I know it may not feel like it yet, but the holiday season is right around the corner, and for us cottage bakers, it's the busiest, most exciting and most financially impactful time of the year. Whether you're baking for friends, family, or customers, planning and...
A few months ago, Nancy from Cookie-a-thon had asked if I'd ever tried rolled buttercream - I had never tried it, and saw it again on a FB group, so I pulled up Pam Kennedy Bake's recipe as a starting point. Pam, thanks a bunch for sharing your knowledge with us. I...
If you're a passionate baker who gifts or sells your baked goods, you might also want your delicious treats to make a lasting impression. I've been obsessed with packaging early on in my cottage bakery career and *love* dressing up my bakes to enhance the customer...
Cratering in royal icing cookies can be a frustrating issue for cookie decorators. You've spent time meticulously decorating your cookies, only to find unsightly craters forming over time, ruining your hard work. It's not something that everyone will notice or care...
I hear and see everyone who has been asking for a "bare minimum" tools/equipment list for those who want to get into cookie decorating in this down economy... well, here it is... But keep the following in mind: the cookie decorating community is tight-knit and...
To reduce waste and get the most out of your icing, this post discusses how I'd recommend storing your icing.. of course.. like many other topics... this is nuanced and the answer is "it depends" on a few factors... and keep in mind there is a bit of wiggle room, so...
I started my first ecommerce "venture" when I was 11 - selling counterfeit k-pop bookmarks on Soompi forums (do not recommend doing this today), using free internet hours from the AOL discs that I gathered from my friends/family. I tied up the phone line a lot and my...
.. dead serious. This is the story of how a butt cushion changed my life. If you work a desk job OR decorate your cookies sitting down like me, you might be familiar with lower back and/or hip discomfort. And that’s just one part of it, you probably have repetitive...
I've been decorating cookies since 2011, and you can imagine that my collection of tools and cutters has grown over time. A few years ago, I finally decided to organize my cutters so that it'd be easier to find a shape. Please learn from my experience, and think about...
This post is long overdue, but better late than never, right? I'll be providing an overview of The Sugar Art products that we carry in our store. Watch the video embedded in this blog post to get some visuals of use cases: To summarize the video.... The Sugar Art...
Hi there! Lisa here, owner of Borderlands Bakery. In my ten years of cookie decorating, I spent 5 of them taking on custom orders for decorated sugar cookies and french macarons. Having lived that custom-order life and after talking with thousands of other bakers, we...
I see all of you getting ready for the holiday cookie season and one of the most commonly asked question right now is: Can you freeze cookies? The short answer is: HECK YES. But there are some important factors to consider, so let's dig in. Most cutout cookies can be...
My friend Dave of Baked by Dave has given the cookie decorating community a huge gift: his royal icing calculator. One of the challenges of decorating cookies is estimating how much icing you'll need for a project: make too much and it's wasteful. Make too little, and...
If you're looking for a fun project with the kids this Halloween, look no further. I've teamed up with my friends at Matcha Kari (matcha.com) to bring you an easy matcha based cookie recipe with easy decorations- a cute cookie with minimal work. This cookie base keeps...
I'm incredibly excited to be introducing a suite of courses taught by my friend Malek Binns and myself. I have known Malek a few years and we organically became friends via Instagram. We've met in person a few times, and for this collab, I invited Malek to stay with...
So... you want to talk about what we can do in the baking community to counteract climate change and pursue a sustainable baking ethos… so do I. So, here we go. I’m going to approach this from a practical perspective - nothing overly complicated but also keep in mind...
We held an Amazon Live in Feb 2021 on how to DIY Cookie Scribes. In this blog post, we'll summarize the process for you. Firstly- what is a cookie scribe? A cookie scribe is a sharp, pointy tool, often used in cookie decorating to redistribute icing/pop air bubbles in...
Our French Macaron Classes are FINALLY releasing Feb. 28 2021 at 8am PST -- we filmed the bulk of this in Jan 2020 right as COVID was starting to hit the US, and it felt like it has taken an eternity to get this out to you all! Hope you’re all as excited as I am, and...
If you’ve been on the internet in the past year or so you’ve probably seen them, wanted them, or at least wanted one for yourself. I’m talking about Cocoa Bombs! Today, I’ll be sharing my method for making hot cocoa bombs. Along with a detailed how-to video, I’ve also...
We’re sharing an excerpt from our comprehensive online course today, related to how to heat seal your decorated sugar cookies. I see so many people struggle with this and many folks aren’t getting the *most* out of their heat sealer (using it on the wrong setting, not...
There are an INFINITE number of ways to package and mail cookies and it’s all dependent on what you’re shipping, the shape/quantity, etc. -- but I wanted to share ONE of the most commonly used methods I use for shipping treats to my friends and family. I like to keep...
I get a ton of questions every time I post about my new favorite thing in the world… my dough sheeter! Now, this handy gadget is not a necessity for many home bakers, but it does come in super handy when you are doing a large volume of cookies. This is especially...
What if you’re out in the wilderness with no cookie-cutter? Hi friends!! This is an informative blog post and video to show you how to hand-cut cookie dough if you don’t have the desired cutter shape available. There are a few instances where I want to hand-cut...
Summer weather is in full swing here in the Sacramento area, and all I want to do is make summer-themed cookies. And with COVID-19 physical distancing protocols still in place, no traveling for us. But we can still decorate vacation-y cookies, right? I put together...
"How to write with icing" may be my #1 MOST requested tutorial. Writing with royal icing is dependent on: font style, font size, icing consistency, piping tip/size, piping pressure, piping technique. Today, I’ll talk with you about how I approach writing with icing....