This year's 3-D Christmas tree cookie was inspired by a project that my kids made in elementary school: a Christmas tree composed of stacked cardboard tubes (like those inside rolls of paper towels), all stapled together. Here, I made thick cookie rings and baked them close together so they would fuse into a sturdy structure. I then...
Halloween is my favorite cookie holiday. There are so many fun themes to use; I feel like I’ll never run out of Halloween ideas. Designs can go in a million different directions too...
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...
May first was Mothers' Day here in Spain. In our home, it is a very special day, and so, each year, my brother and I thank our mom for all she's done with a Mothers' Day gift that surprises her.
When we last spoke in a Close-up with our February site artist, Evelin Milanesi, it was August 2014 and she had only been decorating cookies for two years, yet she was on the cusp of heading to Genoa, Italy for Cookie’sCool, the first international cookie decorating convention. Those event organizers had...
Hi, all! I'm here to talk about a recent change to our site's Terms of Use that is related to cookies. No, I'm not talking about the type of cookies that we all know and love so well. I'm talking about the cookies that are...
Summer is that time of year when Mother Nature dazzles us with a spectacular show of beautiful flowers and an endless array of stunning colors and exquisite designs. With so much inspiration all around us, now is the...
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...
Thank you all for participating in the first-ever survey of Sugar Dot Surveys! I wanted to find out what (if anything) you use to speed-dry your icing, and how you use those tools and why. You sure did come through. Those who participated range from...
Spring is in the air! Can you feel it? Flowers and trees are coming to life again, and everywhere you look the colors are changing from brown to bright green...
After deliberating and deliberating and then deliberating some more, our esteemed panel of judges has finally reached a verdict in our 2016 Cookiers' Choice Awards! Before I reveal the winners, let me just say...
I have wanted to do a collaboration challenge for a long time. As a musician, and trial lawyer, and now cookier, I truly believe that collaboration brings out the best of each of our individual talents...
My dear friend Raquel knows me very well. She knows I absolutely love cute little things - charming, but casual at the same time...
Hello, and welcome to Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #13! In my family, 13 is a very lucky number, and I hope this challenge is lucky for you too! As I said in the recap for the last challenge, Lucky Challenge #13 is special and a...
Brush embroidery is one of those techniques that has so much potential, yet seems to be stuck in a perpetual rut of ruffles, flowers, and beach scenes. It's time we change all of that. For this challenge, I want you to...
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...
Frangipani, pomelia, and plumeria are all different ways to name the same beautiful flowers. I like the contrast of their white color against their dark green foliage and brown branches. Under each frangipani tree, you can...
The last several months leading up to this release have been a lot like the road trip my family took each summer to get to our vacation spot in Maine. Every few minutes, a chorus of kids would ring out from the back seat, asking my Dad, "Are we there yet?!"...
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!
Hi, everyone! I'm back from a most delightful trip to Morocco where I saw cookie inspiration absolutely everywhere, but particularly in the...
When my kids were little, every Halloween we would make ghost decorations from cheesecloth and laundry starch. The process was simple: soak cheesecloth in the starchy liquid, drape it over a rough form of compacted aluminum foil, and allow it to dry. The gauzy cheesecloth would harden, creating spooky, semi-transparent specters. In this project, naturally-starchy rice paper stands in for cheesecloth to make an edible version of this Halloween craft.
Hi, everyone! I posted the following comments as a footnote to the recently released Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #49 recap. They're pretty important, so I wanted to be sure everyone sees them and takes a moment to respond. The future of Cookie Connection and our challenges depends on your input...
Woo hoo! The cookie competition of the year is nearly here! Registration for Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™ opens in less than two days, on July 12, 5 pm CDT! At that time, you'll receive...
A wafer paper flower placed on a cookie spread with royal icing makes a charming and simple beginner cookie project. In fact, that's exactly what I made a few years ago, using a wafer paper sunflower, when I was still struggling to...
I'm back after a week off, and what a refreshing sight it is to see the marvelous cookies that made it onto our hot list tonight. Some have been dancing around the top ten photo feed for several days due to their ongoing popularity, while others are...
Judging by the number of entries we had for this Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge, I would say that many of you spent more time in your kitchens than at the beach this summer! We had a whopping 55 (!!!!) entries for this challenge...
I’ve mentioned previously my experiments with stained glass cookies. Cooked sugar was one of the obvious contenders to create the look, but I was hoping to avoid the stark contrast between crunchy, hard sugar and relatively soft cookie. So I set about concocting...
When I was a little girl, every morning my sister and I would hop into my mother’s bed. We would sit there beneath her cozy comforter and eagerly wait for her to return. After what felt like an interminable amount of time...
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 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...
Well, after a very long fall season in St. Louis (my neighbor's golden gingko tree still had all of its leaves until last week), I can officially declare it's winter! I had to don triple layers today to...
Happy holidays! Hopefully, by now, you have cranked out your last gingerbread man, assembled your last poinsettia cookie platter, and are ready to have some REAL cookie fun! But, first things first...
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...
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...
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...
These lavender cookies were inspired, in their entirety, by a video I shot last year while mesmerized by a butterfly moving from sprig to sprig on a lavender bush. When I replayed the video...
So, at long last, no more waiting on pins and needles! Today I reveal the winners in the 2-D and 3-D categories of the 2021 virtual edition of Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™. In addition, I'll be unveiling the one entry that...
I've always worked hard to hide the seams of my past 3-D cookie constructions by mitering the edges, or by mitering and then covering the edges with royal icing. My goal was to...
If you can remember as far back as July (my bad for getting behind on these Close-ups), the wonderful Cookies Fantastique, aka Carol Mattison, was our featured site artist, wowing us with a rather spectacular Fourth of July set! In her site artist forum intro published around that time, Carol mentioned that...
This is not my first project with cookie spools. The first one, back in 2017, was my entry for Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge #21 (the bimonthly challenge series organized by Bakerloo Station here on Cookie Connection). On that occasion, I learned to...
I really love these Cookier Close-ups, because they give me an excuse to get to know some very interesting and talented decorators in a way that I probably couldn’t otherwise. (Of course, there’s no rule that says people need to answer my every probing question, but, lucky me, most do!) This month, we’re super fortunate to be joined by...
Okay, if you've been on the fence about my 3-D cookie art competition, now's the time to jump off! Reminder: It's taking place this year at the Show Me Sweets show in St. Charles, Missouri (20 minutes or so from St. Louis) on July 13-14. A major TV network is turning the 3-D part into a TV documentary, and...
When I used to sell my cookies, practicality was my worst enemy. It was an infuriating little voice in my head whispering sad truths: “too fragile”, “ too big”, “too sticky”. Every design had to live in a little bag without risk of breaking, smudging, or becoming stale on its path to the customer’s event. Now...
From time to time, I like to provide Cookie Connection members with more thorough introductions to our site contributors – after all, they give so generously of their talents here, it’s the very least I can do! And – surprise – now is one of those times...
November has finally come! The days are shorter, and sometimes cloudy, and the air is colder . . . but the trees put themselves to bed for the long sleep of winter, delighting us with their gorgeous, vibrant leaves.
It’s been a true pleasure to have members’ cookie art gracing the site this year – not only is it a beautiful addition, but it also gives me the perfect excuse to get behind the cookies themselves...
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 had always intended to do a tutorial on my Halloween spiders for you all, but I just didn't fancy repeating the same cookies. So I set to thinking how I could change things a bit, and do something different. Well, for a start, I wanted to have a bit...
How many of you have found yourself at one time or another plastered to the computer, feverishly monitoring your Facebook page with the hope that your latest cookie post would send your fan count soaring? Or maybe the better question is: how...
I love flowers of all kinds, but I have a special fondness for flowers that look a little unique. The coneflower, with its spiky, vibrantly colored seed cone and skirt of purple petals, definitely fits the bill. Apparently, bees are just as partial to them as I am, so...
