A recording of this chat can be found here
One of the most common ways of sharing our happiness, difficulties and hospitality – is a chat over tea and cake! I can remember my mother making sure there was a cake available for any short notice visits, which meant that they needed eating up and to be freshly made every 3 to 4 days – yum!!
Am I still that organised – hanging my head I will admit I am not. The ‘problem’ is I make them, then they mysteriously disappear, and no-one tells me the last slice has gone!! If you’re like me and have had to buy one, I think that you can add your intention as you slice it.
Baking is kitchen witch alchemy; you have the base ingredients that, when mixed in a certain way, employing energy from the elements, get transformed into something completely different.
Don’t forget to communicate with your equipment. I talk to most machinery (I won’t repeat what I sometimes say to my laptop – I am a technophobe! I always apologise); my mixer, she is red and was a present from my children, I love her and tell her so every time I use her; the cooker, cake tin, tin liner, knives, spoons all are informed of what is happening and why they are an important part of the process, as are each of the ingredients. Just read this back – anyone looking at this would think I was weird and/or mad!! Hence part of the title - embrace your weirdness.
The ingredients all have magical energy, my cake today is Lemon Drizzle Cake, my intention happiness and prosperity -
Flour – depends on the grain used but generally it will include prosperity, abundance, wishes, rebirth, transformation, fertility, grounding, stability, love.
Butter – peace, spirituality, abundance, prosperity, fertility, nurturing.
Vegetable/vegan fat – will depend on the oil used, likely to include fertility, strength, happiness, prosperity.
Sugar – love, protection, sweetening the situation.
Baking Powder – uplifting, happiness, cleansing, removing unwanted energy.
Lemon – purification, moon magic, happiness, decisions, uplifting, love, protection, friendship, loyalty, fidelity.
Recipe from Doves Farm website
CAKE
175g/6oz Gluten Free (GF) Plain White Flour
3 tsp GF Baking Powder
175g/6oz butter/vegetable fat
175g/6oz caster sugar
2 lemons, unwaxed
3 eggs or vegan substitute
2 tbsp milk or substitute
LEMON SYRUP
75g/ 2 1/2oz caster sugar
lemon juice
water
LEMON DRIZZLE TOPPING
1 lemon
100g/ 3 1/2oz icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
Method
Temperature190°C, Fan 170°C, 375°F, Gas 5
Lemon Cake
Pre-heat the oven.
Rub some butter around the inside of a 1kg/2lb loaf tin or insert a baking liner.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl, stir to combine and set aside.
Chop the butter into small cubes.
Put the butter cubes into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and beat together until light and fluffy.
Finely grate the lemon rind, add it to the bowl and beat it in.
Beat the eggs one at a time, into the mixing bowl ensuring each is well incorporated before adding the next.
Sieve the prepared flour to the mixing bowl followed by the milk and stir to combine.
Tip the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked. Leave the cake in its tin.
Lemon Syrup
Squeeze the lemon juice into a jug, add more lemon or water, if necessary, to make 75ml liquid.
Pour this into a saucepan, add the sugar and bring to the boil shaking the pan occasionally. Simmer gently for 2 minutes to make a syrup.
Prick all over the surface of the warm cake with a BBQ stick or skewer, pressing right through to the base of the cake.
Pour the syrup slowly all over the surface of the cake and leave to cool in the tin.
Lemon Drizzle Icing
Using a zester, peel some strands of zest from the lemon and set these aside.
Squeeze the lemon juice.
Measure the sugar into a bowl, add the lemon juice and stir to make the drizzle.
Pour the drizzle over the top of the cake and spread it around the sides of the cake with a knife.
Scatter the prepared strands of lemon zest over the cake.
Leave to set before serving.
Sources –
A Witch’s World of Magical Food by Rachel Patterson
Cake image photo from Unsplash