Koi Fish

A very last-minute entry to the lastest Practice Bakes Perfect Challenge! Finished it in the nick of time, and didn't have much time to stage and photograph the cookie, unfortunately... It actually looks better in real life! [Edit : a better picture of the cookie is included in a comment lower down in the page].

Here is the fabrication process :

- Hand-cut two fish cookies and a large square, and brushed the square with undiluted blue food colouring before baking.

- Baked the cookies, decided the fish cookies were too thick, and replaced them by royal icing transfers. Flooded the transfers and let them dry one night.

- Attached the transfers to the cookie with royal icing.

- Brushed medium-thickness white icing on the fins with a soft wet brush. All brush-embroidery colours contrast purposefully with the underlying flood icing to add to the sense of depth.

- Fish scales were added on the bodies using thick red and orange piping icing and a firm, almost dry, paintbrush. Three colours were used successively to give dimension to the fish.

- Orange royal icing was brushed on the bases of the fins with a firm dry brush.