Julia M. Usher
Posts By Julia M. Usher
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
Despite scattered Thanksgiving and tropics-themed interlopers, we're all-in with Christmas cookies in this week's Spotlight! From Maggy Morales' jovial Santa in the cover image to...
❤️ Fall in Love! ❤️
Important Message Regarding Tutorials: Your Input is Needed!
Hi, all. By now, you may have read Aproned Artist's announcement at the end of her new and very fabulous nutcracker tutorial. If not, in a nutshell (pun intended), she's planning to...
New 2025 Cookie Calendar is Here!
Hello, Cookie Connection members! I've got an atypical, but very important notice for you - my 2025 cookie calendar is now here! Fortunately, it's here a lot earlier than last year (when it arrived in January)! Please read on for details...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
I'm excited to say that It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here on Cookie Connection! Sure, we've still got a decent number of fall-themed cookies featured in this week's hot list (after all, Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet), but...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Thanksgiving Cookies
Like clockwork, as soon as Halloween is over, the Christmas ads and promos start coming in full force, flooding TV, social media, and the airwaves for two solid months. I see this overzealousness about Christmas here in...
Cookier Close-up: Meet Dita Dortová, Our June 2024 Site Artist, at Long Last!
Yes, I’m finally back with another Cookier Close-up, and I’m especially excited about this one with our June 2024 site artist, Dita Dortová aka Dita. Until recently, I only knew Dita through her forum intro from a few months ago and her stunning cookies that she posts quite regularly to this site. So it’s been my...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
Happy fall, y'all! This week, I've been in Maine at my home-away-from-home, enjoying a little time off, replanting pots for the fall, continuing to furnish the house...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
Hey, all! I need to be super snappy with this post, as I'm teaching at The Bake Fest all weekend, and I still have some prep yet to do tonight. Aside: As a means of enticing last-minute class-goers to...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Halloween Cookies
In last week's Spotlight social media post, I said that one can never be too early with Halloween cookie planning. This week, I insist that the corollary is also true - one can never have enough Halloween cookies! And, so, it’s in this spooky spirit that I present you with another...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
Hi, all! We've had another active week with lots of great new cookie art having been posted to the site! Most of it is also featured in this week's hot list - so hurrah, and...
Cake Masters Awards Nominations Open!
Hi, all! It's once again time to celebrate your favorite cookie and cake heroes on a global scale! Yes, the Cake Masters Magazine Awards (conferred in Birmingham, England in November) are now open for nominations. You can nominate cookie and cake artists anywhere!...
Feedback Is Done!
Hi, 2024 cookie art competition entrants! Just a quick update to say that I have completed all of the feedback forms that were requested by the June 30 deadline! Hurrah! If you didn't get yours and think you requested it on time, please...
The 2024 Winner Reveal: Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™
As Taylor Swift (muse for this year's competition theme) would ask, "Are you ready for it?!" - "it", of course, being the grand winner reveal in the third virtual edition of Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™! From what I've witnessed online, I suspect so. And the good news is...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Cookies
Hello, Cookie Connection members! I'm going to keep it brief this week, if that's all right with you. Between my competition wrap-up (the big winner reveal is slated for July 30) and all of the unexpected contractors and cleanup I've had to deal with this week...
Saturday Spotlight: Top 10 Food Lookalike Cookies
Around Tuesday of this week, with the release of Fall Cookie-A-Thon and the soon-to-be-released holiday edition of The Bake Fest looming large, my mind unexpectedly wandered from summertime-present to the future promise of pumpkin and pecan pies, spice lattes, candy apples, and all manner of autumnal treats. I was abruptly awakened...
What to Expect Now that Entries Are In!
First off, congrats to our entrants! As I've said before, you all should consider yourselves winners just for having successfully landed your entries on the virtual judging table by the June 30 deadline! You certainly are a...