Hello my name is Michaela and I live in Springtown, TX. I am a mother of 8 children and currently I am working toward opening up my own bakery. I am decent at cakes and cookies but would love to learn to be a expert. Any help in this area are appreciated. I am excited to meet everyone and learn. God bless you all.
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Hi, Michaela Dodge, Congrats on making your first post. I look forward to many more to come!
Thank you and I look foward to learning from everyone. Now I am trying to figure out how to watch the videos and get around the website. Any advice is welcome
Hi, Michaela! The above message was automated, but this is me responding more personally! I hope you enjoy the site. I suggest you start with the Site FAQ and read them closely. They will give you most of the startup info needed for the site. (I'm in the process of revising them slightly to reflect some recent changes to the site, but they are 90% there.) If you click on Clips (which is where photos and videos get posted) and then on Videos, you'll see a long list of thumbnails of all the videos ever posted to the site. Click on any thumbnail to view the video. Some of the videos are tutorials and others are more for entertainment value.
To find written tutorials, go to the Blog section and then click on any of the "tutorial" blog collections to the right of the page, and all the tutorials in that collection will come up.
We also have a quick link to all of our tutorials under the Resources tab of this site, to the right of the page when that area opens up.
Hope this helps.
I should add that sometimes the best learning here just happens by commenting on people's photos posted to Clips - asking about methods/materials used and so forth. Cookie Connection members are very open about sharing what they know and love! 
Hi Michaela, nice to meet you
Very exciting that you are making steps towards opening your own bakery. As Julia says, there are some amazing people on here that are really generous with advice and help along the way. The tutorials in the blog section are brilliant.
I look forward to seeing you about the website and your cookies
Best wishes, Marie
Oh, and how did I fail to applaud you for being a mother of eight children AND working on opening a bakery?! Wow - what a feat!
Well nice to meet you Micheala you're definitely in the right place you couldn't have picked a better site I say this over and over again I am amazed of all the high Talent cookiers hear me I'm still learning so I won't be much help to you as yet but perhaps in the near future everyone here is so helpful and pleasant I admire you for having eight children and still be sane enough to open up your own Bakery May your Bakery live long and prosper
Julia M. Usher posted:Oh, and how did I fail to applaud you for being a mother of eight children AND working on opening a bakery?! Wow - what a feat!
Oh yes, Julia! I read her comment with utter amazement...she must have energy beyond belief . @Michaela Dodge Welcome to the Cookie Connection "family" (as I like to call us. Lol.) I'm so glad to have you here as well. The cookiers here are so kind, helpful and amazingly generous in sharing their tricks of the trade, so-to-speak. Looking forward to your posts!!
Thank you all ladies your comments are so sweet. Yes in my younger years I did have lots of energy to run around and take care of my beautiful and talented 8 children. They are now 32,27,26,21,20,18,15,and 14. I still have to run for the 26 yr old as he will always be home due to have cerebral palsy but oh what a delight he is. I am also his caregiver. The 15 and 14 yr old is still in school both in band and many other events that keep me hoping. I did work at a Whataburger as a manager but I have recently had a knee replaced and that has slowed me down a lot. My husband and I decided that I would put my hobby of baking to good use and decide for me to take some online classes and open a bakery. I have learned a lot watching videos and am anxious to start putting them to good use. I now am in the process of gathering equipment that i dont have such as different cookie cutters and other tools so that I can start baking. Where do I find different recipes and such that everyone uses? I have enclosed a picture of my children
Also check out Pinterest as well. Lots of tutorials can be found on that site too.
Michaela Dodge posted:Thank you all ladies your comments are so sweet. Yes in my younger years I did have lots of energy to run around and take care of my beautiful and talented 8 children. They are now 32,27,26,21,20,18,15,and 14. I still have to run for the 26 yr old as he will always be home due to have cerebral palsy but oh what a delight he is. I am also his caregiver. The 15 and 14 yr old is still in school both in band and many other events that keep me hoping. I did work at a Whataburger as a manager but I have recently had a knee replaced and that has slowed me down a lot. My husband and I decided that I would put my hobby of baking to good use and decide for me to take some online classes and open a bakery. I have learned a lot watching videos and am anxious to start putting them to good use. I now am in the process of gathering equipment that i dont have such as different cookie cutters and other tools so that I can start baking. Where do I find different recipes and such that everyone uses? I have enclosed a picture of my children
I wish you all the best with your new endeavor!!!
Recipes wise, Julia has a gingerbread recipe on her website here: https://www.juliausher.com/blog...gory/cookie-recipes/
LilaLoa has chocolate and vanilla recipes here: http://www.lilaloa.com/p/recipes.html
Sweet Sugarbelle has recipes here: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/more-roll-out-recipes/
They all have their royal icing recipes on their website too. There are tonnes of different cookiers who kindly share their recipes out there, I just picked 3 of the more popular cookiers. Then it's just a question of finding the recipe that you like the most Good luck.
