Light the World this Christmas!

I first heard about the Light the World initiative a couple of weeks ago, and I have been so excited about it! There are so many ways that we can serve and bring more light into each other's lives. The Savior is the light of the world and showed us the perfect example of how to love and how to serve.

December 1st (tomorrow) will be a worldwide day of service, and it kicks off the Light the World initiative where people across the globe will follow the Savior by serving others in 25 ways over 25 days. 

I am so excited about this! I know it will make this season even more meaningful as we focus on serving others in the way the Savior did. 

There are some really neat videos and service ideas to go along with each the 25 days of the Light the World initiative. We are going to watch one each night to go along with our family scripture study, and I think it will be a wonderful way to stay focused on the Savior and motivate us to serve.

Here's a link to the page with short, daily videos about Christlike service:

mormon.org/christmas





I will be posting service opportunities I can find in the Dayton, Ohio area throughout December. Let's fill the world with light!

Lace Cookies for Christmas

This Christmas, I wanted to make something special for some wonderful women I know.

I found a design for intricate lace cookies at http://cakecreationsforyou.blogspot.com/. Nadia is the decorator from the site, and she creates beautiful cookies.

I'm really happy with how the cookies turned out!

To make the lace pattern, I first outlined the heart shape with royal icing. Using the same icing, I made 14 straight lines running diagonally across the cookie.

Then, I added perpendicular lines to create a grid.

I used glace icing (in a flood consistency), to fill in the larger spaces of the heart.

Then, I added dots of icing into the grid, creating a pattern I liked. There are so many patterns you could make using this technique. Have fun and get creative! 

I noticed that you get a very different look in the lace if you allow the grid to dry before adding the dots of icing. In this photo, I piped the dots while the icing of the grid was still wet. You can see how the design has sort of "melted" together.

On this cookie, I allowed the grid to dry before piping the dots. The dots stayed separate and are quite distinct. Honestly, I think both techniques made a pretty cookie, and I can't decide which I like better.

For the gold lettering, I mixed a little brown food coloring into the royal icing to get a tan color. I piped the words with the tan royal icing and allowed it to dry. Then, I mixed gold luster dust with a little vanilla extract and used that to "paint" the words. You can see the difference the luster dust makes here, where I only used luster dust on the letter "o" in "world."

I used zip-top baggies with the corners cut off as the icing bags for this entire project. If you would like to use piping bags and tips, I would suggest using a #1 or #2 writing tip.

I loved making these cookies and thinking about the women I'd be giving them to. I hope they know how much they are loved. 

STATS:

Nadia's Video: "How to Make a Lace Cookie" Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKjM7Wm845w

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Roll-Out-Cookies-240668

How to "flood" a cookie with icing
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/07/outlining-and-filling-cookies-with-royal-icing/

Royal Icing
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2012/12/royal-icing-recipe.html

Glacé Icing
http://www.thatreallyfrostsme.com/2010/05/glace-icing.html

Joy to Everyone This Christmas

I love the Christmas season! My kids and I enjoy watching this video every year before Christmas. Each time we watch it, I can't help feeling the love my Savior has for me. What beautiful people our Heavenly Father has created across the globe! I hope that each of us can feel the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior this Christmas. I truly believe that they know and care about each one of us.



Merry Christmas!

Christmas Packaging

A friend of mine taught me how to make these cute little gift bags. I decided to put cake pops in them to give as presents. We used Wonder Under to attach the fabric to the bags. Here's a link to show you what the Wonder Under looks like if you want to use it. http://www.pellonideas.com/products/1001-805-wonder-under.aspx



I lined the paper bags with cellophane. Then I tied the cellophane closed with ribbon.



Here are the chocolate cake pops. I wrapped each cake pop individually with plastic wrap and tied them with ribbon before placing them in the paper bags.



Here's a link to a great cake pop tutorial:

http://decoratethis.blogspot.com/2011/02/cake-pops-tutorial.html

Merry Christmas!