Luck of the Owls

Just before Valentine's Day I saw this owl  sweet treat project from Sugar Swings:

However, the owl body was made from a heart-shaped York Peppermint patty, and I figured like many amazing things (caffeinated Crystal Light, Hulu, the Nordic Ware factory warehouse, endless supplies of cheap dutch-pressed cocoa, etc., etc.), it would only be available stateside.  BUT!  I had forgotten the wonder of Shopper Drug Mart, which was selling bags of the patties at a serious discount after Valentine's Day.

Obviously, I bought a few bags, but since Valentine's day had passed, I needed to come up with a new project and given the time of year, St Patrick's Day owls seemed like the obvious choice. Like Sugar Swings, I used M&Ms for the eyes, with the pupils drawn on in edible ink.  Candy-covered chocolates served as the beaks.  And instead of tootsie rolls covered in fondant for the wings, I used yellow candy melts (leftover from the claws of the recent owl cupcake project....) to free-hand draw wings, which I then painted gold with some mint extract and gold luster dust. 

 
Rushika came to help with the assembly line, and we attached all the pieces together with some melted mint-chocolate, and voila: pepperminty cuteness.

Owl Things Considered

Last month I saw these cupcakes from Sweet Custom Treats:

I knew I wanted to make something similar, but I wasn't totally into the idea of pretzels on my cupcake, so  decided that some Ovation Mint Chocolate Sticks would be the perfect replacement.  you probably have had these chocolates before - restaurants used to give them out with the bill?  They look like this:

Tragically, it would appear that these are a "seasonal item" as I went to about 15 different stores looking for them and no one was selling them. I posted on Facebook, seeking help - lots of good suggestions, but none of the leads produced anything. I even went to stores that I figured would have leftover Christmas stock they hadn't gotten rid of (hello, dollar store!), but, NO DICE.  I was ready to give up, when my mom produced some non-Ovation brand version of the sticks bought at various specialty stores across the province:

So. armed with my mint chocolate sticks, I made some Devil's Food Cupcakes and rushika and I got to work.

First, we constructed eyes out of Hershey's Cookies & Cream Drops and some melted chocolate:

Then we iced the cupcakes with a simple chocolate buttercream icing, adding the eyes and chocolate mint "branch,"  as well a  beak - candy previously used for the carrot noses of melted snowmen cookies.

We melted a few yellow candy melts and drew on talons using a #3 icing tip.  GORGEOUS.

You Aorta Know....

I love themes. And colour-blocking. And over-the-top projects. And my friends. And baking.  Valentine's Day is the perfect way to celebrate all of these. Last year, I was inspired by personal hero Leslie Knope's Galentine's Day to host a Palentine's Day sugar-palooza:

 

Candy Buffet!

Sugar Cookies!

 Lemon-Raspberry Linzer Cookies!

 Red Velvet Cupcakes!

 Chocolate Raspberry Whoopie Pies!

 Cookie Dough Truffles!

I had such a good time last year that I decided to do it again this year, but I decided to scale back.

 

First up, dinner - Red pepper & goat cheese quiche, buttermilk biscuits, spinach salad, raspberry lemonade, and raspberry jello:

 (To scale back, I only made a half batch of the biscuits.....)

Onto sugarfest:

 Chocolate lollipops:

 I don't know if I can ever make a spread without cookie dough truffles.....

Sugar cookies, red velvet cookies with white chocolate chips, and shortbread:

 Lemon cupcakes with raspberry buttercream:

Mini candy buffet: