Welcome (or welcome back) to my cookie decorating journey! In last week’s post, I mentioned an online cookie community I joined called Cookie Connection. The Cookie Connection’s motto is “A place to learn, share, and celebrate the art of cookie decorating.” So I thought it would be the perfect place for a beginner, like myself, to gain some insight, seek advice from professionals, and get some inspiration!
Upon creating an account, I created my very first forum post seeking advice for lettering and designs. I was surprised as to how quickly the community responded with their tips and tricks. I also explored already existing forum posts and found one on how to get started with cookie designs. From this post, I learned that there is no real guideline for cookie decorating. A lot of the members simply suggest to follow tutorials found on Cookie Connection, YouTube, or pretty much anywhere online! One member also mentions how it is important to read comments as they usually offer advice and tips. Finally, one of the comments that stood out to me was one stating that ALL cookies are beautiful and that even professionals can learn from beginners. This comment stood out to me because I felt like I needed that reassurance. I find myself comparing my work to those of professionals that I forget to appreciate my own progress. Overall, I believe that Cookie Connection is a great way to meet both professional and beginner cookie decorators, gain insight and advice, ask questions, and be inspired. Although this site focuses only on cookie decorating, I believe that there are other online communities that can be found to help with any sort of learning! I suggest looking for and joining one, as they offer tons of support – similar to the communities we have been creating and joining on Twitter and Slack. In addition, it is also a great way to build your PLN!
With all that being said, for my learning project this week, I decided to try out some more icing techniques – 8 to be exact. To support my learning, I searched Cookie Connection, YouTube, and Pinterest for pictures and tutorials. You can find each tutorial linked beneath each video. The videos I created were edited using iMovie – this is the same app I used to edit the videos used in week 2 and 3. I find that iMovie is very simple and easy to use. My classmate, Lydia, offers a link to a tutorial and a review of her experience using the app for the first time in one of her learning project blog posts found here. Personally, I really enjoy using it and I feel that it can be used by both teachers and students in the classroom for projects or presentations.
Without further ado, here is what I learned this week:
Quilted:
YouTube tutorial found here.
Tie-Dyed:
YouTube tutorial found here. Icing begins at 1:48.
Floral:
Pinterest tutorial found here.
Watercolour & Lettering:
YouTube tutorial found here.
Dipped & Line Work:
YouTube tutorial for dipping found here. For line work, I simply used a piping bag filled with outline consistency royal icing, fitted with a Wilton #2 piping tip.
Brush Embroidery:
YouTube tutorial found here.
After this week, I am feeling much more confident in my learning project! I believe that joining a community where you can actually communicate with people and expand your PLN is a great way to learn an gain support. Similar to the last few weeks, YouTube and Pinterest have been extremely helpful in finding tutorials and inspiration and iMovie has been extremely helpful in creating videos that visually demonstrate my learning. Next week, I hope to design and bring to life my own sugar cookie set (a set of cookies that have designs that follow a specific theme).
Hi Mikaela,
Great post this week, I absolutely love your cookie decorating. I wish that I could do that! It is so great that you found a cookie community that can help you with any questions you need, having people that you can ask questions to that know what they are doing is very helpful!
Hi Meagan,
Thank you! You should try it out when you have the time. It is time consuming and takes patience, but once you get the hang of it, it’s super fun! The cookie community is definitely very helpful and supportive.
These cookies are beautiful!! I am truly amazed by your decorating skills and lettering especially. I really appreciate how you made a separate video explaining each technique. It makes the information more accessible to your readers, as they can easily watch the technique they are interested in without having to search through a 10 minute video to find what they want. Great work Mikaela!
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much! The lettering took lots of practice and I would still like to improve. As for the videos, I struggle to sit through long videos myself, so I thought it would be better to create multiple short ones. Thanks for appreciating those!
Hey Mikaela!
These cookies look so awesome and I love how you included a whole bunch of different designs, rather than just sticking to one. I love how you mentioned the importance of finding a community of people with similar interests to you. This definitely helps in gaining reassurance (as you mentioned), finding new resources you may not have otherwise been able to discover, and just feeling like you belong to something and people understand you/what you like! It is so great that with the presence of the online world so accessible for most people these days, it is so much easier to find a community of people to connect with! Definitely a very positive aspect of our digital world that we live in. Keep up the great work!
Hi Caitlin,
Thank you! I got a little excited seeing all the cookie inspirations on Pinterest and Instagram that I couldn’t settle on just one design lol – but the more the merrier! And yes, the community I found is definitely very helpful and supportive. I totally agree that the online world has definitely made it easier to find communities to connect with. I am so grateful for that!
Hi Mikaela. Your cookies look amazing, I loved watch each video!! Please continue to baking and document your progress. I was wondering what kind of icing you used, and if you made the icing?
Hi Carmel,
Thank you so much! I used royal icing to decorate and yes I did make it myself. I have a blog post of my first time making royal icing that can be found here: https://edusites.uregina.ca/mikaeladeguzman/ice-ice-baby/