Ultimate Festive Fun, and no worry about setting light to someone’s hair or what to do with the left-over oranges afterwards! Make these fabulous edible Christingles as a fun family craft and talk about Jesus, the Light of the World.
I suggest that you have make the CakeTingles first, then have a short talk (suggested talk below) describing and explaining the symbolism, then eat them. Yum! Perfect for an assembly, after school club, Cubs / Brownies, school’s visit, Crib Service, Messy Church, etc.
If you have a traditional Christingle (preferably giant), you could show that and find the equivalents on your CakeTingle.
Liturgy resources for the First Sunday in Advent (good grief, already?) are below, and links to other Christingle resources if this one is not to your taste (ha ha – taste – see what I did there?)
Christingle / Advent Resources
- Simple Liturgies for Advent – Christingle / Advent Candle Prayers – including Chocolate Orange Christingle
- Advent Wreath Reflections – including printable wreath to colour (not just for kids!)
Printable Advent Wreath Craft – with reflections- The Colossal, The Epic, The Unequalled ADVENT FLEXAGON! (Rapturous cheering!) If you’ve never seen this you have to give it a go!
- And don’t forget the best-selling Advent devotions for all ages, Walking to Bethlehem, which features the same readings as the flexagon. Suitable for the whole family (and that doesn’t mean ‘just for the kiddies’), this newly-release second edition is even bigger and even better.
Available from Amazon, Eden , Barnes & Noble and all good bookstores. - Christingle Treasure Hunt with clues
- Advent Devotionals, for Groups, Children and Families or Personal use
- Christingle Bingle – such fun! See it in action here
Nativity Scripts
And don’t forget your Christmas scripts! Here are three Bible-based sketches, suitable for schools and churches, with a strong Christian message while still being fun and festive AND they feature an Amazon #1 bestseller! Read more about them in this post.
You can buy single scripts (gold, green and teal books) or a bumper book of all three (that’s the pinky/purply one). Available from Amazon, your favourite bricks-and-mortar or online bookstore, or from yours truly. Free samples below.
Script samples
- God is with us – everywhere sample / Amazon Paperback
- Christmas Gone Worng sample / Amazon Paperback
- Away in a Suitcase sample / Amazon Paperback
- I Saw Three Skits Come Sailing In – Compilation volume of all three! / Amazon Paperback
I’m a free-lance writer and teacher, and I provide resources at The Reflectionary for free because I believe that this stuff is important.
If you find these resources useful, please consider donating via Paypal or Buy Me a Coffee.
Or you could buy one of my books (see side panel or look up Fay Rowland an Amazon) – that way you help me and get a book as well! (And please leave a review. They’re soooo helpful. ty xx)
Or send Colin Firth with diamonds. (Actually, forget the diamonds; send Colin Firth.) But if you cannot afford that, don’t worry at all. Help yourself for free and be blessed.
How to Make a CakeTingle
You will need:
- Fairy cakes – you can add orange flavouring if home made
- Yellow ready-roll icing for the flames
OR
marzipan - Orange icing for the covering – either glacé or ready-roll
OR
red colouring to add to the yellow icing above - Large white marshmallows
OR
candy sticks
OR
white mini marshmallows - Strawberry laces
- Sweets / dried fruit / chocolate drops
What to do:
- Roll a blob of orange icing into a ball then flatten it to a pancake and drape it over your cake, smushing the edges to fit.
OR
Use orange glacé icing to cover your cake. - For ready-roll, use a fork to make dimples all over your icing, like orange peel.
- Add the candle:
- Push a candy stick into your cake (and you can do the flame straight away)
OR - Use scissors to cut a white marshmallow into six tall wedges. Stick one on the middle of your cake (use a little glacé icing to stick if needed)
OR - Make a stack of three mini marshmallows, stuck together with white glacé icing.
- Push a candy stick into your cake (and you can do the flame straight away)
- Add a strawberry lace around the edge of your cake. I went round twice and cut off the excess with scissors.
- Add FOUR decorations (four compass points / four seasons) with sweets, dried fruits chocolate drops etc.
- Add the flame:
- For candy sticks, make a yellow ball and ram it on top. Simples.
- For marshmallow, make a yellow strip and drape it over the candle, sticking the ends to the sticky parts of the marshmallow. (Handy hint I found out when making them!)
- Pinch the top into a point.
Some thoughts on construction:
- Glacé icing makes it easier to stick things on, but is a bit messy. (And don’t make it too thin.)
- Ready-roll icing makes a better orange-like surface, especially with the fork dimples.
- Marshmallows cut well with scissors. One big marshmallow makes six candles.
- Cut marshmallows are very sticky.
- Rub a little water on ready-roll icing to make it more sticky, but I found I had to use to glacé icing to make the marshmallow candles stick. But if you are making them just before eating, honestly it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
- Add the candle first and the flame last. This gives the marshmallow time to stick more firmly.
- Candy sticks (what used to be marketed as ‘sweet cigarettes’ when I was a child – go figure!) make excellent candles. They are very secure – just jab them in the cake – BUT they are near impossible to source. I have not found any shops that sell them. They may be available online. (THIS LINK may be the correct product, but I have not bought them. They should be stiff, narrow, white cylinders.)
- For ready-roll, you’ll have to push the sweets and strawberry laces into the surface. Push chocolate drop in point first.
- Glacé cherries stick to ready-roll nicely.
- Don’t make the flame too big or it will make the candle fall over.
- Have wipes to clean sticky hands afterwards.
- If you use candy sticks, you could have all the ‘ingredients’ prepped in a little baggie to make in pews.
CakeTingle Talk
You may be asking what the decorations on your CakeTingle mean.
[What do the decorations on my CakeTingle mean?]
I’m so glad you asked. We’ve made a cake version of a Christingle [show traditional Christingle], and these are what the parts mean:
Orange (in our case, a cake with orange icing)
The round shape represents the world.
Science tells us how the world came about, and the Bible tells us why the world came about. God made it, and then looked at what he had made and said, “Wow! That’s really good!”
God loves the world and everyone in it, including you and me, right here, right now.
Decorations (four sweets /fruits etc)
We have decorations on our CakeTingle to represent all the good things that God gives us. Traditionally, these are fruits, but we often use sweets these days.
There are four of them to remind us of the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – and of the four compass points – north, south, east and west.
This tells us that that God’s love reaches through all of time and all of space. Cool, eh?
Red Tape (strawberry lace)
God made humans to look after the earth and to live happily with God. But we have messed this up, and now there are bad things in the world.
We all do wrong things, and this breaks God’s beautiful world. The red tape shows that things are broken and need mending.
Fortunately, God is very good at mending things and mending people. In the Bible, God says, “Your wrong-doings are like bright red stains, but I can make you clean, like fresh snow.”
Candle
How could God fix our brokenness and make us clean like fresh snow? He did this by becoming a human in Jesus, who was born as a baby at the first Christmas and took away all our wrong-doing at the first Easter.
Jesus is called the Light of the World, and our candle reminds us of Jesus, who came to restore us and make us right with God.
The Bible says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never win.”
Let us thank God for Jesus, The Light of the World!
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for the lovely world you have made.
Thank you for all the good things that we can enjoy: friends and pets, pizza and rainbows, beautiful nature and warm socks.
We are sorry when we have spoiled your beautiful creation by unkind words, or selfish thoughts, or actions that hurt others and hurt you. Please forgive us.
Thank you that you sent Jesus, the Light of the World, to take away our wrong-doing and make us clean like fresh snow.
Thank you that you promise to be with us in every place and every time,
and thank you that you love each one of us, right here, right now.
Amen.
Liturgy Resources for Advent 1, Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14
Confession and Absolution
The hour has already come for you to wake from your sleep.
The night is far past. The day is near.
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light.
We lay aside selfishness, for night is far past,
and the day is near.
We lay aside greed, for night is far past,
and the day is near.
We lay aside pride, for night is far past,
and the day is near.
In your mercy, good Lord,
forgive us and rebuild us in your image
and clothe us with your armour of light.
Clothe us with humility as armour
as our armour of light.
Clothe us with generosity as armour
as our armour of light.
Clothe us with love for others as armour
as our armour of light.
Amen.
Blessing and Dismissal
May God teach you his ways
and may you walk in his paths.
May swords be beaten into ploughs
and spears into garden shears
and may you live in the light of the Lord.
May the God of glory,
who knows and loves you,
be with you and those you care for,
This day and always.
Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Amen.
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