Fisherman's Birthday!

I'm still on this "making the cutest cookies ever" kick.  And really, if a person has the inclination and the tools, pretty much any occasion can become a cookie-worthy one. 

And so has become my step-father's birthday.  His name is David.  We have a little cottage on a lake up in Minnesota and fishing is one his favorite activities.

So, here are his birthday cookies!

How to make your own wilderness assortment:

First I picked out wilderness or fishing-related cookie cutters.  To replicate, you will need a moose face, small fish (trout), large fish (bass), wilderness tree, ornament/bobber, and something that can be molded into a long pole.  I used a sea horse and molded the cookie dough into the fishing pole shape.

Second I baked a batch of sugar cookies--but substituted rose-water for the almond extract to make them smell outdoorsy.  They smell a bit like rose-scented hand soap, but taste delicious and after all my holiday baking, I was definitely ready for a change!  Recipe available at:  http://www.annies-eats.com/2007/12/12/christmas-cookies/

After baking, I prepared royal icing.  Again, I used the Royal Icing recipe available on Annie's Eats.  The writer of that blog also does an amazing job of describing how-to do royal icing, so I will not repeat.  I will simply post the link and let you read her post.  This is definitely worth reading if you are trying to learn.  The only difference in technique is that I put a heaping spoonful of piping icing onto the center of a piece of saran wrap, roll it up, put it in my decorating bag, then cut off the tip of the saran wrap so the icing can flow.  Then I put on the decorating tip.  I learned this trick from Karen's Cookies at:   http://youtu.be/QxE-pnqmsE0

Here is the link to the Royal Icing recipe and tutorial:  http://www.annies-eats.com/2009/12/04/how-to-decorate-with-royal-icing/

For my wilderness cookie assortment, I used these colors:  gold, brown, no-taste red, super black, leaf green mixed with navy and yellow, leaf green mixed with brown, and white (just the icing--no coloring needed).

Next, I piped the thicker icing onto the cookies.  I used Wilton decorating tip size 1 for the white because I was thinking of the very small fishing line I needed to draw.  I used tip size 5 for the green on the tree, because I wanted the branch outlines to look rounded.  For all other colors, I used decorating tip size 2. 

Then, I flooded the cookies with the thinned out icing:

I then sprayed Wilton spray on the fish to make them look metallic (or wet).  Gold spray looks good on white and silver spray looks great on green.  I let this dry overnight.  Make certain to place a wet paper towel in the bottom of a cup and keep your decorating bag tips in the paper towel when not in use.  Otherwise, they will dry out.

The next day, I added details with leftover thicker, piping icing.

Here is the final assortment!