Mary Grace Can Do Anything

Great-niece, Mary Grace, is celebrating her tenth birthday and once again she has found a unique way to celebrate.  I always look forward to her cookie requests because she challenges me with her new and creative ideas.  This will be the fifth year that cookies have been part of her birthday celebration, and the second year that she is following the theme that "girls can do anything."

Age 5  turtles
Age 6  pigs
Age 7  gumball machines
Age 8 ice cream
Age 9 brains

When Mary Grace asked for rock climbing cookies I thought it would be a quick and easy design because I envisioned a simple rock wall, but she really wanted a girl on her cookie.  After much consideration I thought the best approach would be to use a royal icing transfer. Here is a photo for my non-cookie friends who do not care to learn "cookie speak."
 

Royal icing transfers can be very helpful in cookie decorating, but they are also very fragile.  Silly me, the cookie I chose for my photo is the only one that cracked.  Let's just say I planned it, in memory of the wrist that I broke earlier this year.

In my past cookie life, the crack would have made me toss the cookie and start over.  However, since my new motto is, "it's just a cookie,"  I just said, oh well, and did not attempt to lift it out of the wet icing and replace it with a new one.  Hopefully, the bumps, bruises, and breaks will only be on the cookie, and not on Mary Grace when she is celebrating her birthday scaling a wall!

Since Mary Grace is celebrating her first "double digit" birthday, I decided to include the number 10 in her cookie collection.  Mom said that MG is beyond the pink stage, I added a little silver to the rope handles, just to give the collection a hint of sparkle.

Love, hugs and cookies for

an amazing girl!