Gospel Desserts!

 Our Gospel Dessert for the first Sunday of Lent was an angel food cake with clouds of whipped cream and rainbows as a nod to the first and second readings with the covenant of Noah.


The Gospel was Mark's super short description of Jesus in the desert: he went, he was hungry, he was tempted, the angels ministered to him.


 The second Sunday Gospel was the Transfiguration.  This is one that comes up every year, and I've never been completely satisfied with our dessert interpretation.

I think that, deep in my heart, I've always thought the perfect dessert for this would be a croquembouche.  I know this because I saw one 25 years ago, the one time the Emperor and I watched The Martha Stewart Show.

It was the most glorious, difficult, and time consuming dessert I'd ever seen.

Seriously, people, friends don't let friends watch Martha Stewart!

It's a mountain of cream puffs surrounded by a golden glory cloud of caramelized spun sugar.

I've made cream puffs before, but I was a bit intimidated by the spun sugar!  It turned out to be so fun that we all were spinning it, and we didn't want to stop...

Kinda made a horrible mess of rock hard yet sticky bits of sugar over much of the kitchen, but that's not the point!!

So we ended up with an enormous "glory cloud."

Also, my mountain isn't as tall as is traditional, because I decided not to glue it together with more caramel.  Maybe after another 25 years.

Still, I do feel like we did THE definitive Transfiguration dessert.  This is a transformation of sugar, flour, eggs, butter, cream, and water (with a bit of cocoa in the cream puff filling).


It wasn't as funny (to me) as the definitive Temptation in the Desert dessert, but it was a lot of fun to make!

Gospel Dessert: Raising of Lazarus (Plus our April Fools)

For the Gospel Dessert, we made Lazarus's tomb out of brownies.  Easy peasy and very chocolatey - thank you, Klenda!







I'm getting behind on my blogging, so I'll put our April Fools silliness here, too:

For breakfast, we had a dessert disguised as breakfast.  Our "eggs and bacon" are really vanilla pudding with apricot halves as yolks.  The bacon is apple butter, put on the plate with a fork.  The picture is from a previous year since I forgot to get a photo this year.



For lunch, we had dinner disguised as dessert.  The "cupcakes" were meatloaf with mashed potato frosting.  We got miixed reactions to that one, as you can see.


For dinner we had breakfast: actual bacon and eggs!

Gospel Dessert Week 4, Plus April Fool

Actually, this was our April Fool breakfast: green eggs and spam! 

The "eggs" are vanilla pudding (tinted green) with canned apricot halves for the "yolks."

The spam was actual fried spam because, really, that's enough prank right there!

I forgot to get a picture of our gospel dessert!

We had planned to do chocolate rice crispy treats cut into bricks and built into a house, like the father's house in the parable of the prodigal son (yesterday's gospel).

Unfortunately, I discovered I was out of marshmallows!

I did brownies instead, but they were a bit too fudgy to build with, so we ate them with ice cream.

Ice cream sundaes are what we eat after confession anyway as treat, since we are celebrating our return to the Father, so it makes sense as our usual "fatted calf."

In related news, Klenda and Leena had friends over for a cooking party.  They made themselves raspberry pork chops, mashed potatoes (from scratch!), brussels sprouts, and these fabulous scones for dessert!

Sunday Gospel Dessert: Weeks 3 and 4

Updated: Picture!

Week 3's Gospel was Jesus chasing the money changers out of the Temple. This always reminds me of my favorite anonymous quotes, "When you ask,'What would Jesus do?' remember that a valid answer is to freak out and turn over tables."

Our dessert was cup cakes sliced to look like coins layered with sliced strawberries and topped with whipped cream (get it, WHIPPED cream?). The Emperor gets all the credit for that one!

Week 4 was a toughie. John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world that He sent His only son...") doesn't really scream "dessert" to me. Fortunately, the Gospel starts a few lines earlier with , "Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

Did he say a bronze serpent in the dessert? We can do THAT! We just made it out of brownies. OK, Angel was over and she made it out of brownies while we were putting together the house bed (see post below).

Gospel Dessert Week 1

This week's Gospel is the temptation in the desert according to the Gospel of Mark. In case you didn't know, our four boys are named after the four evangelists (but not in order).

They have all gone through the phase Oob is in now. When they announce the Gospel according to any evangelist with a name other than his own, he loudly complains, "Noooooo! The Gospel according to Ooby!!"

Anyway, this week we have a desert dessert!

This was Mxyl and Klenda's project: they came up with the idea together, the cake and frosting were made by Klenda, and the marzipan Jesus and devil were done by Mxyl.

Mmmmm. Looks like a tempting treat...

Gospel Dessert: Fourth Sunday

 The Gospel this week was the story of the man born blind.  Jesus spits on the ground, makes mud, anoints the man's eyes with the mud and then tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam.

I always had the mental picture of the pool as being nearby.  It turns out it was a bit more than half a mile away - which explains why, after he was healed, he didn't immediately see Jesus.

Klenda made our Gospel dessert, a "mud pie." Less muddy than some other years, but still delicious!


Also on Sunday, God sent us an early April Fool's joke when our rainy day took a turn for the snowy.

Here we have snow on our snow drops!

We probably have a few hundred snow drops, which Oob still amusingly calls rain drops.  Yesterday, they were definitely snow drops!

Gospel Dessert Week 3

This Sunday's gospel was the cursing of the fig tree.  I think every other time I've done this, I've done a fig based dessert.  Really, that's a no brainer.

Except this time I couldn't find any figs!   The closest the store had was Fig Newtons.  I do like those, but I couldn't see a plate of them passing muster as the once weekly dessert!

So I made a "fruit tree" out of cupcakes (German chocolate, I was thinking of our Holy Father Emeritus).

I frosted them all with chocolate icing, then dipped the "leafy" parts in a mix of green sprinkles.

A definite hit!

Sunday Gospel Dessert: Week 2

This week's Gospel was the Transfiguration (Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray with a few disciples, and allows them to see His Glory).

If you look at the copper jello mold at right, you can see that this was intended to be a much more mountainous dessert. As was, it was a lot of fun and, by far, the wiggliest jello I've ever made! I added a "cloud" of cool whip since there is a cloud in the Gospel which overshadows them.

It was also suggested to me that I should have used lime jello to show that it was a sub"lime" experience. Everyone's a critic!

Gospel Dessert: Temptation in the Dessert and More Lent

This Sunday's Gospel was the temptation of Jesus in the desert, after which he was cared for by angels.

Angel food cake!

Just angel food cake this time, unlike previous years when I gave the kids the choice between angel's food cake and devil's food cake...

In other news, we got our vine and branches up, as well as our Walking With Jesus poster.

And we've started the scripture cross over our lenten altar.

Because Choclo is preparing for his Confirmation, we're also trying
to focus on the gifts of the Holy Spirit this Lent.

He "opens" one gift each week and we try to find how Jesus uses it in the Gospel and how we can use it in our lives

Gospel Dessert Week 2: Transfiguration

Each Lent we give up sweets and desserts. Our cookie jar is transformed into a pretzel jar.

But on Sundays, we must feast! So we have a dessert somehow related to the gospel of the day. Klenda did this one on her own!

The Gospel, of course, was the Transfiguration: Jesus went up on a mountain to pray (the chocolate pudding is the mountain), and a cloud covered him (the whipped topping).

Easy (says she who didn't make the pudding) and yummy (says she who ate the pudding!).

Gospel Desserts Week 3 and 4

 

The Gospel for the third Sunday had Jesus cleansing the Temple by making a whip of cords (and flipping tables and what not).

I went with the theme of "whipped," and we had a whipped pistachio mousse topped with whipped cream.

I totally cheated on the mousse.  It's instant pistachio pudding (a long time guilty pleasure), sifted to remove the nut fragments and folded into whipped cream to lighten it up.

Honestly: super easy and soooooo good!

Which brings us to last Sunday when it was an extremely complex and abstract Gospel, and Laetare Sunday, and Pi Day, AND Daylight Savings Time horrible switch.

And it's the only day for dessert, so...

We had pink lemonade (pi)es with chocolate chip snakes on them because Jesus mentioned "Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the dessert desert, so will the Son of Man be lifted up."

He also talked about being the light of the world, and the pies were super light and fluffy.

Did I mention the time change may have made me a little loopy?

Anyway, it's another easy dessert: 1 can of pink lemonade concentrate, two tubs of whipped topping, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, and one (softened) brick of cream cheese.  

The original recipe had no cream cheese and 2 cans of condensed milk, but I knew from experience that that would be too sweet for us, and the cream cheese also stabilized the texture.

Gospel Dessert Week 2

 This week's Gospel is the Transfiguration.  Actually, every Second Sunday of Lent uses a Transfiguration gospel, just from different Gospels.  This year it was Luke.

It's a problem for me!  I've never really been satisfied with the desserts I've chosen to represent this gospel in the past.

This year we tried a chocolate lava cake. 

 The idea is that it looks like an ordinary chocolate cake, but when you slice it open, there is this core of oozy chocolatey goodness.  Sort of like Jesus looking like an ordinary human, but then revealing his divinity.

Hmm.  Divinity.  Maybe next year I'll try making divinity.

At any rate, the lava cake was really fabulous!  We topped it with a billowy "glory cloud" of whipped cream, and it was intensely chocolatey.  It didn't spill out chocolate goo as I had expected, but it's possible we let the cake cool too much.

As was, it tasted like a really fantastic fallen chocolate souffle, lightened by the crown of whipped cream. Yum!

Gospel Dessert: First Sunday of Lent

The Gospel today was the "Temptation in the Desert," and we went with the desert dessert.

It's an angel food cake (after his 40 day ordeal, angels came and ministered to Jesus), covered with brown sugar "sand."


As you can see, after four days with out sweets, any sugar containing object would have been, shall we say... well received!

Gospel Dessert Laetare Sunday

This week was Laetare Sunday with it's reminder to "Rejoice always!" and that "Rejoicing in the Lord must be our strength!"

I made some Laetare punch (watermelon Kool Aid with some "bold" ginger ale).


The gospel this week was the one where Jesus cures a man born blind by putting mud on his eyes.

When I drew the Walking with Jesus poster, I planned to have the kids color it in.  I realized that the mud puddle didn't look recognizable, so I decided to color it in myself, lest it be colored something non muddy.

Unfortunately, the kids interpreted it to be a campfire, so they drew it on fire.

Flaming mud puddles of doom!?!

At any rate, the dessert was chocolate pudding to look like mud, and the kids put whipped cream on it to symbolize flames.

Gospel Dessert First Sunday

 The gospel was Mark's spare retelling of the Temptation in the Desert.  Mark doesn't actually specify what any of the temptations were, but we know the temptations around here...

The Temptation in the Dessert!

Everyone gets a slice of rather boring looking angel food cake and a slice of lushly frosted devil's food cake.

Which would you choose to eat?

Oob didn't want to eat the devil's food exactly, he just wanted a little taste of that fluffy pink frosting.  He didn't like it.  Maybe there is a difference between powdered sugar and baking soda?


To be fair, he knew it tasted bad! He had just seen another sibling try it, and found the reaction really funny (that sibling also thought it was funny!).  I don't think he expected it to taste that bad, though!

That sibling also know it would taste bad.  We've done this before!

The angel food cake was a little flat (a new recipe that didn't work perfectly), but tasty.

The moral of the story: the devil's way may look better, but it always leaves a bad taste in your mouth!

Gospel Desserts: Laetare Sunday

Last Sunday was Laetare Sunday, meaning "Rejoice!"

As in, "Rejoice, you're more than half way done with Lent!"

The gospel was the conversation Jesus has with Nicodemus, a tough call to turn into a dessert.

He starts out saying that "Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." In the past, I've gone the bronze serpent route with this gospel.

But this time, what caught my ear was the end of the gospel where Jesus tells Nicodemus that those who do evil don't want to come near the light (for fear of being revealed), while the just are drawn to the light for the very same reason.


I've always liked the symbol of Jesus as a light house, revealing dangers and drawing us to safety, so Klenda and I went with that (while singing the light house song).

But just to be complete, I put a tiny snake on the sand...

In other dessert news, Saturday was a very special Pi day, and the vigil of Laetare Sunday, so Klenda made this fabulous banana coconut cream pie!

Lenten Gospel Dessert Week 1

This week's gospel was the temptation in the desert (Matthew's version).

We had a desert dessert: this tan spice cake with sprinkles of brown sugar "sand."

It was delicious, if a bit ironically dry.

The majority of the comments were not on this cake, but relief that I didn't do the devil's food and angel's food cakes.  For some reason.

Seven Quick Takes: The Week it All Began

 1. I know Lent started last week, but this week felt like Lent was really underway.  I am loving the conjunction of Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day!  For me, this Lent is all about seeing how God loves me, and how I can better love Him.  That started on Ash Wednesday when he sent me these beautiful little crocuses, springing up all over my yard!

 2. We had our first Gospel Dessert on the first Sunday of Lent.  The Gospel was Mark's super short description of Jesus in the desert: he went, he was hungry, he was tempted, the angels ministered to him.

Alrighty then!  We did an angel food cake with clouds of whipped cream and rainbows as a nod to the first and second readings with the covenant of Noah.

The Zoomlians were remarkably enthusiastic since they hadn't had dessert in... 4 or 5 days.

3. My younger kids' science class, Kids' Astronomy started!

This isn't exactly a picture of that, this is a picture of the same class I did 4 years ago when I still remembered to get pictures. 

The kids just drew dots on an empty balloon and then inflated it to simulate the expansion of the universe (everything is moving away from everything else in at least three dimensions).

And then used their balloons to make funny noises because, why not?

4.  We went straight from snow and ice on Sunday to 80 degrees and wading on Wednesday.  Fortunately, the class was on Tuesday when it was a delightful 75 degrees and breezy.

This was super nice since this is the one class (besides the rocket launch) that must be done outside.  We do a scale model of the solar system where the Earth is a grape and the sun is my son (Zorg, about 6 feet tall) and a tenth of a mile away.

If you're curious, Jupiter is a grapefruit half a mile away, and Neptune, the last of the true planets is 3 miles away. But on this scale, the entire solar system, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud and all is 10,000 miles across!  For us that stretches from Hawaii to our west to Italy in the east. Space is big.

5.  I also had my portfolio review last Wednesday, so we officially closed the fall semester.  This was delayed from the usual January because of my TIA.  Unfortunately, the combination of the odd timing and the 80 degree day made it feel like the close of the spring semester, so now I feel like school is over.  It's a problem.



6. Klenda trimmed quite a bit off her hair (don't worry, I didn't leave her half done!), which made it all wavy again. Sort of a fresh start to almost spring. Very pretty!


 7. We also started up Awesome History again!  We are on the third of three for Awesome American History and I just love it!

This is something I've been doing with a couple of very creative and very fun friends (and their kids) on Friday mornings.  We all read a few chapters separately, then we come together to do an art activity, an active activity, and a snack based on what we read. 

This week we read about the Itidarod and made these neat husky faces (among other things).

But it's also become a fun social time for moms as well as kids, and a great way to wrap up a week with a lot of fun, support, and laughter.

Here's hoping you have a great weekend, more fun with Kelly!

Gospel Dessert Week 2

It's the Transfiguration!

This week's glorious mountainous dessert was done entirely by Klenda. It's actually a cake sculpted to look like a mountain and covered with whipped topping!

Yum! Yum!

Let's see, so far this Lent we have had jello for our class, filled cupcakes on St. Patrick's day, cream puffs on St. Joseph's day, and our two Gospel Desserts.

Ummm. We'll start fasting from sweets for Lent really soon now!!

Gospel Dessert Week 3

This week's gospel involved the parable of the fig tree that bore no fruit.  The orchard owner was going to tear it out, but the gardener offered to give it special care to give it another chance to bear fruit.

Our dessert was these yummy (and fruitful) fig cookies.  I think they are traditionally Italian Christmas cookies, but they turned out more like the apotheosis of the Fig Newton.  So good!

Which reminds me, it's been quite a week for desserts, considering it's Lent and all!








Last week we had cream puffs for St. Joseph's Day. I think that's an Italian tradition.

And Monday was the Annunciation.  I like to do angel food cake for this, but I just couldn't manage it.  So we had ice cream!