Old Lady Cookies for an “Old” Friend

The only thing better than a good friend, is a good friend who is older than you. My two closest friends both happen to be older than me. Only a few months older than me, but still older. Therefore, I look forward to their birthdays every year. I feel it is my duty to continually remind them that they are older than me. And now that we are all slowly creeping up on the big 4-0, I feel all the more responsibility to remind them that they are just getting plain OLD.

Recently my friend, Paula Ames, celebrated her 39th birthday. Paula and I have been friends for over 10 years. My excellent birthday presents to her began back when she was turning 30. Her husband requested that I make her a very special cake to celebrate the death of her youth. Here was what I came up with:

For some reason she didn’t like it as much as her husband and I.

Paula is an amazing cake artist (you can check out her business and her cakes at www.amescakecreations.com) but one thing she doesn’t do is cookies. Don’t get me wrong, she could do cookies, she just doesn’t have time with all her cake orders. Well, ever since she saw my blog entry on the Nutcracker Cookies, she has been begging me to send her some decorated cookies. As her birthday got closer and closer, her nagging became more persistent. She even posted this picture on her wall on Facebook and told everyone that I was breaking her heart because I wouldn’t send her cookies.

Since it is her last year in her 30’s, I decided that I would surprise her with decorated cookies for a birthday present. Of course, she never told me what kind of cookies she wanted. I naturally assumed that cookies celebrating her old age would be most appropriate. Here are the very special, “hand crafted with love”, old lady birthday cookies I made her:

I began with a celebration of her wonderful age. Notice the two stars strategically placed at the bottom of the cookie to hide the blue icing smear from a mess up when I was writing on the cookie? Cake decorators are masters at figuring out ways to hide mistakes.

Next was a sweet birthday greeting.

Then on to items that are typically used by ladies her age; a cane, dentures and Metamucil. I used some fondant on the cane but all the rest of the cookies were decorated with just royal icing.

Of course I couldn’t forget Depend adult diaper, a walker and a Life Alert. Unfortunately I made my icing a little too wet for these cookies so the colors bled a bit. I didn’t have time to redo them so I just told her it was done on purpose to make them appear aged and worn out. That’s another way decorators deal with mistakes, convince people they were done on purpose.

This was one of my favorites. I took a recent picture of her and aged it. In case you are having a hard time differentiating between the two, the current Paula is on the right.

And then I couldn’t forget that broken heart cookie that she has posted on Facebook. I don’t ever put anything inedible on my confections though, so I made sure the bandage was as edible as the cookie. I will share instructions on how to make the bandage next time.

Once they were complete I packaged them individually in clear bags.

Paula lives in a different state so I had to send them through the mail. What better way to package them than in Depend diapers. This was becoming the gift that just keeps on giving.

All packaged up and ready to go.

I am sure you can only imagine the excitement and joy she felt when she opened the box and discovered her long awaited cookies had arrived. Now the only question that remains is: What am I going to do for her 40th birthday?

Until next time God bless and Sweet Dreams.