Royal Icing (aka, "glue" for Gingerbread Houses)

[I am going to be in the throes of getting organized! I have piles and piles of papers that need to be sorted somehow! And there are a few things I'm gonna be loading on here for future reference. So the idea is to come back at some point and add fun stories, etc... but for now, I'm just gonna be throwing stuff up here as needed so I don't lose my mind!... and recipes haha] 

Story:

This comes from the spendwithpennies.com website... shared with me by my good friend Jayne C., who throws a mean "Candy Train" Christmas party every year.  I've often struggled to get my royal frosting to work, but Jayne's works like a charm. So this last year (2025) when we had family over on Christmas Eve to make our annual gingerbread houses, I tried this recipe... and sure enough!... best results ever!

Thank you author Holly Nilsson at "spend with pennies?"

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites, room temperature

3 C powdered sugar

1/2 t cream of tartar

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, whip the egg whites until foamy, then add the cream of tartar. Continue to mix for 30 seconds.
2. Add in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time, mixing well.
3. Once the powdered sugar is incorporated, turn the mixer to high and continue to beat until thick and the icing holds its shape (about 3-5 minutes).
4. Put into piping tubes (or just in a bowl to spread with a knife).
5. Store well covered.

Note: The recipe says the icing can be doubled. I usually have to make several batches for our big Christmas Eve crew!

Starburst Icebreaker

I'm not going to turn this blog into a crafting blog or anything... but I did want to record one simple activity I did with the Cub Scouts last week.  I am a new den leader (never done this before!) in a brand new ward (don't know anyone!).  So I did a little icebreaker activity that the boys enjoyed and was helpful to me.

I had a bowl of Starburst candies and asked each boy to take a handful.  Of course, they took BIG handfuls, so that would work for my benefit.  For each color Starburst they had, they had to tell me something about themselves.  Here's the code:

RED = a FACT about you.  (birthday, # of siblings, etc)
ORANGE = something you are GOOD at.
YELLOW = something you do NOT like very much.
PINK = something you LIKE a lot!

Simple and fun.