Blog: Trending Over Last Week

Top o' the morning to you! You must have found a four-leaf clover, because you just stumbled upon a huge pot of gold! This Spotlight is a veritable treasure trove of St. Patrick's Day ideas, about half of which are brand new to the site. The other photos...

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...

The summer before COVID struck, my son was thrilled to be selected for an internship at NASA. He went into the program excited to get a taste of his intended career path; he came out...

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...

Valentine's Day has got to be one of the greatest cookie holidays (if not THE greatest), so I suppose it should come as no surprise that there are still a lot of heart-shaped and love-themed cookies hitting this week's hot list. Our Spotlight also has...

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...

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...

This month, I'm sharing a different idea for a cookie platter where the cookies are propped vertically. I've displayed the mushroom cookies close together and used segments of a paper straw to connect them through holes cut into each cookie. This way...

This month's project tutorial features a 3-D driftwood tree cookie, intended to be a table display for an occasion at home. If you plan to transport it, I recommend...

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...

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...

When I first started decorating cookies two years ago, one of the difficulties I encountered was putting together a satisfying set of cookies with the harmony of shapes and colors that I admired in the sets of veteran cookiers. It was hard...

Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way! Yes, indeed, the site is overrun with Easter cookies, and each day they seem to multiply even faster than the progeny of the Easter bunny ;)! This Spotlight is testament to the fact 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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

I mean, honestly, what else could I feature on this eve before Valentine's Day but hearts, roses, and chocolate?! Nothing, right?! That being said, tonight's hot list showcases...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!

Sometimes a personality or product becomes so recognized that the brand name turns into common vernacular for all such similar things (like “Kopykake” as shorthand for “projection device” or “KitchenAid” for...

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 like sunflowers. I remember, as a little kid, asking my parents to "kidnap" a huge sunflower that I had seen for a while towering strong, wild, and lonely along a road near a sunflower field. They finally said "yes", so we transplanted the sunflower in a large vase to our terrace, and I took care of it...

Even though it snowed two nights ago, we're lucky here in Missouri to have some flowers emerging, bravely taunting our fickle spring weather. I love the bright, sunny pops of color now polka-dotting my yard!     Hopefully, you're also...

The idea for this project was sparked by an ad on Instagram promoting stamps to make real wax seals. I initially wanted to make an entire wax seal cookie, but I instead ended up using royal icing to make seal transfers to go on larger envelope cookies. For the envelope design, I...

In the last few years that I lived in Italy, tiny wooden boxes of strawberries made their appearance in the grocery store by the middle of February. They were imported, as it was too early for strawberries in Italy. They were so colorful and so neatly arranged in their wooden boxes...

With Valentine's Day nearly past and Spring not quite yet here, I thought it was going to be hard to characterize the cookies hitting our hot list* this week. But, boy oh boy, was I ever wrong!

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...

With winter now in full effect, I've been thrilled to catch a rare glimpse of snow on the far hills across the valley. Snow angels are an iconic and joyful celebration of the winter season. I imagine happy children thrashing in...

I have been living in Southeast Asia for almost two years now. The flowers and plants here are really fascinating in their shapes and vibrant colors, and have often inspired my tutorials. Moreover...

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...

I have a thing for benches. I especially like those in parks in spring and fall, and those along rivers. The idea for this project developed around this white little bench...

What a delight it was to return from vacation - nearly two weeks without a cookie in sight - to discover the many magnificent creations posted here on Cookie Connection in that short time!

I made you some money. Yes, I did. Well, not REAL money. But close enough! After the last tutorial, I got some questions about the gold coins from my leprechaun set. How did I make them? Since I don’t really like to make a set of cookies twice...

A wafer paper flower placed on a cookie spread with royal icing makes a charming and simple beginner cookie project. In fact, that's exactly what I made a few years ago, using a wafer paper sunflower, when I was still struggling 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...

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...

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, what can I say . . . it's full-on Valentine's Day here! Almost everywhere you look on this site, including this Saturday Spotlight, you'll see hearts, hearts, and more hearts! You name the heart, this hot list has it...

They're breeding like rabbits - the Easter cookies on this site, that is! And the rabbit theme is even more prolific! (Only one of this week's top ten Easter cookies doesn't have one, or a part of one.)     Turns out, bunnies can be cute as...

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...