I can't remember if I mentioned, but I'm taking a handbuilding ceramics class at Togei Kyoshitsu, which I am totally loving! It's really fun and kind of soothing to sit there and mess around with clay; strangely, my favorite part is actually trimming the piece (probably because my initial efforts are all uh, kind of ugly). And check out the fish plate above--my first finished piece! I l-o-v-e my fish plate!
It just so happened that earlier in the week I had dinner with the girls and got this awesome mooncake mold (one of the girls had just gotten back from a trip to HK and China--jealous!), in the shape of a goldfish. COINCIDENCE???? Okay, yes. Yes it was. But who am I to look opportunity in the eye and ignore it? And how much more perfect can you get than a fish cookie on a fish plate?
So I whipped up a tiny batch of lime shortbread. I wanted to try to give it a more goldfish appropriate color and kneaded in a little bit of orange and yellow gel paste, but obviously didn't use enough. (Although my counter is still stained, grr.) To use the mold, you just pack the dough in until it's full, and make sure you press down to get all the details in. Then flip the mold over and give it a good, hard knock against your counter or table. It should release pretty easily (I didn't even flour the mold). I had some dough left over so broke out my other mooncake mold...waste not, want not!
I must say, I much prefer shortbread fish to mooncake fish--although when it's mooncake season again, I may do some experimenting and see if I can make my own. In the meantime, I'm going back to gazing at my fish plate and congratulating myself! (Did you notice the tiny fish stamped along the bottom?) Can't wait to see how my other pieces turn out!
