gold star(s) for you!

wasn't i just whining a couple of days ago about how i didn't have any cookies to work on?  because that didn't last long at all.  heh.

one of my oldest and dearest friends hit me up to make some treats for her daughter's TWO softball teams.  that girl is an animal on the field.  anyway, they're headed off to a big tournament, and armed with photos of their uniforms i whipped up four dozen of these:

right on the heels of that request came another for some cookies to give to two classrooms' worth of kids who'd met their AR (the accelerated reader program - you read a book from the list and take a quiz to assess your reading and comprehension and all that jazz) goal.  the bean is working on this too, and i'm trying to think of a fun incentive to get her to read lots of books and earn a ton of points.  her classroom's goal is 30 points by may, and she's already halfway there.  anyway, for these i got to make a stencil using my trusty silhouette die-cutter:

i flooded a shitload of simple round cookies with white frosting:

fueled up the airbrush with some shiny gold food dye, and was pretty pleased with my results.

using the school's colors, i added a little "yay, you did it!"

by midnight, i had a table covered in cookies, a sore back and a cramped-up hand.

i get asked all the time about how long the process is for this whole business.  here's a quick breakdown for making - oh, say a dozen custom cookies:

mixing the dough - about 5 minutes
rolling it out, cutting shapes, placing on baking sheets:  usually about 5-10 minutes, depending on whether or not i have to piece together a specific shape using various cutters
baking the cookies - 12 minutes
cooling time - about 25 minutes
mixing frosting, tinting in required colors, bagging - up to an hour
flooding - 15 minutes
design and detail work - up to an hour
drying time - overnight (at least six hours)
cutting ribbons and bagging - about 30 minutes

and then either i stick them in a box to deliver them locally or pack them carefully with an assload of tissue and bubble wrap, weigh the box, print postage and drive them off to the post office.

that's kind of crazy when i look at it all written out like that.  it's a good thing i love it, huh?