total rock star

i'm always so grateful to my friends for referring their friends to me when the subject of cookies comes up. working on new designs is so much fun, even though i totally stress over it right up until the moment i take my happy butt into the kitchen and get to work.

this is where i remind you all that i am not the least bit creative when it comes to cookie-ing. when someone gives me a theme to work with, they either send me a picture they've seen online somewhere or i just hit up google for ideas. the only part i'll take credit for is the execution.

so anyway, this request from a friend of nanette's was no different. she wanted rock star-themed cookies for her 1-year-old's party, and after scrutinizing the inspiration photo she sent over, i knew what i needed to do. 

as i often do, i had to doctor up some cutouts to make some of the shapes i wanted. 

(this would end up biting me in the butt later)

i love, love, love when i only need to mix up a few colors of icing. makes my life so much easier. 

and i gathered up all of the different types and colors of sprinkles i thought i might need. this, too, would end up being a giant mistake. 

the first half of the cookies were really easy to do. i was pretty excited about how they came out, and i thought i was gonna skate right through the rest of them. 

and then i got to the round cookies that were to have the birthday girl's name and a number 1 on them. you'd think this would be super simple, right?  and it would have been, had i not overcomplicated things in an effort to add a little bling to them. 

i drew on a smallish "1" with my frosting and then sprinkled it with some sparkly purple sanding sugar. stupidly, i continued doing this with two more cookies before checking them to make sure that they were coming out the way i wanted them to. and in an even more moronic move, i went and outlined a couple of the music note cookies and sprinkled those too. 

when i went back to pour off the excess sugar, instead of flying off the surface of the cookie like it was supposed to, the stuff was stuck. now, this happens often...no big deal. i just take a dry brush and sweep off what i don't want to stay on. but this time, no such luck. the crystals either wouldn't move at all or left big, ugly craters in the frosting.

you'll note that i'm not sharing any photos of this. that's because i was PISSED. and scrambling. i'd made extra cookies like i always do, but when i counted what i had left after this mishap, there were exactly 36 left. this always makes me super nervous - what if something else happens? ugh. 

i finished decorating the rest of the cookies and left them to dry overnight. they ended up being really cute, if i do say so myself. 

the next morning, i went about the usual routine - cutting the matching ribbons and then carefully wrapping the cookies in their little cellophane bags. easy peasy. 

but then disaster struck again as i was packing them into a box for delivery. those stupid, delicate, skinny pieces on the guitar and music notes literally cracked under the pressure and i was left with no less than five cookies that were broken clean in half. 

oh man. i'm sad to say that my lenten sacrifice fell by the wayside for a full five minutes as i raged and growled over my own stupid mistakes. i should have known that those pieces would be far too delicate for transporting and just freehanded it on bigger, sturdier shapes. but noooooo...i had to risk breakage and get all cute and make cute little cutout shapes. UGH. 

after stepping away for a bit to pull myself together and cool off a little, i came up with a plan. i took the broken cookies out of their bags, used some leftover frosting to "glue" them back together, and laid them in the bottom of a plastic container to dry. i added the bags and ribbons to the package and snapped the lid on. 

happily, nanette's friend was super easygoing and didn't blink an eye when i explained what had gone wrong. i was way more freaked out about it than she was, and i was so glad she was so cool about it.  crisis averted. 

i celebrated my triumph with a lovely salad highlighted by a nice glob of fresh burrata. since our meeting place for delivery was out in montebello, gioia cheese co. was on the way home.  and i rarely pass up an opportunity to have burrata in my life.  because, well…cheese.  luckily, the teen enjoys it too.

all's well that ends well!