Melted Peppermint Candy Bowl

I decided to try to make a melted peppermint candy bowl and learned a few things in my first attempt.  First and most importantly - hot candy is far hotter than say glue from a hot glue gun.  Just saying...
I recommend using parchment paper for this project.  It is sturdier than waxed paper and I found the trays slipped right off when cooled.
After my candies melted and I took the tray out of the oven, I immediately plopped it over a metal bowl.  Here is where you find out just how hot that melted candy is.  It will drip as you try to move it, and if you are not careful, you will get burned.  The gravity pulls the candy down (obviously) so your design will morph and distort.  As you can see, I started off with a green tree and ended up with a cool design.  For a first try, I am pleased.

My design is here - I find that leaving spaces between the pieces of candy works well and I should have done it here.  I will leave more space between each piece in my next attempts.  The big space at the bottom by the trunk filled in nicely when the candy melted.

Here is the bowl I had ready to use as a mold:

And here is how it looks while cooling.  This is where I learned another valuable lesson.  Be sure to have a few extra inches of parchment paper on the top and bottom of your design and let it hang over the edge of the cookie sheet you are using.  This helps when you want to lift the entire thing off the cookie sheet to drape over the bowl.  You can see how it gravity pulls parts of it out of shape.

And here is the finished bowl.  The shiny side is on the outside, the dull side is inside.  Works for me.