Since featuring stenciled royal icing transfers in my past two tutorials, I have continued to experiment with their applications in 3-D cookie constructions. Stenciled royal icing transfers are rather fragile, but they are...

Hi, everyone! Welcome to Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #58. The topic of this challenge is beautiful bows! What a great topic as we head into the Christmas holiday! I mean, what Christmas cookie set wouldn't...

This month's tutorial is a variation of my “3-D Lantern Cookie” project that I shared in October 2017. In that tutorial, my cookie lantern had isomalt panes...

It's been a hot summer in Rome, and, even though I haven’t turned on my oven for a while, I've been working on this tutorial for you! It's one that needn't require much, if any, baking as its focus is on stenciled royal icing transfers. You will learn how to...

Hi, everyone! Welcome to the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #57 where Evelindecora wore the hat of host to present me as the featured guest. I loved the opportunity to teach in a new way, and I can't thank Evelin enough for her support! In my kickoff video, I showed how to...

Hi, everyone! Just a quick update on some matters of timing. I am planning to...

Hi, everyone! Welcome to Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #57. The topic of this challenge is stenciled royal icing transfers, and - surprise! - I am...

Hi, everyone! Here I am with the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #56 featuring Noriko Forster, aka mintlemonade (cookie crumbs). In her kickoff video, Noriko showcased how to create three types of...

This month, I have a quick and easy 3-D basket cookie suitable for many occasions, including Easter, May Day, Mother's Day, weddings, and more! The basket is contoured and...

Last year I shared with you a dimensional cookie platter tutorial comprised of two flowers whose petals, centers, and leaves were contoured. This month I have another similar and...

I've found that the best way to keep the creative juices flowing is to be consistent with your baking and decorating. While you're creating one thing, other ideas will keep coming. And so...

Hi, everyone ! Today we travel virtually all the way to Tokyo, Japan to meet Noriko Forster aka mintlemonade (cookie crumbs), the featured guest of this Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #56. Noriko is best known in Japan as...

I can’t believe it's time again for me to take over the Saturday Spotlight, but here I am with the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #55 featuring Carmen of Inspirations by Carmen Urbano. In her kickoff video, she showed us...

Last year in April, I shared a cookie tutorial featuring dimensional royal icing flowers on lattice cookies. I used a huge round cutter to create the lattice, a tool normally used to cut an entire lattice pie crust top in one fell swoop. In this tutorial, I...

It’s almost December, and after so many years of sharing tutorials on Julia M. Usher's Cookie Connection, I declare my November/December 3-D Christmas tree cookie tutorial a tradition. This year's tree...

Hi, everyone! I am finally back with Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #55! Dimensional mixed media is its topic, and our featured guest is the very talented...

I shared my first felt letter board cookie tutorial three years ago, and have made a few more since! Here’s a photo collage of my past projects plus some of their variations for reference and inspiration...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Hi, everyone! Time to take over the Saturday Spotlight with the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #53, where my featured guest Laura Saporiti showcased her personal "watercolor veiling“ technique. Laura shared all...

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...

Hi, everyone, and welcome to a new Watch-Learn-Create challenge! In this 53rd challenge, our featured guest Laura Saporiti shares all of the tools, techniques, and tips needed to paint watercolor florals on fondant...

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...

I am celebrating winter with a 3-D winter wonderland tree cookie, and I hope you'll come celebrate with me! This 3-D project doesn’t require any icing "glue" to stand, so it's more like a 3-D cookie platter. The concept behind its construction is similar to that of mug-hugger cookies, which are . . .

It’s the end of November, which means that it's time to share a Christmas tree-themed tutorial! [EDITOR'S NOTE: Apologies to Manu for my delayed posting - it's now early December! However, there's still plenty of time to enjoy this tutorial, and even make this fabulous project! ~ JMU] To kick off, I am posting pictures of the Christmas cookie tutorials that I have shared over the past several years here on Cookie Connection...

This is the story of a cookie tutorial that was meant to be a 3-D pumpkin cookie project but ended up becoming a dimensional cookie composition that resembles a pumpkin. Three years ago I shared a tutorial featuring royal icing place cards. They were royal icing plaque transfers decorated with three different kinds of...

Hi, everyone! For this challenge, I have a special guest, someone you know very well. She comes from Italy, and she has been one of the most active members of Cookie Connection for years...

Hi, everyone, I am taking over this Saturday Spotlight with the recap of Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #51, featuring Julia M. Usher on the subject of shaping and covering 3-D cookies. Many thanks to each one of you who participated. This challenge wasn’t easy, even if...

Hi, everyone! I am so thrilled to see all of the amazing creations presented so far for the Watch-Learn-Create Challenge #51, whose featured guest is Julia M. Usher. Julia wrote in a comment...

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...

Hi, everyone! I am so happy and honored to be taking over the Cookie Connection challenges from Christine Dutcher (aka Sweet Prodigy) who has inspired us for the past 11 challenges in the Practice Bakes Perfect edition. Thank you, Julia M. Usher, for giving me the opportunity to host these challenges in the new Watch-Learn-Create format, which involves...

Hi, everyone! As you may know, Julia M. Usher recently offered me the opportunity to be the host of the new Watch-Learn-Create Cookie Connection challenges. How could I possibly say no to her and miss this opportunity? In each of these new bimonthly (six per year) challenges, I will...

As a kid, I loved to pick flowers and press them between the pages of books. It's these fond memories of pressed flowers that inspired me to recreate them in royal icing...

My mother recently installed some lattices on her terrace and, with that image in mind, I immediately envisioned a Mother’s Day cookie project: a lattice cookie decorated with royal icing flower transfers. The transfers for this project are a...

Even after I finished the cutwork lace cookies showcased in my previous tutorial, that embroidery technique kept developing in my mind. In fact, it developed to the point of this project...

Since it will soon be spring (wishful thinking maybe?), I tried to imagine a delicate and dainty cookie with decorations featuring a flower, leaves, and lace. I got inspiration from many different embroidery techniques like cutwork and hemstitch; then I...

A few years back I shared a Cookie Connection tutorial featuring hot water bottle cookies with cable-knit covers. Actually, given their size, I named them hand warmers. Later on, I decorated cookies of the same shape with...

This month’s tutorial is only about royal icing transfers. As a reminder, a royal icing transfer is a royal icing decoration that has been piped onto some substrate other than a cookie - usually acetate, parchment paper, or silicone. Once the icing has dried...

Once again, I've got a 3-D Christmas tree cookie project this year! Below are some of my 3-D Christmas tree cookies from my previous tutorials here on Cookie Connection. But let's not dwell too long on the past; it's always fun to see new and exciting things! Onward!...

It's not autumn without some mum cookies! In fact, I've got one mum project for each year all the way back to 2017, when I shared how to decorate a potted mum in Step 2 of this Cookie Connection tutorial...

I have been so looking forward to autumn and its colors that this month you will get more colorful leaves! They are...

This month I have for you some colorful leaf cookies, inspired by macramé feathers. Macramé feathers pop up very often in my Instagram feed, and, since I appreciate leaf shapes more than usual during the fall season, I was inspired to...

My July tutorial is all about practicing the piping of sunflowers on cookies! I will also be using different types of straws in creative ways: first, a paper one to make the flower-decorating easier, and then stainless steel ones for the display. On a side note...

This cookie project is meant for a dad who plays or loves to watch tennis (or for anyone who does). I used the Needlepoint Mat from SugarVeil® to make...