At the end of last week's Spotlight, contributor Lisa Foss mentioned feeling a heightened sense of urgency to get cracking on Halloween cookies after seeing the plethora of pumpkins in her local markets. At the time, I was feeling pretty chill about my Halloween decorating so...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
My mom can grow anything. It wasn’t always so. She started out a city kid from New York with little opportunity or care to nurture a green thumb. But with the 1960s came a newfound desire to commune with nature. My parents moved to a...
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...
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...
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 initial idea for this project came while sketching Christmas trees on paper. The triangular shapes soon became a pyramid, which reminded me of the playing card towers I used to build as a child...
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...
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...
***** THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED ***** Hey, all! Cookie Connection is partnering with Zazzle this week on a terrific giveaway surrounding their blow-out Christmas in July sale that's running from today, July 21, through July 25, 2014. ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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?!...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Ooh, I love giveaways, and there's nothing better than one that comes close to Christmas time! I'm not sure I could ever part with the contents of this giveaway if I were to win, but they sure would make wonderful Christmas gifts for anyone who loves...
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...
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'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...
This month, I’m interviewing our May site artist, someone many of you have come to know and love through your involvement in her bimonthly Practice Bakes Perfect challenges. Yes, it’s none other than the woman who works hard to push you to new cookie decorating heights...
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...
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...
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...
When I was a kid, one of my father’s colleagues, Mr. Oshiro, introduced me to origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Several weeks later, our local summer vacation program offered an origami course for children. That was it - I was lost.
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...
Well, I've got a bit of exciting news - for me and for you! Admittedly, this announcement feels a little anticlimactic, as I've been privy to this information for close to a year. Around about January, my book Cookie Swap , first published in 2009,...
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...
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!
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...
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...
Cold weather got you down? Well, I'm about to warm you up with a wonderfully cheerful giveaway brought to you by the talented illustrator Claudine Hellmuth !* Thank you, Claudine! If you haven't yet had the pleasure of "meeting" Claudine's...
Hi, everyone! It's time to celebrate some very important people on the site! As you hopefully know by now, Cookie Connection stays the vibrant, enriching place that it is in large part because of the hard work and generosity of our contributors...
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!
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...
