A couple months back I made my mom bite-size cookies in a jar that pictured all her interests and hobbies. (Remember? Here they are.) She put in a request for tennis-themed bite-size cookies in a jar, and I couldn’t refuse. We’re all tennis players in my family. Or rather, in my case, used to be a tennis player. I haven’t picked up a racquet in years. I played competitively in high school, and I could have been good. Really good. Except I had this terrible habit of choking at the end. Sooo close then, “oops!” I didn’t kick the habit, either, when I took up shooting pool years later. This choking thing is tough for one as competitive as I. (Don’t ever mention the “Monopoly incident of ’05 to my neighbors.”)

Since I was barely big enough to hold a racquet, I and my siblings would walk the mile or so take lessons from the matriarch of a local family estate, an estate equipped with a court, of course. Thirtysome years later, she’s STILL giving lessons and organizing games. My mom has continued playing all these years. She’s giving these cookies to the terribly impressive tennis-playing matriarch.

It’s no secret I love bite-size cookies. So cute, so perfect for snacking, and so easy to fit into the best invention ever after my TV, the mason jar.

To make these, I just cut out little 1-inch circles and 1-inch ovals (pinched at one end) from my cookie dough, baked and let cool. Then I made my royal icing, divided, and colored with my Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Orange, Egg Yellow, Electric Green, Sky Blue, Electric Purple, Super Black and Bright White.) I prepared decorating bags with couplers and decorating tips–sizes 1, 2, 3 and 4–and filled with the icing and tied the bags closed with rubber bands. Then I piped and filled circles for the tennis balls, using a 2-tip white to pipe the accent on top. For the racquets, I piped the racket and handle with different colors and black icing, using 3 tips. I filled the centers with white icing, then topped with the strings using a 1-tip black. I let the cookies dry well overnight and packaged in a mason jar. For tips on finding supplies, click HERE. For basic cookie decorating how-tos, click HERE.

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