Candy Cottage for Our Lady

Last year, we began a new tradition in our home--putting up a gingerbread house on the Feast of Our Lady of Loreto, a date so closely associated with Our Lady's prayerful and holy home.

Hoping to continue the tradition simply and manageably this year, I purchased a Wilton Cottage Cake Pan a few weeks ago. It reminded me of the Holy House of Loreto as depicted on holy cards and in this coat of arms:

[Loreto Coat of Arms courtesy of International Civic Arms.]

We began with plain yellow cake mix, ready-made frosting, pink and purple sugars, gumdrops, gummi bears, mini-marshmallows, and colored wafers:

Once the cake was baked, it was a snap to frost in white. Theresa gave the cake a crumb coat, and Margaret and Marie to applied the candy embellishments. This they managed skillfully [I was making dinner and let them at it on their own] in spite of the help offered by Patrick, Maureen, and Eileen.

Margaret was particularly proud of her own innovation--a chimney made of mini marshmallows:

Here is the work in progress--Marie's snowman stands to the left:

It was my bright idea to put the cake on a pedestal cake pan to keep out of the way during dinner. We left it in the dining room on the piano out of reach of the little ones.

Midway through dinner, disaster struck!

We heard a sickening thud and raced in to find our candy cottage face up on the floor:

Margaret's chimney was no more:

And look at our poor piano! [This photo was taken after we cleaned the keys.]

Disappointed, but undaunted, Margaret set about a reconstruction. The fact that we already had a picture of the cake in its original glory was a comfort to her. We talked about the Holy House in Loreto and how angels carried it from the Holy Land to Italy to prevent its desecration. Our Candy House had moved unexpectedly too! We like to think the angels helped it land face up, even though it fell face forward. : )

Every year, I save particularly beautiful Christmas cards, knowing we may eventually find a good use for them, and this image of the Blessed Mother in red was just the thing for our pretty house. I left a bit of the card edge at the bottom to stick into the icing, creating a vibrant "Loreto" cake topper:

A group of cherubs hold up the base, reminding us of the many holy card images we have seen of Our Lady of Loreto:

At the end of the day, the children gathered round, of all things, the laptop computer. We made the Consecration to Our Lady of Loreto from the wonderful Minnesota Mom. Having just prepared for the Total Consecration on December 8th, this was especially meaningful.

Before bed, I blessed the children with Loreto Oil from the Holy House, sent by my dear friend Anne for my mother. What a blessing it is to have such good and thoughtful friends!

Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us! Bless our homes and our families, and make us more like you!

Comments

[Karen Edmisten]

What a beautiful and inspiring activity, Alice.

[Michelle]

Wow, you had quite an evening! Your cake was beautiful and you managed to give beauty and meaning even when things didn't go as planned. Thanks!

[Margaret in Minnesota]

Great minds, Alice! We made gingerbread houses for the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, too!

Except mine turned out NOTHING like yours. Hmmm...and I'm surprised by this? :)

[Margaret in Minnesota]

PS. Thank you many times over for the prayers. I am especially grateful for your friendship today--on the feast of the Patroness of the Unborn--for the Our Lady of Guadalupe rosary that you sent last year.

It's my favorite rosary, and believe me, I've quite a collection!

[Mary Ellen Barrett]

It looks really beautiful, even after the fall. What a lovely idea. Congratulate the girls for me on a beautiful house.

[Meredith]

It's truly beautiful!! What a lovely idea and the worked so hard. I imagine those little angels werejust prompted by the beauty and delight of the day!!

[Cay]

Sweet...and lovely.
Do you know if there is a child-friendly book out there on the House of Loreto?

We do a gingerbread house every December. I'm going to steal your idea for doing it on the feast day. What a clever idea!

[Cici]

brilliant, as always, Alice. you always have such a lovely way of turning (consecrating?) the ordinary into things spiritual. thank you so much for sharing.

we do a gingerbread house every year, too. we'll now be doing this on the feast day.

[Christine]

What a beautiful house!

On another note, thank you for sharing your Our Lady of Guadalupe Tea, last year. Yesterday, we had 3 families over for the Feast of Our Lady of Gaudalupe and enjoyed praying hand sandwiches, tortilla tilmas, sombreros, rose punch, sugar cookies (Our Lady of Guadalupe, Juan Diego, and stars), and Tepeyac Hill (made out of a jello mold).
Happy Feast of St. Lucia!

[Mary]

Only at the Cottage does a mock up of the Holy House of Loreto actually take flight! Oh, this was such a delight to read today! Alice, hon, you take the cake!

[Mary Beth P]

Beautiful! Sorry it fell. We tried to make a gingerbread house (from a kit), but we didn't get past the back walls. Oh well, maybe we'll try again!