A few weeks ago, they announced the Birthday celebration for the Relief Society. The Relief Society is the women’s organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I am a member. We are the largest women’s organization in the world, and we are celebrating the 175th birthday this month, as we were organized in March 1842. The purpose of Relief Society is to “help prepare women for the blessings of eternal life as they increase faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement; strengthen individuals, families, and homes through ordinances and covenants; and work in unity to help those in need. Relief Society accomplishes these purposes through Sunday gospel instruction, other Relief Society meetings, visiting teaching, and welfare and compassionate service.” (https://www.lds.org/topics/relief-society?lang=eng&old=true)
As part of our celebration this year, we had a cake decorating contest. I may be just a little competitive, so I singed up and started thinking about what I wanted my cake to look like. I decided to try to incorporate the Relief Society seal somehow, and after checking pinterest for ideas, I settled on a two tiered round layer cake, with a fondant base and white on white piped writing. I had never tried fondant, so I looked up a recipe and that’s what I did. My sister had used homemade fondant on my daughter’s wedding cake and had said it was pretty easy to work with, and I’ve watched just about every cooking show on the food network, so I thought, “what have I got to lose?”
This is the crumb coat with buttercream frosting. I used a cream cheese frosting in between the layers. Yummy! This is the 10 in bottom layer, I didn’t take pictures of the 8 inch at this stage.
Here is the fondant on the 8 in layer. It’s made from marshmallows, powdered sugar, a little water, and a few drops of doTERRA lemon oil for flavor. It smelled so good, and tasted delicious.
Adding the Relief Society motto, and the first few lines of the declaration: “We are beloved spirit daughters of God, and our lives have meaning, purpose, and direction. As a worldwide sisterhood, we are united in our devotion to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Exemplar. We are women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity…” I haven’t piped since I worked at Cookies by Design in Ohio, and then it was on a nice horizontal surface, not a curved vertical one!
At this point, I thought I was done, but the plain yellow borders didn’t quite look finished, so….
Adding both colors on each layer pulled it all together. While the work isn’t perfect, it was really fun to decorate again. And it was very well received at the party. I even won an award:
What a blessing to share in this special night with my sisters in Relief Society! We shared wonderful stories and yummy cake and other treats. I love that the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring us together and give us cause to not only worship together, but to celebrate and entertain each other. I’ve added friends to my life in all of the places we have lived, through Relief Society. To all of you from here to Ohio, I love and miss you and am so glad to count you as friends.