Blog: How-Tos

There are few things in life more gratifying to Julia than making special gifts for others and watching the smiles that ensue when those labors of love are shared. Here, you’ll find Julia’s how-tos for everything from cookie projects and decorating techniques to paper and other inedible crafts.

Julia M. Usher

2-D Royal Icing Transfers – Part 1

If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve had transfer-mania lately. My cookie perfume bottles had them; so did my cookies necklaces; and so will the cookie tiaras that I’ll share next week. So . . . what exactly are transfers and how

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Julia M. Usher

How to Stencil Contoured Cookies

I’m pretty excited about this video, folks! I dare say, I’ve come up with a new (at least to me) cookie decorating technique! As you may know, I’ve been playing with lots of curvy cookies lately, but the challenge is always

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Julia M. Usher

Cast Sugar 101 – Part 2

In this second-part of my two-video Cast Sugar 101 series, I provide a few creative ways to repurpose leftover cast sugar from Part 1 (link below) into handmade sugar cubes. Once you’ve made your larger sugar pieces, no sugar needs to

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Julia M. Usher

Cast Sugar 101 – Part 1

In this first part of my two-video Cast Sugar 101 series, I show how to cast (aka mold) granulated sugar into a variety of shapes, which can then be used to create stunning cake separators, keepsake boxes and bottles, and other

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Julia M. Usher

How to Make Simple Wafer Paper Flowers

Wafer paper flowers have become all the rage in cake decorating. And it’s no surprise, really! Lightweight (lighter than gumpaste), delicate, and often quite easy to shape, they make gorgeous, life-like embellishments, wired and unwired on cakes – and even

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Julia M. Usher

Advanced 3-D Cookie Box Construction

Now that you’ve got basic 3-D cookie box construction down pat – assuming you looked at my earlier video 😉 – I’m upping the ante with a couple of slightly more advanced cookie box assembly techniques. In this video, I share all my

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Julia M. Usher

How to Assemble 3-D Cookie Boxes

Cookie boxes make great edible gifts – especially when filled with more cookies! In this video, I show how to assemble already decorated cookies into perfectly fitting 3-D boxes using the mitering technique. I also discuss how to apply decorative seams

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Julia M. Usher

Elegant Edible Place Cards

Another video in the party crafting spirit, this tutorial shares how to make an elegant place card using frosting sheets, a little royal icing, and your favorite chargers. The card itself is edible, and unlike popular blackboard paints sometimes used for similar

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Julia M. Usher

Vintage Perfume Bottle Place Cards

I love to entertain DIY-style as much as I like to bake and decorate, so it was high time I uploaded a party crafting video! Here, I show how to quickly make a quasi-edible place card, perfect for your Valentine’s Day

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Julia M. Usher

How to Mold and Gild Cookie Dough

Not every cookie needs to be decorated with royal icing in order to stand out! In this video, I show how to emboss cookie dough using silicone molds to create very cool textured effects. I go further to gild them

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Julia M. Usher

How to Pipe a Royal Icing Needlepoint Pattern

Wondering how I piped the insanely detailed needlepoint patterns on my stuff-able stocking cookies posted recently for Christmas (video here)? Well, you’re in luck! In this video, I reveal all of the details needed for needlepoint icing work, including the

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Julia M. Usher

How to Dip and Decorate Contoured Cookies

In this video, I show how I decorated the surfaces of my 3-D Christmas globe ornaments (assembled in this earlier video), but the same techniques can apply to almost any rounded cookie shape. First, I explain the differences between dipping in

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Julia M. Usher

Edible Papers 101

Wafer paper . . . frosting sheets . . . edible images . . . yeah, the array of edible papers used for cookie and cake decorating can be mind-boggling! But stay tuned! In this video, I aim to demystify

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