Blog: Trending Over Last Week

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...

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...

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...

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...

Thank you all for participating in the most recent questionnaire in my Sugar Dot Surveys series. In this survey, I asked you questions about how you use social media to share your cookie decorating business or hobby. I was curious about...

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...

Happy 2020, Cookie Connection members! We've most certainly had an auspicious start to the new year, judging from the caliber of cookies hitting this week's hot list. Naturally, we see some...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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?!...

Two weeks may have passed, but my jaw is still scraping the floor in amazement over the winning entries in my 3-D Cookie Art Competition™ that took place at the Show Me Sweets show on July 13 and 14. In a few months, you'll get a more complete recap once...

Snowflakes are fascinating in their uniqueness. Though all snowflakes have the same structure, no two are alike. This interesting interplay between sameness and uniqueness is the basis for this tutorial. While I use only one cookie shape...

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...

Cream of tartar is one of the more mysterious yet most common ingredients in baking. It can also be one of the more elusive ones to find in some countries!

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...

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...

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...

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...

Well, after a brief nod to St. Paddy's day a couple of weeks ago, you all pretty much hippity-hopped right on over to Easter, as confirmed by the abundance of eggs and bunnies hitting our hot list* this week.

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!

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...

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...

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...

Between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and my niece Lara and her new husband Chandler, I've had a weekend wedding extravaganza! It started at 6 am with a livestream from Windsor Castle and ended...

I know, I know! It's not even Christmas yet, and I'm already tempting you with Valentine's Day stencils. What can I say?! That's just the way things go here in cookie-stencil land! I always strive to...

My past November tutorials have always been about 3-D Christmas trees. To refresh your memory, below is a small gallery of those projects and their variations, which include...

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 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...

Happy holidays! I hope everyone has been having a festive, or even restful, couple of weeks. And if you've had more than your fill of quality time with aunts, uncles, and cousins, just sneak away to...

Hi, everyone! It's great to be back to the Saturday Spotlight routine after a brief breather for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Though, admittedly, it hardly feels like I had any vacation at all after being back to work for a week . . . it's been a zany one, what with complicated site updates and all!) From the looks of this week's hot list, I can see that, while I was away, everyone...

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...

What makes something vintage? For me, it has always been more of an "I-know-it-when-I-see-it" kind of thing. But then I got to thinking: what actual qualities of a thing, when put together, make my brain think, "Yes, that's vintage!"? In this 25th "Silver Anniversary Edition" of Practice Bakes Perfect...

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 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...

Now that October is in full swing, it’s time to get crazy with all those Halloween designs that you still have left to do! One way to come up with a truly unique cookie design is to create your own cookie shape. A shape that no one else has in...

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...

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...

Did you ever imagine that something as simple as decorated cookies - a straightforward mixture of sugar, flour, and a few other things - could connect us so powerfully? When I started this site, I certainly had hopes of making cookie friends outside...

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...

Hi, everyone! After a whirlwind CookieCon 2019, I'm finally home and (partially) recovered from the overwhelming amount of sweetness encountered in Reno! I'm also bearing a big gift...

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...

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...