Organized by host Manu Pezzopane, this 60th Cookie Connection Challenge (the tenth in the new-ish Watch-Learn-Create series) focused on how to pipe picture-perfect basketweave. And its featured guest was none other than the master of finely piped details herself – Noriko Forster aka Cookie Crumbs by mintlemonade, who made her second appearance as a Cookie Connection challenge guest! (She first appeared in Challenge #56, all about ruffle borders.) In her challenge kickoff video, Noriko demonstrated four stunning variations of basketweave, ranging from a simple single-strand style to more complex double-strand and tapered varieties. Along the way, she also shared invaluable tips about optimum icing consistency, creating piping guidelines, piping speed, and more – all to ensure flawless results with her techniques. At the conclusion of the demo, Noriko and challenge host Manu Pezzopane encouraged viewers to create cookies of their own for Challenge #60 by replicating Noriko’s basketweave styles and/or by creating new styles inspired by what they learned. Though this challenge is over (it closed for entries on September 21, 2025), you are bound to be inspired by the entrants’ many beautiful interpretations of Noriko’s basketweave techniques and styles. Please check out those entries in the challenge recap on Cookie Connection.

As with all of Cookie Connection’s Watch-Learn-Create challenges, entrants to Challenge #60 had the rare opportunity to expand their cookie skills with one of the industry’s best, but they also got the chance to win phenomenal prizes! In this case, Noriko gave away the English-version of her popular flower-piping tutorial. 

More about this challenge guest: Known the world over for her meticulous piping and picture-perfect icing – not to mention her ultra-sophisticated color choices – Noriko Forster needs little introduction. She started her cookie art journey in 2012 when she happened upon a cookie decorating book in a shop in her hometown of Tokyo, Japan. She was so intrigued that she decided she would cover a store-bought cake with cookies for her elder daughter’s birthday to make the cake extra special for her. She did just that, and the rest is history. By 2016, Noriko was teaching six cookie decorating classes per month, all while raising two girls and working as a book editor. By 2023, her cookies had been featured twice in a calendar produced by a famous Japanese cosmetics company, three times in Cookie Connection‘s coveted banner spot, and countless times in that same community’s Saturday Spotlights and challenges. Today, Noriko is arguably one of Japan’s finest cookie decorating instructors, having taught an estimated 1,000 students through her series of in-person, hands-on classes, and innumerable others through her online video tutorials.