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...
Hi, everyone! Happy 2018! We're fresh from ringing in the New Year, but I'm already releasing spring and Easter sets for you! I know, I know, I feel like I'm living in some kind of time warp...
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...
Yay, I can safely say we've left summer and launched the best time of year! There's now a distinct crispness to the morning air; fading flowers are being replaced with glimpses of fiery colors on neighboring trees; and I'm already planning my annual family Thanksgiving gathering up in Maine...
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.
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...
Okay, so it's still Friday, but better early than never, as they say. Okay, maybe no one on this planet has ever used that expression before, but I'm taking the liberty with this Spotlight...
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,...
Every time I do one of these challenges I'm not quite sure what to expect. For this one , I just didn't know if people would be interested in taking the time to mix the colors, but I am so glad that so many of you did! What a splendid array of topics...
Admittedly, I've seen little sun in recent weeks, holed up as I've been in my basement kitchen prepping for the OSSAS. That said, it's altogether possible that autumn arrived in Missouri long before now and I was simply oblivious. We could...
Even though some people may think of beadwork (the making of perfectly round icing dots) as a minor icing detail, I like to think of it as a full-fledged decorating technique. Why the extra attention? Well, partly because I love dots and I use them a...
It's certifiably autumnal here - meaning both here in Maine, where I am tending to home-away-from-home matters this week, and in this Spotlight. In the course of the few days between my arrival on Monday and today, the...
This month, I have a fun and super easy summer project that relies on basic wet-on-wet decorating (wet icing applied to wet icing) and 3-D cookie construction techniques. The end result will be a cute...
Bunnies, blooms, and sparkle. What a wonderful way to salute the first week of spring! I'm not sure how the weather is where you are, but, in my neighborhood, spring is definitely in the air. Bunnies are...
Hey, all! As you may know, I'm a sponsor of the upcoming Spring Cookie-A-Thon - and a mixer-level sponsor at that! "What the heck is a mixer-level sponsor?", you ask. Good question! In a nutshell, it means...
Hi, everyone! Once again, I am taking over the Saturday Spotlight this weekend with the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #52. It featured guest Evelin Milanesi, also known as Evelindecora, and her signature Piped Crochet Technique developed in 2016...
Hi, everyone! I’m back with a wonderful chat with our October site artist and cookie philanthropist Lisa Foss. As you may recall, Lisa’s luminous fall cookie leaves graced our banner and backdrop a few months back. Lucky us!...
One of the things I love most about the cookie community is how cookiers are always coming up with new and creative ways to take cookie decorating to the next level. There have been so many...
I’m back with another Cookier Close-up! Boy, how I love doing these interviews! They allow me to connect with cookiers all over the globe without ever having to leave the comfort of my own home – which, in these crazy COVID times, is truly a blessing. Today, we’re talking with...
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...
The idea for this project was sparked by an ad on Instagram promoting stamps to make real wax seals. I initially wanted to make an entire wax seal cookie, but I instead ended up using royal icing to make seal transfers to go on larger envelope cookies. For the envelope design, I...
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...
Because I so much liked using the wet-on-wet technique to make the sunflower in my last tutorial, I decided to use the same technique to make a poppy this month. Poppies are wild; their stalks are irregular; and their petals are always messy. In other words, they're ideal...
I love lanterns, their warm light, and the ambiance they create in every season, both inside and outside the house. And so, for this tutorial, I decided to create a 3-D cookie version...
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...
Food coloring is arguably the second most important element in cookie decorating after the royal icing itself. The art of choosing colors and/or mixing the exact shade are the subjects of many blog posts...
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.
While there were still a few Christmas hold-outs topping this week's hot list*, like the lovely spruce sprig pictured above by Honeycat Cookies, it seems like the vast majority of you have promptly changed color palettes and moved from evergreens and snow onto hearts and roses.
Admittedly, I'm a little ODed on pumpkins and ghosts around about this time each year! But considering we've got less than one week to go 'til the big day - and we've got such an abundance of great Halloween cookies on the site - I had no choice...
Rarely does a cookier make a mark on the cookie kingdom with one set. But when this month’s featured cookier, Stephanie Kappel of The Hungry Hippopotamus , appeared on the scene in 2011 with her Lichtenstein pop art cookies (two photos below),...
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),...
Hello, Cookie Connection members! Have I got a treat for you! Later this month, I'll be welcoming member Aymee VanDyke as a guest blogger. Her "column," which is in need of a name (more on that in a later post), will cover all you ever wanted to...
Aha! I betcha thought I'd be posting the week's top 10 wedding cookies (after all, June is wedding month). Or the hottest Fourth of July cookies to celebrate that imminent holiday in my home country. But, noooo . . . I fooled you. This week, it's none...
I haven’t baked and decorated cookies since February. I just couldn’t get myself into the kitchen for a few months. But today I am really happy to be back with an easy project - another...
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...
As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Such has been my judging team-mantra for the last couple of years. In fact, the team of judges for Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™ has been such a well-oiled machine that the last thing I wanted to do this year was to...
This month, I've got a Christmas version of my tutorial from a couple of years ago, which, as you may recall, was a cookie platter that became a surprise 3-D lantern just by stacking the cookies. In the previous project, the cookies were...
I love to take inspiration for my cookie designs from nature. There’s an imperfect quality to organic objects that I find very forgiving; things don’t have to be perfectly straight, smooth, or symmetrical. So I try to...
Summer has finally slipped well into autumn here in England, but it's still gorgeous weather, sunny and bright with just a slight chill. So while the season is getting into full swing with its riot of colour and spices and warming treats, I felt like...
It's "cookie kryptonite" time again here in Practice Bakes Perfect land! Since it is either spring or fall for you, depending on your hemisphere, now is the perfect time to wrestle with the ever-changing temperature and humidity conditions that play such a critical role in executing wet-on-wet cookie designs...
It's not yet Independence Day, but you'd never know it around here! People in my little suburb are already staking out spots along the parade route; bunting and American flags are cropping up on every porch; and premature fireworks are sounding even as I write this post...
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...
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...
Phew! It's been a busy start of 2017 here on Cookie Connection. Just this past month, we had the largest month-to-month increase in membership since March 2015 with 260 new members joining us...
Practice Bake Perfect Challenge #10 is officially one for the books. I could not have been more impressed with the depth and overall quality of the entries we received. It is no small feat of planning and execution to produce a dozen...
[EDITOR'S NOTE: While I'm terribly sad that Kari Arroyo ,aka Dear Yankee Girl ,has retired from our amazing team of contributors, I'm thrilled to introduce our newest tutorial writer through this debut post! You probably know her as Sugar Pearls Cakes & Bakes , the maker of those magnificent multi-technique cookies (say that three times fast!) that have wowed us all on this site. (Remember that stenciled honeycomb set? And the crazy quilt-style gingerbread...
Little bees everywhere! Pipe them onto almost any cookie, and people will exclaim over them! (Probably to ask why you've piped a bee on top of Olaf's face, but still . . .) In my last tutorial (Part 1), I showed you how to...
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...
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...
My Aunt Jean was a wonderful baker. Watching her in action was something to behold. She would talk a mile a minute, all the while looking directly at me, never missing a beat while mixing her ingredients. She would grab handfuls of flour and...
