Last week was a sad week. We laid to rest a man who, is his 92 years on this earth experienced things that many of us have only read about. A man without whom I would need not be married to a man that I love deeply and who infuriates me every day [=o) ] We laid Grandpa C. to rest one week ago yesterday and while it was sad to see him go, we rejoiced knowing that he made it to 92. Quite a feat! (He passed the day after his birthday.) And before he left, he managed to see most of his family and have good moments when he knew who everyone was.
Grandpa C. was a sailor who was stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I can't even imagine what that must have been like for him. The things that he must have seen and experienced could be Lifetime movie material. An avid golfer, even at 91 he worked part-time at a golf course so that he could golf for free and he instilled that love of golf into his sons who, in turn, instilled it into their sons. My hubby is of course, the best golfer of the bunch.
For Grandpa's service, my sister-in-law asked me to make some cookies to celebrate that love of golf I'll be honest - when I first heard the request I started to think "what the heck?" I had never heard of anyone doing decorated cookies for a funeral. But my husband assured me that it was something that Grandpa would have liked since Grandpa had a sweet tooth.
I decided on 3 designs of cookies, all related to golf in an almond sugar cookie frosted with RI. I know the cookies were a hit with the church ladies and the kids but for me, the true test was with my father-in-law. I never saw him eat a cookie but after the services he walked around the guests with the last of the cookies, making sure that everyone saw them and got a cookie. I have to say, that form of appreciation is almost good enough for me.
Since golf is such a huge part of my in-laws lives I had to go slow with these cookies. Each step that I made, I was sure to check with the hubby, lest I commit some horrible golf faux pas from which no one would ever recover.
First up was the all important golf bag. While most of them have black golf bags, I just couldn't stand that though of having such dark toned cookies at a funeral so I went with blue. Nice and bright - and it would go well with the next cookie. After the flooded cookie had dried, I added some detail including the d-ring, a "zipper" and pockets. Each golf bag had a slightly different set of golf clubs that I piped in stiff RI. Since I would have had to go back and create lines in the club heads (don't ask what the lines are for. The hubby's clubs have them. I looked.) I decided to take the easy way out and just use the stiff icing and voila! Lines!
Cookie number 2 was a golf scene and I truly wish I had taken more pictures of these cookies. While the cookie below just has a lone tree, some cookies had sand traps and water hazards! After this design had been flooded with the blue, I added clouds, then flooded with the green, and added the hole. Once the cookie dried, added the flag and pole for a 3-d effect. I was planning on numbering the holes but those flags were small! Oh well, best intentions and all that.
The final cookie in theory, should have been the easiest. It was a flipping golf ball for crying out loud! But no, it wasn't. I went through trial and error with this one. I cold have used MMF which would have been the easiest way to go and would have held dimples very well. But, I wanted to continue using RI so I blew through half a dozen cookies trying to find the best way. I don't know if my process was the right way, but it got the job done.
While I still can't believe I did cookies for a funeral, in the end, I'm glad I did them because in my heart, I know that Grandpa would have enjoyed them.
