I’m back with the 61st Cookie Connection Challenge (the eleventh in my new-ish* Watch-Learn-Create series), and it’s once again hosted by the wonderful Manu Pezzopane who has an uncanny way of asking our featured guests all the right questions at just the right times! Speaking of featured guests . . . our guest for this challenge is award-winning cookie artist Noelle Le-Lê Phan Viên Hy, and she’s going to eliminate (forever!) any fears you may have about piping and painting portrait cookies. In her kickoff video tutorial for this challenge, Noelle shows how to create a charming chibi character, paying particular attention to painting the hair and eyes, which are often the most difficult features to master. Noelle’s thoughtful choice to render a chibi makes this video lesson all the more approachable, particularly for beginners. Piping and painting a chibi-style portrait is arguably easier than piping and painting a regular portrait, because chibis have relatively few facial details, and drawing them cutely doesn’t require precise feature placement and proportions. Plus, Noelle provides three chibi templates in her resource list (which comes with the tutorial) that can be used as cookie-cutting and piping guides, as well as plenty of tips for transferring images, especially without use of a projector. After a brief intro, the bulk of Noelle’s demo focuses on her layered piping methods using two different icing consistencies, and how she paints hair and eye highlights/lowlights to add lifelike depth and dimension.

At the end of the video tutorial, Noelle and Manu encourage viewers to create chibi portraits of their own for Challenge #61 using Noelle’s methods and any one (or all!) of her three chibi templates as guides.

As with all of Cookie Connection’s Watch-Learn-Create challenges, entrants to Challenge #61 have the rare opportunity to expand their cookie skills with one of the industry’s best, but they also get the chance to win incredible prizes! In this case, I’m giving away one free tutorial from our “Guest Series” of past challenge tutorials. And the lucky winner gets to pick exactly which one s/he wants!

More about this challenge guest: Noelle Le-Lê Phan Viên Hy (aka Cookies by Hy) is a Vietnamese cookie artist and international cookie decorating instructor specializing in royal icing and realistic dimensional cookie art. With a passion for edible storytelling, Noelle brings cookies to life through intricate designs that blend creativity, precision, and emotion. Her work has been recognized for its innovation and craftsmanship with multiple international awards, including, most recently, Cookie Artist of the Year Finalist in the 2024 D’licious Magazine Awards. As an instructor, Noelle has had the honor of teaching in the United Kingdom and the United States, and sharing her techniques and vision with artists and enthusiasts around the world. Noelle’s classes are not just about decorating cookies, but also about inspiring others to find joy and meaning in their creative journeys. To explore Noelle’s portfolio and to follow her life as a cookie artist, please visit her Instagram and Facebook pages.

For the challenge rules and additional information about how to join the fun and learning, please visit the official Cookie Connection challenge intro post written by host Manu Pezzopane. The challenge closes on January 11, 2026, giving you ample time to get creative even with the distraction of the intervening Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Of course, if you’d prefer to simply view Noelle’s video lesson without entering the challenge, Manu, Noelle, and I certainly won’t hold you back! 😀 Just click the previous link, and you’ll be taken to the “TUTORIALS: Guest Series” section of this site where you can purchase it for a nominal fee. However, don’t wait until the challenge is over to get the video. While the challenge is running (again, through January 11, 2026), the tutorial is only $5 with the code accessed on the video listing page, but, once the challenge is over, pricing reverts to $30.

Whether you decide to enter Noelles’s challenge or to skip it, you’re guaranteed to learn a lot from her video alone, and your portrait-painting confidence can only grow. Of course, Manu, Noelle, and I would be elated to see you rise to this challenge by creating a darling chibi for entry. Who knows?! You might even win an extra tutorial just for taking the leap!

*In retrospect, the Watch-Learn-Create series isn’t that new-ish anymore, especially considering that Manu and I have now delivered eleven of them! I guess I’ll need to come up with another way to introduce these challenges before the next one. 😀 But ’til then, please enjoy Noelle’s master class, which, I assure you, it is!