hooray for bollywood

when my friend AMP asked me to do some bollywood-style cookies for her baby girl's upcoming first birthday party, i was excited not only for the chance to be a part of the celebration but also to finally have a reason to use this:

that little guy has been in my cookie cutter collection for months now, just waiting for the right time to bust him out.  and i sure got to give him a workout, since AMP needed five dozen of them.

along with a link she gave me, i'd perused the precious few examples that the google had turned up when i searched for "bollywood elephant cookies."  i liked this one a lot, and after consulting with AMP, i decided to risk a moderate case of carpal tunnel syndrome and dove into the decorating.

i was grateful that the design only required three colors of icing.

a visit to my favorite supply store yielded these pretty gold dragees.  because of their metallic finish, the sale of these things was banned in california i don't know how long ago.  and so they've been difficult to get ahold of in the past, but apparently my store got around the technicalities by marking them like this:

get that?  for decoration ONLY, folks.  not meant to be eaten.  yeah.  as if people were going to take the time to pluck them out of their baked goods before cramming it in their mouths.  and this would be a slightly difficult task, since i sunk 'em into the frosting - basically cementing them onto the cookie.

after a couple of trial runs, i finally got a rhythm going and had the process down pat by the time i finished the very last elephant. 

they were so festive in their little bags, tied with red and pink ribbons.

i really love how these little guys turned out.  they may very well be my most favorite of all time...so far.  elephants really are lucky charms!