I Have Found My People...and They Are Cookiers!!!

There is nothing so delightful as being surrounded by about 500 other people who like the very same thing you like.  That they are warm, caring, welcoming, and incredibly talented and creative...well, that's just icing on ...the cookie.

Yes, I'm back from CookieCon and I have no words.  The adjectives and the superlatives have all been used.  Wonderful classes, break-out sessions, speakers, the sugar art show...jam-packed into 3 exciting days of cookie joy.  My friend, Diana, and I had the time of our lives.

Diana and I enjoyed taking in the Salt Lake City and surrounding area sites.  We played tourist on Sunday before heading home on Monday.  We went to The Great Salt Lake, to Park City Ski Resort, Temple Square in downtown SLC...and my bucket list item, hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

 

 

I felt my Mom's presence with me - we both loved this choir.

I found I didn't take all that many photos in the classes.  I spent time making pages of notes (which I will need to go over repeatedly) where I documented all but the last class of the day...by that time I had a hand cramp!  I learned many new things and a different way to do old things.  It was really beyond wonderful.

The spotlight of the event, however, was definitely seeing the incredible work of so many cookie artists in one place, in real life!  Since I can't really post hundreds of photos, I decided to put together a little slide show.  I know there are some cookies I may have missed, but I think I got the vast majority of them.  I bow to the advanced cookiers...their work is incredible.  I bow to the beginners who had the guts to put their work on display.  I bow to the intermediate talents who can see how far they've come and how far they want to go.  There was a place for every level of artist in the Sugar Art Show.

Enjoy the video and I'd love any comments you might care to make.  I am avidly waiting to learn when the NEXT CookieCon will be!

Bon Appetit, my cookie friends!

CookieCon 2014 Sugar Art Show Entries

I don't have time to write all about CookieCon (but I will do that later).  I am just home yesterday afternoon and have much catching up to do and about 400 photos to look at.

However, I did want to go ahead and post photos of the two cookies I entered in the Sugar Art Show.  I worked hard on them and I'm kind of proud of how far I've come in the last couple of years.  Sadly, after sitting in the extremely dry air for 3 days in Salt Lake City, my first cookie cracked and crumbled when I picked it up to bring it home.  They both ended up in the trash because I knew they couldn't be eaten and so pffft...off they went into the garbage.

Glad I photographed them.  Not a winner - but that is absolutely okay.  You should see the cookies that won!  I'll try to get together some of the photos I took of cookies before long.  However, I must get back to real life and that means I have to step away from the blog while I do that!

Here are the two entries!

Entry for "Home Sweet Home" Category
Stylistic representation of the beautiful beach and ocean,
sand castles, and our beloved Sea Turtle, Inc. hatchling releases.

Entry in the "Anything Goes" Category
I had never tried an ombre anything, so I tried the
technique with a flower.  I added two separate
leaf cookies as accents, and embellished them
with piped veins, edible marker veins and dry-brushed
lustre dust.  I painted the accent dots on the flower
with lustre dust dissolved in vodka. The hundreds of
individually piped beads on the flowers was very labor
intensive.  I may never do that again, but I can now say
"I did it"!
 

All cookies were made with my favorite Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie dough, rolled 3/8" thick, and decorated with vanilla royal icing.  If they hadn't sat around un-covered for 10 days, they would likely have tasted quite yummy!

Thanks for joining me today...more on CookieCon coming up as soon as my life settles down.

Bon Appetit, Y'all!