Blog: Vertical

Need one of Julia’s foolproof recipes? Some stunning cookie decorating ideas? Or a quick fix on Julia’s latest news and events? Well then, you’re in the right place! Here, you can stay up-to-the-minute current on everything that’s happening in Julia’s kitchen and studio – and in that always-churning mind of hers! IMPORTANT: Julia is still formatting blog entries prior to 2021 to conform to the new site layout. Please don’t be surprised if some back entries look a little wacky, and please be patient as she edits them over time.
Julia M. Usher

Holiday Brittle

Julia’s mother-in-law Sal religiously served peanut brittle every Christmas, which Julia loved but didn’t find particularly Christmassy. One season, Julia tweaked the recipe by removing the peanuts and adding pistachios and dried cranberries instead – and, voilà, a new holiday

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Julia M. Usher

Lapsang Souchong Luxury

What?! Yes! Julia has created an ice cream that appeals to the senses on so many levels. By infusing it with lapsang souchong tea (made of camellia leaves that have been dried over a pinewood fire), the ice cream takes

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Julia M. Usher

Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise (aka Aioli)

A good homemade mayonnaise recipe should be in every recipe box – it’s simply that foundational, and that much better than store-bought. Here, Julia studded her mayo with lots of roasted garlic, turning it into a zingy accompaniment for her

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Julia M. Usher

Campy Cookie-Cake Pop

Yum! Little more needs to be said about this s’mores-like cake pop toasted over the grill – it’s that scrumptious! Made by Julia for a Hamilton Beach grill promotion, these pops consisted of small pieces of flourless chocolate cake and

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Julia M. Usher

End on a Bright Note

One most often sees bread pudding or some other hearty dessert capping off a winter meal. But wintertime is typically marked by holiday overconsumption, so it’s not uncommon for Julia to end her meals on a light, bright note. This

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Julia M. Usher

Purple Power

The details on this purple bud vase were created using the needlepoint technique, basically outlining and flooding taken to the extreme! For more information about the needlepoint technique, see this video by Julia. And for all you need to know

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Julia M. Usher

Regal in Red

The regal white details on this red cookie vase were created by stenciling using a masked-off cake stencil. For more information about this technique and marbling (used for the flowers and leaves), see Julia’s book Ultimate Cookies. Also, check out

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Julia M. Usher

Edible Art

Seriously! These frames and canvases are 100-percent cookie! The canvases were iced and rubber-stamped and then accented with multicolor petal and luster dusts. The large frame was iced and then stenciled before it was detailed with thick royal icing. And the gilding on the

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Julia M. Usher

Have a Heart

Or maybe several?! Julia loves to display cookies en masse for lots of visual impact. If you’re going to use a wide variety of decorating techniques, as she has here, remember to tie everything together with a tight color scheme.

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Julia M. Usher

Teatime Table

A mixture of red transferware, pink hobnail glass, and tons of garden-fresh flowers, all loosely arranged, gave Julia’s teatime table a truly dreamy look. For more on this tea party, take a look at Julia’s feature in Where Women Cook magazine, which

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Julia M. Usher

Teatime Flowers

Rather than evenly distribute the flowers in her arrangements, such as these at her Where Women Cook tea and cookie party, Julia likes to group single varieties in small clusters to mimic the way they might be plucked from Mother Nature. This

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Julia M. Usher

A Menu that Mimics

For the menus for her Where Women Cook tea party, Julia emulated the patterns in her hodgepodge of red transferware china used to deck the tabletop. Because each china pattern was slightly different, some visual continuity across party elements was key

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Julia M. Usher

Change Things Up

To keep her tea party prep minimal and stress-free, Julia gave some of the tried-and-true recipes in her book Cookie Swap a quick makeover. Here, the raspberry jam in her brownie recipe was replaced with Grand Marnier and orange marmalade,

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Julia M. Usher

Red Transferware?

Well, the dish is, but the cookies are just transferware lookalikes – albeit compelling ones! Julia made the patterns with the rubber-stamping technique, a quick and easy method for imparting lavish designs on cookies. For more details about this decorating

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Julia M. Usher

Entrancing Transferware

This closer look at Julia’s transferware-style cookies just goes to show that lavish detail can be achieved simply by choosing the right rubber stamps. These rose and bird stamps are from Red Lead Paperworks, a shop in St. Louis where Julia

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Julia M. Usher

Sweet Message

Made for Julia’s tea party featured in Where Women Cook in 2012, this place card cookie relies on the rubber-stamping technique to convey its sweet message. Julia also took a shortcut and propped the place card in a mound of

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