Senior Airman Amanda Fauci's job is so sensitive she has nearly the same security clearance as a Secret Service agent. She sometimes goes on weeks-long classified assignments.

But on a recent mission, the 23-year-old was struggling. Her Texas-shaped sugar cookies made from prepared dough "blew up," she says. She ended up making a new batch from scratch at home that night. The next day, she served them to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, former President George H.W. Bush and other VIPs aboard a Boeing 757 bound for College Station, Texas.

"There was a sense of panic there for a moment" when the initial batch flopped, says Airman Fauci, a five-year service veteran.