Happy 2025, everyone! We're ringing in the new year in high style with site art made by the always-creative @Bakerloo Station (aka Christine Donnelly)! Her Art Deco-inspired New Year's set, first posted in 2023 at this time (here), remains as festive as ever. (Oh, how I wish I had a plate of these cookies to celebrate with this year, but all I got around to "prepping" for my "party" with my husband tonight was popcorn and chips . . . he's been on call all week, so, suffice it to say, we're having a low-key holiday here. But I digress . . .)
Congrats, Christine, on your beautiful work! And thank you, @Icingsugarkeks (aka Gabi), for morphing Christine's cookies into the very particular formats required for our site's banner and backdrop. I also appreciate your addition of the animated cork-pop in the banner, perfectly timed to coincide with the stroke of midnight on Christine's clock cookie! 🎉
I imagine most of you know Christine quite well. Not only is her charming and often whimsical work immediately recognizable, but Christine was a longstanding Cookie Connection challenge host, guiding creative adventures on this site from 2015 until her passing of the challenge-baton to another Christine (aka @Sweet Prodigy) in 2020. It's hard to believe, but it's been over eight (!) years since we last caught up with Christine in a Cookier Close-up, so my plan is to visit with her again in that format after I get December 2024 site artist @Maggy Morales' interview done. (BTW, I plan to start Maggy's interview questions as soon as the buzz of New Year's champagne has worn off! 😉) In the meantime, please take a look at Christine's updated bio below to get a quick glimpse of what she's been doing since leaving her post as our challenge host. I really look forward to catching up with her soon!
No stranger to Cookie Connection, Christine Donnelly was host of this site’s Practice Bakes Perfect cookie-decorating challenges for five years, from 2015 to 2020. She began her professional baking career at 16, when she was hired on the spot at her local bakery to work the counter and decorate cakes. After attending college (Go Irish!) and law school, she worked as a trial lawyer in Chicago for many years, ultimately leaving that career to become a stay-at-home parent to her two children. In her “retirement,” she continued to bake at home, at last finding her preferred artistic medium in decorated cookies. In February 2013, while Christine was living in the United Kingdom, her online cookie persona Bakerloo Station debuted on Instagram and Facebook. More than a decade later, she can still be found decorating cookies and posting the evidence as @bakerloostation on all socials.
Since leaving her Practice Bakes Perfect post in 2020, and following some early pandemic soul-searching, Christine has spent a lot more of her time volunteering with organizations that focus on democracy, poverty, and human development, including Catholic Relief Services, The Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, and Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute. She has also volunteered as a voter protection lawyer during the last several election cycles. And perhaps her biggest claim to cookie fame during this time was being a second-place winner in Julia's 2021cookie art competition!
In her free time, when not cookie-ing, Christine may be found cuddling cats at Orphans of the Storm animal shelter, adding to her 485-day streak on Duolingo, or puttering around her garden.
All cookies and photos by Christine Donnelly.
Last but not least, for those of you who are wondering how to get featured, it's easy! Simply read these posts here and here. Remember: Site artists not only get their work featured prominently for a full month, but they also get profiled in a forum post like this one and in an in-depth Cookier Close-up interview. All considered, it's a lot of great free PR in exchange for photo sharing! When preparing your site art, please bear in mind that I already have artwork through all of 2025, thanks to @Icingsugarkeks, but she is currently at work on material for 2026. So don't hesitate to submit your cookies at any time. Please also remember that Icingsugarkeks is available to help you get your photos in the right format, so feel free to contact her if you need assistance! You can send her a PM right here on Cookie Connection by clicking on her name (in pink) above.
