Light the World Bulletin Board

We wanted to find a way for members of our ward (congregation) to share some of their acts of service. We came up with a bulletin board, where anyone (any age) can write their act of service on a silver star and tape it up. These will be anonymous, and I think it will be so neat to read what others are doing to light the world this Christmas season.

It's kind of hard to see, but in the bottom left corner is a sign that says, "Share the light you have shared or received." We tacked two small cardboard boxes underneath the sign.

Box 1: holds a stack of blank silver stars and tape

Box 2: holds fine-line permanent markers

It will be fun to watch the board fill up with stars all month long! I'm excited to see how full it is by Christmas!

Covering the bulletin board ended up being a much bigger project than I anticipated. Mostly because none of the letters, the manger scene, nor the hundreds of silver stars we needed were pre-cut. We drew them on poster board, then cut them out with scissors. I am so grateful to the missionaries and Trish for being good sports and helping me set everything up last night.

Sister Withers, Elder Gifford, Trish, Bishop Dotson, Elder Mitchell, Sister Young, and my little helper. :)

These people are seriously awesome, and I'm so grateful to have them in my life. They truly let their light shine!

Sister Withers, Sister Young, Trish, Elder Gifford, and Elder Mitchell

I'm also very grateful for my good friend Martilda, who went shopping with me and helped me pick out decorations for the board. She knows shopping is not my favorite thing, and I was so grateful to have her with me. She also has a great decorator's eye, and put together some beautiful colors and decorations.

Martilda and Me

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!

Whitney and Joey's Wedding Truffles

Last August, I got to attend my beautiful sister's wedding in the Palmyra Temple.
I am so happy for Whitney and Joey, and grateful to have a new awesome brother-in-law!
They are so great together!

It started raining while they were having photos taken outside after their wedding…
But, those two wouldn't let a little rain spoil their special day!
They are the cutest couple and so happy!

I can't help thinking of a certain musical every time I see these photos.
Can you guess which one?
These lyrics might give you a hint...

The sun's in my heart...

...and I'm ready for love.

Did you guess it?

It's...

Singin' in the Rain!

Now that you've got that song stuck in your head, let's talk cake!

Whitney asked me to make their wedding cake, and her one request was that she wanted it filled with chocolate chip cookie dough filling. Unfortunately, there was no way I could transfer a wedding cake from two states away in the heat of the summer, so we decided I would make truffles instead.

Their last name begins with a "W," so I decorated the truffles with "W" drizzles.

...and tiny hearts. :o)

The white truffles were filled with a peanut butter Buckeye filling.

You might want to warn people beforehand that these things are addictive,
and they also come with a little kick...No, it isn't alcohol. :o)

The "kick" is cayenne pepper, and it's amazing. Trust me.

These chocolate ones are filled with the eggless chocolate chip cookie dough.

I will link to the recipe at the bottom. It's great as a cake filling, but if you want to be able to roll the dough into balls for dipping, you will need to eliminate the frosting base.

Congratulations, Whitney and Joey! And Happy 1st Anniversary!

STATS: 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Filling

http://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Peanut Butter Buckeyes - with a kick!

(The cayenne is listed as an ingredient at the bottom, under "Variation."

http://www.jif.com/recipes/peanut-butter-buckeyes-392

Caking with Kids

I was asked to help teach a cupcake decorating class with the Activity Day girls from church. The Activity Day program is designed to help girls (ages 8-11) develop their testimonies, serve others, build friendships, and develop their talents.

Primary Activity Days

The girls learned how to mix food coloring into fondant, how to create shapes out of fondant, and how to pipe a two-tone swirl on top of a cupcake. The girls learned quickly and were so creative!

 

I love this blue swirl cupcake that one of the girls designed!

The Activity Day leader invited my children to join the activity last week, even though they're not eight yet. My five-year-old really enjoyed herself and cut this star out of fondant using just a butter knife.

I had a wonderful time with the girls, and I think they enjoyed creating their own designs. One of the girls who normally attends their meetings was sick that night, and the girls decided to deliver a cupcake to her house to cheer her up. They are sweet girls, and they really care about each other.

STATS:

How to pipe a two-tone swirl

http://www.wilton.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=152756&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant

http://cakecentral.com/recipe/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Robbie's CTR Cookies

In December, I made some CTR cookies for a wonderful boy at church who was getting baptized. CTR stands for "Choose The Right." Members of our church will often wear a CTR ring as a reminder to always try to do good.

These cookies are decorated with glace icing. I first outlined the shape of the cookie using a #3 writing tip, then flooded the center with blue icing. Then, using the "wet on wet" technique, I piped the CTR letters. 

Here they are in my favorite drying area. It's a large picture frame box with a lid that opens and closes, similar to a pizza box. I like it because it doesn't take up much space and I can keep the cookies clean and covered with the lid, which still allows the icing to continue drying.

I try to be careful when flooding a cookie, but sometimes I go overboard with the amount of flood icing. You can see a "spillage" incident here. There are two ways to deal with this:

1. Allow the icing to dry, scrape it off with a knife and redecorate the cookie - it'll be good as new!

2. Eat it.

Glace icing is great because it dries smooth and shiny, and you can stack the cookies once the icing is dry without ruining the decoration. I prefer it over royal icing because it doesn't get rock hard. It's nice to bite into it - I prefer soft icing on my cookies, not crunchy.

Not having a shield cookie cutter, I cut a shield shape out of a piece of paper. Using that as a template, I cut the shapes out of the cookie dough with a sharp paring knife.

STATS:

No Fail Sugar Cookies
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies

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

"Wet on Wet" Technique
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAIBpsXgtRE

Pretty Blue Ruffles

My sister-in-law Aubrie received her mission call right before her 21st birthday. I decided to surprise her with a cake. One of my favorite things about cake decorating is how personalized you can make it.

  

Here are some ways I tailored the cake for Aubrie:

1. I baked a Funfetti cake - her favorite flavor.

2. I colored the fondant turquoise - Aubrie's favorite color.

3. Aubrie always wears the cutest shirts, so I tried to make the cake look like something she would wear.

4. I added her name to the missionary tag.

Here's a closeup of the necklace. I made the turquoise stones by first mixing blue/green food coloring into the fondant, then I added a tiny bit of brown gel food coloring. I was careful not to over-mix it because I wanted it to have a marbled look.

This cake was so much fun to make! I especially loved making the ruffles and the beads. All of the decorations are edible and made from  homemade fondant.

STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf 

Happy 8th Birthday, Addie!

This cake was for a sweet girl turning eight years old. A child's 8th birthday is special in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because that is when he or she can choose to be baptized. She wanted the cake to be purple and sparkly.

The tiara is made from royal icing piped onto an oatmeal container. Here is a link to a great tutorial if you want to give it a go:

http://cakecentral.com/articles/129/how-to-make-a-royal-icing-tiara

Here is a free pattern for a tiara I found online. http://cakecentral.com/gallery/40748 It is the same pattern I used, except I replaced the top section with a CTR shield (a symbol in our church that stands for "Choose the Right").

The cake is covered in homemade fondant and decorated with royal icing. Here it is before the tiara.

I was really worried that the fragile tiara would break on the drive to deliver the cake. So, I quickly made some fondant flowers to bring along as a backup.

Luckily, the tiara arrived safely, and I only had to reattach a sugar pearl that fell off.

The finished cake!

Happy birthday, Addie!

Dress Shirts

I made these cakes for the culinary display table at a talent show at my church. I wanted them to look like the clothes a senior missionary couple would wear. Everything is edible on the cakes.



I made the collars a few days before because I had to keep them propped up with extra fondant while they dried so they would keep their shape and stand on their own.



I made the large beads for the necklace by rolling a little purple and white fondant together and then rolled small pieces into balls. The tiny white beads are just sugar pearls I bought at Michael's. (The same thing I used for the bubbles on the duck cupcakes). I attached the beads to the cake with royal icing.



The name tags were made with royal icing. I just piped black rectangles onto waxed paper and allowed them to dry before using a #1 piping tip to pipe the letters on top. (Next time I will use plastic wrap because the waxed paper was kind of hard to remove.) The tags have our church's name (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) written on them in Spanish to symbolize a missionary couple serving in a Spanish-speaking country.

STATS:

White Almond Sour Cream Cake
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7445/the-original-wasc-cake-recipe

Mom's Amazing Frosting Recipe
http://letsgetcaking.blogspot.com/2009/08/moms-amazing-frosting-recipe.html

Rhonda’s Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Royal Icing
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing

Black Cherry Filling:

Heat a jar of Polaner black cherry jam in a glass bowl for about 30 seconds in the microwave. Add a 3 oz. box of cherry Jell-o and stir. That's it! Your filling is ready to use!

Luggage Cake

*** UPDATE: He's going to México! ***

Time to knead some sugar into homemade fondant. This gets really messy, but it's fun!



I baked two 9x13 yellow cakes and placed them next to each other before frosting them with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting. Yum!



I covered the cake in 3 sections of fondant (instead of one big piece like I normally would). I layed the sections down slightly overlapping each other to create the raised seams.



I used a toothpick to poke little holes in the fondant for the stitching. Yes, it was tedious and I'm sure there is a faster way or better tool to use, but it worked.



I printed out my brother's initials in a font I liked. Then I taped plastic wrap over that and piped over the letters using royal icing. I let the icing dry and then painted it with gold luster dust. Once it dried again, I peeled the plastic wrap off and used the royal icing letters for the monogram.



I printed off images of a passport, name tag, and flags at home and used the printout to order a frosting sheet printed with edible ink from a bakery. I cut the images out of the frosting sheet and attached them to fondant with white piping gel.



Everything you see is edible. Ta-dah!



I can't wait to find out where my brother is going on his mission!


STATS:

Rhonda's Ultimate Marshmallow Fondant
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3183/rhondas-ultimate-mmf

Rhonda's Ultimate Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/3193/rhondas-ultimate-chocolate-mmf

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting:
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7600/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-icingfilling

Royal Icing:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing-1