Royal Icing Kissing Ball

It's easy to pipe a fairly realistic-looking sprig of mistletoe, but you could also go the route of piping a mistletoe "kissing ball." All you'll need is stiff consistency royal icing in green, white and red, round tips #12 and #3, leaf tip #65, oval tip #55, a flower nail, a Styrofoam block to rest the nail in, parchment paper squares, a glue stick, and a dusting pouch filled with a 50/50 mix of powdered sugar and cornstarch. Start by sticking a parchment square to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick. 

 Hold the #12 tip just above and at a right angle to the surface and pipe out a kiss-shaped dollop of icing about half an inch tall. Touch a fingertip to the dusting pouch and tap the peak to round it. Set it aside and allow it to dry.

 Switch to the #65 tip and start covering the icing with tiny, overlapping leaves.

 Continue until you can no longer see the base.

 Allow the icing to firm up a bit and pipe a scattering of white #3 dots for berries (you could also use red for holly berries).

 Pipe a bow with the #55 tip in any color you like (red or white are fairly traditional). I really have no directions for the bow; just pipe a couple of loops, a short shot of icing for the knot in the middle, and a couple of tails.

 Peel away the parchment when the icing is dry and use this to make any holiday dessert that much more festive. You could also use a dab of icing to hang this kissing ball over the door of your gingerbread house.