SusieMakes

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

Two years ago, on this day, I was at National Pastry Conference competing with my cookie display, making new friends, hanging out with old friends, learning, networking, eating tasty treats, seeing incredible edible art, both on display as well as being created right in front of me.

In a little over a month, I’ll be going back to Charlotte for PastryCon again… but I’m not competing this year! Stay tuned to see what I’ll be up to while I’m there… and I hear there are a few more competitor spots available in the cookie category, so if you’re on the fence, I encourage you to sign up.
And if you see me there, make sure to say hi!

08/25/2026

Sometimes things don’t go as planned… thankfully, we have baked goods to help us through life’s disappointments.

08/08/2026

My daughter asked for “the pinkest party on the planet” and this was her cake! Happy birthday, Katie ! Love you babygirl!

07/05/2026

Happy 250th Birthday to the USA! 🎆

07/04/2026

At CookieCon™ - Cookie Art Convention & Show - Cookie Decorating there’s also a “Mystery Shape” challenge, where we decorate, on site, our interpretation of an unknown cookie shape. Inspired by my youngest son, who loves dinosaurs, I decorated this cookie. Now that I’m finally home from Orlando (I stayed a few extra days after the con to play at the parks with my kids!), I decided to preserve it with epoxy resin. Let me know if you’re interested in how I do it! It’s super easy to preserve special cookies in resin.
Swipe to the last picture to see what the cookie shape was intended to be, and congratulations to the winning designs!
Check them out…
🥇 Anna Oliinyk | Sunday Cookers | Cookie Art & Classes
🥈 Ruth Negual
🥉 Casey | Decorated Sugar Cookies | Cookie Content Creation

07/02/2026

This was my entry for CookieCon™ - Cookie Art Convention & Show - Cookie Decorating under the Beach Party category. A lot of entries were just “beach,” no “party,” but I tried to show a different kind of beach party. I call it “This is How We Party Now.” Fellow parents, you get it, right?!
This piece didn’t get much attention, but I really liked making it anyway. It was one of those ideas I got in my head, and it just had to come out!

06/30/2026

I made this pigeon for the CookieCon™ - Cookie Art Convention & Show - Cookie Decorating Sugar Art Show. His name is Harolciber, and he made a lot of people smile, stop me, and ask how I made him!
So I thought I’d share the few process pictures I took.
I started with a paper template of a pigeon outline, then cut a flat cookie with it, as well as two contoured cookies that I baked over a foil “mold” to give dimension to the sides. Then I sandwiched those together with royal icing to form the pigeon body. The pillow cookies (2 pieces) were baked with the same method.
I used a microplane grater on the baked, assembled cookies to smooth out the desired shape and silhouette.
Then, I covered the pigeon in royal icing. The beak, tail, and wings were built up with moldable royal icing. Once it dried, I painted the colors onto the pigeon to guide my sprinkle placement.
The non pareils were attached with piping gel, brushed onto the body in sections. I had to custom dye a few of the colors (different shades of gray). The crown & necklace were also made with moldable royal icing.
The pillow texture was achieved by coating it in red royal icing, and then encrusting it with granulated sugar. I shaded it with red airbrushing and added some flash dust for sparkle. Gold non pareils line the outer rim, and tassels are hand-sculpted moldable royal icing.

This was such a fun project!

06/28/2026

So… I’m at CookieCon this weekend, and as soon as I walked into my hotel room yesterday afternoon, I heard my roommates say “congratulations! You won!”
What a wonderful way to find out that Julia M Usher has posted the big winner reveal for her final competition early, and that I won 1st place!

The theme was “Architect of Your Dreams,” and this is how I interpreted it:
“I think I am already living my biggest dream. Over the years I’ve had a lot of ideas about what I wanted my life to look like, what goals I wanted to pursue, places I wanted to visit, achievements I wanted to make . . . but when I really get down to what is truly important to me, there is only one thing: my family. I want to live a quiet, happy life, growing old with my husband. When my kids go out into the world, all I really want is for them to know and feel like they can always come home to us . . . So in this cookie piece, I have created an older version of my husband and me, having a quiet moment on our porch swing. Meanwhile, inside the house, our kids and grandkids have come to visit, as evidenced by their shoes piled by the door. We have photos of some of their special moments hanging on the wall; being present in the big (and ordinary) parts of life is how we have built close relationships with them. This is why they are happy to come back to our home. We have made space for the grandkids too, with toys and a place on the wall for their art. I want to be a fun grandma. The closet on the other side of the wall holds things from the past, old relics and memories from my kids’ childhoods, as well as some of my own dreams that came to be, and others that just weren’t that important for me to pursue anymore. And lastly, when we turn the piece all the way around, well, it’s just me, dreaming, with all these lovely thoughts in my head.”

Over 50 cookies, a month of work, too many wafer paper chain links, hours and hours of painting tiny people, lots of royal icing of all types, and zero fondant went into this 100% edible creation. Oh, and it definitely has a piece of my soul in it too.

I’m so proud and honored and just really happy for this accomplishment.
The proverbial icing on the cookie was that I got to share my excitement with my awesome cookie friends here at CookieCon. ❤️

Check out all the other winners and see what Julia & the judges had to say about the competition and the winning entries:

https://cookieconnection.juliausher.com/blog/the-2026-winner-reveal-julia-m-usher-s-cookie-art-competition

06/05/2026

A little throwback to 7 years ago, when fault line cakes were all the rage, and I had the idea to level up the concept with my tiger eyes design. The funny thing was that this cake was made on a whim, with old freezer cake and leftover icing and sprinkles. The flower was from my front yard. My kids ate the cake the same day I made it.
And this cake got me noticed a little for my sprinkle pointillism technique. It was shared and copied. I was asked to create tutorials for magazine because of this cake. It was really cool! I’m grateful for the experience. I still have that magazine spread framed in my kitchen.
Now it looks like sprinkles are back in style with dot cakes. Much easier than fault lines! I haven’t made one yet… maybe a sprinkle pointillism dot cake is in my future…