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...
My word, putting together my new cookie decorating app has been like birthing a baby! But it's finally done and ready to push out into the world (so to speak)! Celebration GiveawayTo help spread the word about its birth, I'm running a...
Hi, everyone! I've been so happy seeing the Cookie Connection home page in full bloom during the past two months that it feels a little bit sad to recap Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #54. As you probably know...
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...
First, my apologies (especially to Timea) for getting seriously behind on these Close-ups! My 3-D cookie competition planning and some personal distractions (mostly my home renovation) have left me with little time for anything else! But onward – this interview with...
After two 3-D cookie tutorials in a row, I wanted to make something flat but with some easy added depth and dimension. So I decided to create a simple two-color winter cookie wreath, where the cookies are...
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...
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...
It's never too early to start planning for Christmas, especially when that planning involves a challenge with over $700 worth of prizes! (Yes, over $700. You heard me right!) Thanks to the very generous support of several sponsors (see below),...
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...
Congrats to this week's honorees! Most are still-high-trending Easter cookies, though a smattering of springtime and Mother's Day-themed cookies also registers among the hot list. Special kudos to...
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...
Hey, all! The news I have for you today is SOOOO BIG that I thought it merited its own special blog post. Its aim is to celebrate our amazingly talented cookie community and to spread the love of cookie art to every nook of our country, if not the world! First...
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...
My parents recently moved, and while I was packing some of their boxes, an old Fathers' Day card, made by myself about 40 years ago, popped out from a drawer. I remember drawing that card at my elementary school like it was yesterday...
Roses, roses, EVERYWHERE! I don't think I have been surrounded by this many roses since my wedding. In 1993. Seriously, people! You shattered the Practice Bakes Perfect participation record, with a whopping 76 entries for Challenge #16!
Greetings from Chiberia! In case you are wondering what Chiberia looks like, it pretty much looks like...
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...
This Saturday Spotlight may be late, but it's super sweet! Yes, it's the long-awaited announcement of the 2015 Cookiers' Choice Awards winners!
Hi, all! Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic and associated health worries, event cancellations, and general world chaos have thrown a number of our lives out of whack. My March, April, and May went from...
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...
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...
In real life, my tastes verge on plain. I’m a no makeup, jeans-and-t-shirt sort of girl. Naturally, my wedding ring is a simple gold band, and that’s exactly how I like it. Despite these tendencies...
Summertime is wedding time! I am simply ignoring the fact that it is not summer, but has recently snowed here, and that I don’t know anyone who’s getting married this year...
Say hello to our new site sponsor, Mama & Madison , maker of lovely custom aprons with a definitive retro flair! They're perfect for CookieCon 's Blinged Out Apron Contest or milling about CookieCon and other baking events in style. Heck, they're even great for those stay-at-home decorating days when your sweats are taking a few much-needed cycles through the wash! As our luck would have it, Tracie Esposito, owner and chief apron-maker of Mama & Madison, has very...
Easter has been one of my favorite holidays since I was a child. I remember how my sisters and I would spend hours drawing designs on cooked eggs with crayons before carefully dipping them into little cups of dye. Once we had amassed dozens of brightly colored eggs, the treasure hunts would begin. We’d...
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...
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 project is halfway between a cookie platter and a 3-D cookie project. It is once again intended to be a treat to share with friends, with the 3-D mug offering a new and different way to arrange and serve cookies...
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...
Fall is in the air, it seems . . . everywhere except here. Around this time of year, I start dreaming of cozy sweaters and steamy drinks, but the season is slow to take hold in California...
It's curious how our most beloved memories can be a huge source of inspiration. Now that spring is here among us, and we can get out and enjoy the good weather, a wonderful memory came to my mind: my days in Tuscany.
With tomorrow being the official first day of spring, it seemed only appropriate that we celebrate with a giveaway! Woo hoo! Thanks to the very generous and talented cookie cutter designer Michael Bonne , dubbed America's Favorite...
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...
With Mothers' Day just around the corner here in the US, it seems only fitting to highlight the top-trenders in this clip category tonight! And because we all know moms everywhere...
Hi, all! Happy fall! We're in that inexplicably odd time zone where people tend to jump from Halloween cookies right into Christmas ones, forgetting about that wonderful Thanksgiving holiday that falls in between! Fortunately for us...
Summer may be coming to a close, but it continues to live on through the stunning array of floral masterpieces submitted for this challenge. From the traditional to the unexpected, our entries showed that...
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...
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...
Our November site artist Kari Arroyo, aka Yankee Girl Yummies, is no newcomer here! From January to December 2014, she contributed a wealth of wonderful tutorials to Cookie Connection, all under the title of Dear Yankee Girl.
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.
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.
I'm sad to announce that this will be my final blog post as a tutorial contributor on Cookie Connection. I've got some personal matters that need my undivided attention and therefore I've decided to take a break from...
Well, well, the nominations for the 2014 Cookiers' Choice Awards are all in, and they have finally been tallied! But before I spill the beans, thank you to those who cast votes in celebration of the accomplishments of their fellow cookiers. It's...
People ask me all the time about the lettering and painting on my cookies. I use a combination of royal icing effects and colors, and handpainted details. One of the most important things to me when I'm painting my cookies is my palette. I like...
I made these thank you cookies for the "Giving the Gift of Thank You" project with Anita from Sweet Hope Cookies - a wonderful cause of which I was so proud to be a part. If you’d like to read more about the project, which supports those living...
This edition of "How Would You Cookie This?" is being brought to you by Dana (aka Dana’s Daydreaming Cookies on Cookie Connection )! Just a little background info for all of you who are new to my blog – this fun segment is...
This past month, I received the sweetest email from Belle of Belleissimo Cookies in Australia. She asked me how I "construct" a cookie. To explain her question a bit more, this is an excerpt from her email: “One of the things that stumps...
I may have mentioned once or twice that Halloween cookies are my favorite. I pretty much wait all year for that one month. But it’s peak summer right now - time for sun and seashells, not ghosts and ghouls. So...
The summer of 1989 was one of my favorites. I spent my days with friends by the pool and my nights camping in the backyard. We watched scary movies, giggled about boys, and crimped each others’ hair. And all the while...
