Gift for the Teacher

Cut 125 g butter into small pieces and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes to soften. Put the softened butter and 75 g icing sugar into the Mixing bowl.

Beat everything with the flat beater until creamy. Whisk 1 egg in a small bowl with a fork and add half (25 g) to the mixture. You won't need the other half: stored in a closed box, it keeps in the fridge for about 2 days.

Add 1 pinch of salt and 1 tsp Liquid vanilla aroma and mix everything again. For small quantities, a Measuring spoon is very handy, so you can measure precisely.

Once everything is well mixed, add 225 g flour. Mix for 30 seconds on level 1. Don't knead the dough for too long: the longer you mix, the more gluten develops, and the cookies will rise during baking.

Finish kneading the dough by hand, using a dough scraper if needed. As soon as it can be shaped into a ball, it is ready.

Place the dough on baking paper and a second sheet on top so it doesn't stick while rolling. Roll it out with a large rolling pin and 3 mm thick Dough sticks. Then transfer the dough to a perforated baking tray and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

For an even cut you need a stencil in the shape of a slab. Place it on the dough and cut around it with a small knife. Like with Spitzbuben, the biscuit consists of one whole piece (the base) and one open piece (the frame).

Place a perforated baking mat on a perforated baking sheet, so the dough bakes evenly. Set the 2 cut-out biscuits on it and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 135 °C convection.

From the remaining dough you can cut out small biscuits and bake them at the same time, for example for an afternoon snack.

Bake the biscuits in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes, until they are golden brown. Then let them cool and turn them over: the side that lay on the mat is the front.

For nice, straight edges, help with a fine Grater. Take your time so the biscuit does not break.

Depending on whether the gift is for a female or male teacher, you can adapt the decoration. Let your imagination and that of the children run wild! Handy are Magic roll-out powder, a sifter and a small rolling pin.

Dust the work surface very lightly with Magic roll-out powder so the fondant doesn't stick. Less is more: too much powder dries out the fondant. Knead the pink and purple fondant briefly and roll both out evenly with the Rolling pin guides (1.5 mm).

Cut out pennants in pastel pink and purple with the smallest Pennant cookie cutter.

Roll out the fondant once more and cut out butterflies in the same colours. The Cookie cutter with ejector is very handy: the butterfly releases easily and gets a texture straight away.

Hold the cutter at the bottom, not by the plunger, and cut with a small back-and-forth motion. Then press lightly on the plunger so the texture is imprinted. Lift the cutter slightly and press again so the butterfly falls out.

Place the butterflies textured side down on the rim of a bowl and let them dry for at least 1 hour. Even better, prepare them a day or more in advance: then they are sturdier and easier to handle.

Lightly dust the work surface with Magic roll-out powder again and roll out the white fondant. Use the Cookie cutter set letters and numbers to cut out your word, for example "Danke" or "Schöne Ferien". Cutting works exactly as it does for the butterflies.

For a teacher, we suggest a moustache made from black marzipan. Shape two equally sized balls and form each into a teardrop. Place the two teardrops together with their thick ends touching, gently flatten them and shape them into a moustache.

Now comes the actual board. Dust the work surface very lightly with Magic roll-out powder, only the surface, not the marzipan, otherwise white marks will appear. If any do appear anyway, remove them straight away with a large, soft brush and do not keep rolling, so the powder does not get worked in.

Place 1.5 mm roll-out guides on both sides of half a pack of black marzipan and roll out a rectangle of at least 20 x 15 cm. If it is a little too large, that is no problem, the excess can be cut off.

Lay the black marzipan over the whole biscuit base and cut off the excess marzipan with a knife.

To stick on the frame, take a Chocolate flavour pen, a dark colour works best. Stand the pen in a jug of boiling water for 2 minutes so the chocolate melts. Open it and apply some chocolate to the four corners of the frame (on the underside and the top). Then put the closed pen back into the hot water so it stays liquid for the decoration.

Place the open biscuit frame on the marzipan. Attach everything that is glued to the marzipan with edible glue and a brush. For the decoration on the biscuit frame, use the Chocolate flavour pen: the biscuit absorbs the edible glue, so it will not hold there.

Now you can decorate the school board exactly as you like: pennants, letters, butterflies, moustache, sugar flowers and other sugar decorations. For transport, it is best to place the school board on a platter and in a box.

Feel free to share your school board with us on social media, we would love to see it!