Welcome to Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #36! I don't know about you, but with this cooler fall weather (at least here in the Great Lakes region), I am fired up to get my oven fired up to bake some cookies! And since it is also back-to-school season, I am ready to learn a new thing or two! As many of you know, I...
During these lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, I usually like to do a longer running and more relaxed challenge. And after our last 3-D cookie challenge, Practice Bakes Perfect #34, I think we could all use a bit of a breather, no?! So, for this challenge, I would like to...
It used to be, back when I was growing up, that moms memorialized their love of their kids in painstakingly traced and cut black silhouettes. Today (sadly), the immediacy of cell phone pics seems to have replaced that wonderful ritual of portrait-posing and the art itself...
Hi, all! I posted to our forums on this topic earlier today, but, since it's an important matter, I thought I'd post here on the blog as well. I've got some bittersweet news to share. After writing on and off for the site since 2014 (!), the crazy-talented...
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...
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...
As I am nearly on my way out the door for a week of vacation, I decided to bring you this week's Spotlight a day early! And, as turkey day is nearly upon us all (here in the US, that is), there's no more fitting subject matter for this Spotlight than Thanksgiving...
Hi, all! As I will be away next week on my first (and only) vacation of the year and will be trying desperately not to work, I wanted to alert you early to three upcoming stencil sales...
Wow! Wow! Wow! That's the best way to describe this year's Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show (OSSAS)! From start to finish, the show was full of surprises! Heck, it was surprising even before it got started...
It's still blazing hot here in Missouri, but my new garden is showing the telltale signs that fall is just around the corner: the bright colors have faded, and lush petals have given way to a carpet of texture, punctuated with fuzzy grasses and...
As we all know, the creative process of decorating cookies involves so much more than baking cookies. In fact, the actual cookie is, for the most part, just a blank canvas. It's really the icing, sprinkles, fondant, and all of the other materials and techniques we use that...
I'm thrilled to say that, in recent weeks, I've been spotting a lot of first-time posters to the site and to our Practice Bake Perfect challenges! A few have said that the intimidation of posting here is what had previously held them back. And I get that...
I’m really terrible at piping people. I give them a try every once in a while when I’m inspired by some tutorial or image, but my people never look right. Their eyes might be uneven, their noses too large, or their hands so full of fingers that they look...
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...
It will be Mother’s Day next month, and, while thinking recently about project tutorials, my mind went back many years ago to when I was a mom-to-be. After having embroidered way too many baby bibs...
Has everybody seen the latest Cookie Connection tutorial by @Aproned Artist? In it, she shows you, step-by-step-by-tiny step, how to create this spectacular Mother's Day "Breakfast in Bed" cookie...
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...
Valentine’s Day is not a big deal where I’m from; most people I know just ignore it. But I still like to make at least one cookie set for the occasion. Though I have to admit...
Wow! We're almost to the end of another wonderful year on Cookie Connection. Imagine me cracking open a bottle of bubbly and giving you all a virtual toast, because that's exactly what I'm doing...
Hi, Cookie Connection members! I wanted to put the holiday rush aside for a moment to thank you all for your wonderful contributions to Cookie Connection in 2017. Without your posts, comments, likes, and advice to fellow members...
Hi, everyone! Did you notice that I didn't use Prettier Plaques in this blog post title?! Well, that's because I'm introducing a NEW Julia-branded stencil series this month called Dynamic Duos...
First off, please bear with me . . . I've had perhaps more champagne than I should have had before writing this post. But, hey, I'm entitled . . . it's my 22nd wedding anniversary after all...
Hi, folks! Phew - it's been one rough week of non-stop cookie class prep, video editing, stencil testing, scheduling the next round of courses . . . I could go on and on. I hope you all had a more leisurely time of it...
My husband served a couple of years in the Navy as a young man, and what remains of that experience is his love for everything maritime and nautical. Our house is littered with little boats, shells, beach pictures, lighthouses, and so on and so forth...
I always try to take advantage of the times when I’m in between cookie orders, either by playing with new (to me) techniques or designs that are too time-intensive to sell. This tea party cookie satisfies both of those criteria...
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...
So, as you all probably know by now, Kim Damon, aka Mom Makes Cookies, is the artist behind the wonderfully vibrant hearts that are gracing our banner and backdrop as we speak...
Happy New Year! The holidays do seem like they were quite some time ago, but I hope you all had a restful break, and are back into the swing of cookie decorating...
The inspiration to make cookies can strike anywhere, at any moment. At the beginning of January, I went skiing with my family and friends. Both of our families have kids who are now young adults and fast skiers...
I can’t believe that Halloween is already creeping closer! Where has summer gone? Well, actually it is right outside my window: bright sunshine and clear blue sky. But that doesn’t change that fall is fast approaching, with its long, dark evenings...
Heck, after four straight days of cookie decorating, cookie teaching, and cookie chat in my Ningbo classes, even I wasn't sure I ever wanted to see another cookie again. Especially one of my own designs!
Yes, it's almost Mom's big day, so if you haven't yet come up with a wonderful gift for her, there's no time like the present! If you're ambitious, you'll find plenty of inspiration for wonderful cookie gifts in this week's hot list*...
Next up in our site artists series is Marie Elgaard of Lille Kage Hus in Randers, Denmark. Marie, as you may recall, won top honors in Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #13 for the banner and backdrop she designed for the month of February, which are now beautifying our site.
Can you feel it? The sense that winter is past its midpoint, and spring is just around the corner (or at least, here in Chicago, that the risk of days in the single digits is behind us).
I know, I know, you've all been waiting with bated breath for this announcement! Yes, the nominations for the 2015 Cookiers' Choice Awards have been cast and tallied! Hurrah!
You probably know her from her wonderfully detailed puzzle cookies, or her Blythe girls with their mesmerizing eyes . . . or her meticulously painted matryoshka dolls . . . or her interesting use of perspective...
Happy belated New Year, everyone! I hope you all welcomed in 2016 with a bang - and lots of cookies, of course! (So sorry for the delayed Spotlight, but I was otherwise occupied this weekend with various renditions of Auld Lang Syne...
I'm definitely detecting a hint of end-of-summer in the air. Sunny days, but cool air; morning mists that quickly clear; and greens in the garden that are starting to glow brightly, with just a few delicate edges of burnt orange...
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...
Ho, ho, ho! I know many of you are wearing shorts, swimsuits, and sunnies, but here in the Practice Bakes Perfect kitchen, it is Christmastime! Well . . . sort of. You see, for this latest challenge, you will be asked to repurpose your...
According to Mr. Webster: Array (noun) - An impressive display or range of a particular type of thing. (verb) - To display or arrange things in a particular order. But what's a cookie array? To me, a cookie array is a collection of...
What mom doesn't love sugar and spice, and everything nice? Cookies would make the perfect Mothers' Day gift then, right?! Well, I think so judging from the top 10 posts on this week's hot list*. Clearly, they're all cookies, so they've got the...
Well, hello there! I am thrilled and honored to be taking over these challenges from The Cookie Architect , who could not have done a more brilliant job in masterminding these challenges. And many thanks to Julia M. Usher for hosting this site...
If there’s ever a triple-threat (or quadruple- or quintuple-threat) in the cookie world, it’s Ginny McCormick-Levack, owner of Creative Cookier and subject of this month’s Close-up . She does it all – she decorates,...
I got hooked on the work of Lorena Marin of Au Claire de la Lune when she posted this clip for a Cookie Connection contest well over a year ago. My first impression of that entry was that it seemed to tell a little story. Further...
I’ve found a new love! Wafer paper. I played around with it a bit on my Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #5 cookie set and then again on my Day of the Dead cookie. Since I got some questions about how I made these floral accents, I...
Wow - this must be some record for me! It's only Friday night, and I'm already putting the finishing touches on this week's Saturday Spotlight . I'm going to celebrate my efficiency by taking off most of Saturday and Sunday, which translates into...
Hey, all. Based on the recent feedback on our first birthday giveaway post, we're making some changes, including classifying project tutorials (tutorials designed to make a certain cookie) by level. You can read all about the other changes here...
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...
"How DID You Do That?” usually highlights the talents of one cookier who has achieved cookie nirvana with her (or his) unique style and technique. To change things up a bit, and in honor of the New Year, this post will highlight 11 cookie...
