This weekend we celebrated birthdays with two girls: S who turned 4 (post on her cookies coming soon) and my niece N who turned 6 this week and is staying with us for the weekend. I love the idea of having the first initial and the number with simple, decorative designs, alongside a small number of feature cookies (subtext: a bunch of fast cookies and just a few that take longer). So Ns and 6s it is. I opted for a few butterfly cookies to go with them.

I'm still trying to decide how long one can keep royal icing around before you have to make a new batch. I had a bunch leftover from Valentine's cookies that were decorated eight days prior. I added a bit of water and stirred up the three colors I wanted to use. Then I decided this was more trouble than it would have been to just make new icing. Note to self: don't save colored icing for a week again. The consistency wasn't awesome, though I'm happy with the results.