One Fish, Two Fish First Birthday Cookies

Dr. Seuss’s birthday was back in March, I believe. I should have made some cookies for him then! Instead, I made these this week for a little boy who’s about to turn 1. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. We don’t yet own this particular Dr. Seuss book, but after spending this much time with the characters, I think I need to purchase one. As usual, I didn’t think these would take quite as long as they did. I also didn’t appreciate at first how many colors I would need to use. I just couldn’t bear to leave off the white and green fish. Initially, I was only going to make red fish, blue fish. But they didn’t seem complete without their “one fish, two fish” constituents. So I mixed up some white and green. I used white dye to make the white a little whiter. I used an edible food pen for some of the more intricate designs. If you look closely, you can see which parts are black royal icing and which parts are edible ink.

If it weren’t for children who nap at great length, I never would have finished. Nap times are built-in down times, alone times, or hobby times for moms, in my opinion. This week, it was hobby time. I always do my cookie decorating in segments because of my tendency to be easily overwhelmed.

Mix dough one day
Roll and Cut shapes the next day
Mix icing colors first half of another day
Decorate base layer either during nap time or late at night
Decorate additional details the following day at nap time or late at night
(base layer must be fully dry before additional details can be safely applied. unless you’re doing wet on wet technique or unless the surface area is so small that it lends itself to rapid drying time)