stark contrast between crunchy, hard sugar and relatively soft cookie. So I set about concocting...
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...
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...
This project is halfway between a cookie platter and a 3-D cookie project. It is once again intended to be a treat to share with friends, with the 3-D mug offering a new and different way to arrange and serve cookies...
There are some things about being in business that need to be done no matter what size or kind of business you are running. You've got to do the official paperwork for a business in order to be properly set up as a business...
Ooh, what a perfectly divine confluence of events! Here I am in the midst of one of my favorite cookie seasons of the year, writing about my other favorite cookie time - Valentine's Day! Yes, this month, I'm releasing...
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!)...
I love hot air balloons, but I really don't love heights! So my experience of them will always be from the ground, looking up and imagining how serene and beautiful it must be - that is, if you're not up there screaming and dribbling in...
I know this is supposed to be a tale of opening a storefront bakery, but what if I were to tell you it has really been about a journey of pursuing dreams?! I don't know about you, but my dreams and goals change, a lot. Not because I am an...
Because I so much liked using the wet-on-wet technique to make the sunflower in my last tutorial, I decided to use the same technique to make a poppy this month. Poppies are wild; their stalks are irregular; and their petals are always messy. In other words, they're ideal...
Ooooh, it's another one of those eclectically beautiful times, when we're fresh off one holiday and not yet ready for the next, and we find our cookies taking on wide-ranging themes that often defy our own imaginations. Admittedly, a few people...
Fa la la la la . . . la la la la! Happy holidays, everybody! In the spirit of the holidays, I want to hold a Practice Bakes Perfect virtual cookie swap. This is not your ordinary cookie swap...
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...
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...
Last month was Cookie Connection's fifth birthday, believe it or not! (My, how time flies!) We've grown by leaps and bounds since our inception, thanks, in no small part, to all of you and your wonderful contributions. What's more, there's no sign that...
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...
It’s hard to believe that the subject of our next Close-up has only been decorating for a little less than three years, but, yes, it’s very true. Marta Torres, aka The Cookie Lab , may be a relative newbie to cookie-land, but she...
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...
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...
What the heck is dual-mode stenciling, you ask?! (So sorry - it's the former engineer in me who loves to make up pseudo-scientific names to explain cookie decorating techniques!) Anywho . . . it's a term I coined (I think) to indicate multiple,...
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...
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...
You've probably noticed that most of our Cookier Close-ups have focused on how people got started in cookies and the business of cookie decorating. (And that's because they have!) This is all well and good, perhaps, but I’ve decided to...
I’m back with our second-to-last Close-up with CookieCon 2018 instructors. (I know, it’s hard to believe, but by January, I’ll be moving on to the 2019 instructors!) Here, we’re catching up in more detail with Andrea Walters of Andy Kay’s Cookies, with whom we first chatted back on October 6, here. We learned then that...
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...
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...
