In 2018, I bought a pack of 100 sheets of wafer paper to make a teeny tiny greeting card for a Mother’s Day cookie. Since then, I’ve used wafer paper in one other project to make a couple of small oak leaves. Between the two projects, I’ve...
I am so thrilled with the cookies that have been trending on Cookie Connection this week. We have all sorts of celebrations. We also have color, texture, and dimension. Though this may be my personal interpretation, we also have...
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...
Yay, I'm back! I know, I know, it's been a while since my last Kitchen Club kit, but since I'm now releasing kits just five times a year, they all come clustered around key cookie holidays, which tend to be toward the end of the year. Boring admin stuff aside (LOL), let's move on...
It's hard to pinpoint the exact birthday of this (my beloved) site. It launched "softly" into cyberspace in Spring 2013 with different people getting introduced to it at various stages of development. About a month before I announced its birth...
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...
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...
Well, I wouldn't have guessed it, but after a week of being on vacation with nary a cookie in sight, I was overjoyed to return to work (aka Cookie Connection ) on Wednesday, and to be inundated with all of your fabulous creations! I couldn't...
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...
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...
Foregoing fancy meals or pulling decorating all-nighters in order to scratch together the change for CookieCon ? Hoping you'll win the lottery so you won't have to go another year without meeting your online cookie friends? Well, hope no...
Well, in case you hadn't noticed, it's 2015, and that means I've almost completed a year's worth of these tutorials! So to celebrate, I'm going to do things a little differently today. You might notice there aren't many photos . . . that's...
Even though I am now living in Thailand where it is currently 85°F (29°C), I haven't forgotten the cold of winter, which many of you are now experiencing. So, I thought, what better way to get cozy than with felt warmers on hot cocoa (cookie) mugs?!...
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...
It's clearly the season for hens! After Dolce Sentire's lovely Easter hen cookie box tutorial, I thought twice about presenting my own version. But perhaps you can't have too many hens approaching Easter...
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...
Yes, it's your lucky day. I've finally got the site's first official giveaway ready for any and all interested takers! I'm calling this one The Great Spring Summer Cleaning Giveaway, because I had every intention of doing it in the spring,...
Fall and its vibrant colors are a joy for the heart and a great source of inspiration to me. Mums, pumpkins, and wagons surely have been my favorite things to “cookie” in past years...
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...
Here in Spain, vacations are over. And though unbearably hot weather still persists (imagine 42°C in the shade!), kids must go back to school...
Many years ago (almost thirty), a friend of mine and his girlfriend found a way to make some money by selling framed sailing knots. The knots, each labelled with its name, were glued onto a nautical chart together with other embellishments like mini anchors and ship wheels...
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...
We did it again! Thanks to several amazing sponsors, prizes for the 2023 return-to-in-person edition of Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™ are as impressive as ever. In record-breaking time (about half the usual), our sponsors...
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...
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...
I know, I know, this post has been a long time coming, but it's well worth the wait, I assure you. Though the winners in Julia M. Usher’s 2023 Cookie Art Competition™ were announced at That Takes the Cake Show in Austin, Texas on April 2, they were only...
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...
I'm back from Japan - and from the associated jet lag (I think)! Thanks, everyone, for granting me a little reprieve from Spotlights as I tended to my cookie courses. While the classes and whole experience were magical, it is nice to once again feel home turf underfoot and to be...
I've got another cookie platter! Why?! Just because I like to design them, especially when they can be customized to the season, holiday, or occasion! I also like stenciled effects...
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 month I have a tutorial for a dimensional cookie platter comprised of two flowers whose petals, centers, and leaves are contoured. When I was thinking about how to decorate the cookies, I decided to...
This Toolbox Talk tackles an ingredient that is so fundamental to rolled cookie recipes that maybe it should have been the first in this series. I'm talking about flour, people! Even an ingredient as common as flour has its differences around the world, which impact baking results...
Hi, everyone! Welcome to a new Watch-Learn-Create challenge! The theme for our 54th challenge is piped flower bouquets, and award-winning Ganna (aka Anna) Oliinyk of @Anna_Sunday_Cookers is our featured guest...
Well, it seems like we've finally emerged from winter here in St. Louis. Temperatures dropped below freezing only a couple of nights this week, my newly planted perennials didn't seem to object to the light frost on their leaves, and...
National Cookie Month has been a blast, hasn't it? And just when you thought it was about to fade into distant memory, I'm bringing it all back with another giveaway! While definitely fun, this giveaway has actually got a very serious component...
Couldn't make it to CookieCon this year? I know, I know, I too would have been sorely disappointed if in the same boat . . . But chin up! There's no reason to cry over dropped cookies (cookier-speak for "spilled milk")! I've got something...
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...
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...
Wow, just as I thought we were hurtling full-throttle toward Valentine's Day, you guys threw me for a loop! The artists behind this week's ten top-trending cookies seem a little divided about whether...
Happy December! The holidays are finally upon us, and pretty soon we will never want to see piping bags filled with red and green icing for as long as we live...
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...
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...
Following a particularly wet winter, California is officially drought-free! I think any native Californian meets this news with both gratitude as well as a little skepticism. I’ve lived here most of my life, and I can’t remember a time when we weren’t experiencing some degree of drought...
As many of you know, earlier this month we had a lovely live chat with the über-talented Tammy Trahan of New Orleans Cookie Company, where we learned about her graphic design and art background, the sources of inspiration for her very inspired cookie work, and...
Fall (or I should say autumn, as it sounds more like the Italian word "autunno") is one of my favorite seasons. I love the explosion of warm colors on the tree leaves, especially on those sunny days when the sky is crystal-clear and the air is chilly...
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!
Hi, everyone! I'm back from a most delightful trip to Morocco where I saw cookie inspiration absolutely everywhere, but particularly in the...
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...
My neighbors are expecting their first baby any day now. A little girl! With comically unfortunate timing, our street is being closed for two weeks for repaving. We’ve all had to park our cars a few blocks away on another street or risk being...
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!
