The 2026 Julia M. Usher’s Cookie Art Competition™, the last one before Julia headed into cookie-retirement*, shaped up to be her best ever! For the first time in competition history, Julia aligned herself with an exclusive media partner, the wonderful Kelly Jane, Editor/Founder of the illustrious D’licious Magazine. Julia’s goals with this partnership were to give sponsors more exposure across a wider range of platforms and to take competition participation across the world to new heights. And she was elated to report that her goals were surpassed! Competition registration reached its highest level in five years, and the final prize tally ($32,000 USD) was an all-time record, thanks to 24 amazing sponsors!

The competition closed for entries on May 31, 2026, with submissions coming from countries across the globe – Iran, Ukraine, Japan, Spain, Mexico, Poland, and the United States, to name just a few. And the 12 amazing winners were announced on June 27. Their creations were extraordinary, not just in their technical details, but also in how beautifully, and often quite poignantly, they expressed the competition’s theme, “Architect of Your Dreams”. Julia encourages you to check out the winning entries and to learn more about their talented creators in the official winner reveal post on Cookie Connection or via the “WINNER REVEAL” button on this page. She also extends a heartfelt thank-you to all entrants, sponsors, and judges who joined her for this last leg of her competition journey, and for the 12 wonderful competitions that preceded this finale!

* IMPORTANT: In January 2026, Julia announced that she would retire from cookie art at the end of 2026, and that this competition would be her last hurrah, a parting gift to the cookie community, if you will. And what a gift it was!