What a hoot!

Owls:

The ironic symbol of wisdom...

and an unhealthy sleeping pattern.

With their huge eyes, soothing hoo's, and... fluff, they're also a much loved creature by many teachers worldwide. So, as a 'just because'* reason, I made some owl biscuits for the teachers at school last week.

I used three round cutters - a big and a medium (for the body), and a small (for the eyes), along with some coloured royal icing and brown/orange mini M&M's:

For the melted chocolate outline, I tried something new this time. Previously, I would pipe straight onto the biscuit; but this time, I held the piping bag a couple of centimetres up from the biscuit. That probably doesn't make sense, but basically instead of 'drawing' onto the biscuit, I 'hovered' above the biscuits, letting the chocolate fall into place.

It worked great, and wasn't as rough as it usually would be when I'd pipe directly onto the biscuit.

And the best thing about chocolate on shortbread, is that if you make a mistake, you can just rip it off and do it again. Which happened to quite a few of them, as guessing where the chocolate will fall can be tricky.

Especially if you've had a glass of wine.

Originally, I wanted to colour them with all the colours of the rainbow, but instead chose six (really, it was only pink missing). Three primary, and three secondary to recall my own schooling. The owls were then arranged onto a round platter, opposite each of their complementary colours (I wonder if the teachers picked up on that)... ;)

Happy... School Day!

* It could also be a 'I'm so bored at home by myself' reason, too.