Last night was the winter solstice, the night when the dark is the longest and the dawn the furthest away. For me this is a type of new year, the old year is gone, reflecting on this one just passed, well...it was a mixed blessing.
So now we are moving towards the light, every day is a little longer, every night a little shorter until the summer solstice and the cycle reverses again.
I say goodbye to last year, it was very upsie downsie year, too much so for a woman like me. I had some genuine blessings, a daughter feared lost, found, tightened bonds with my mother, two dear new friends in Moon Brother and Jo, an unhappy son, happier, new directions, rediscovery of self, for all these things I give thanks, thank you old year, you can go now, hopefully this year will be easier.
And so I made a blessing cake. Because I was so pleased with our Experiment Cake from last week I used that recipe but replaced the limes with lemons, oranges and orange liquer. I will leave a bit out tonight in the garden for any spirit who ventures by.
I also planted two new trees today, and blessed them, “every day, our spirits lift with every step closer to spring.”
Blessings upon you all Cookie House people. May the coming year bring good things.
XxM
Blessing Cake 6 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup coconut cream
Juice and one lemon, one orange
1 tablespoon orange liqueur
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup desiccated coconut
Syrup
1 cup sugar
Juice and zest of one orange, one lemon
1 tablespoon orange liqueur
1/2 cup coconut cream
Very important! Preheat oven to 175 degrees C fan forced or 185 if not fan forced. Line base and sides of springform cake tin with baking paper.
Place the eggs and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment or, if doing by hand and have a lumberjack handy, a large bowl with balloon whisk, beat until it forms a pale yellow foam, tip in the first lot of juice and zest and coconut cream, keep beating, combine the baking powder and two flours, tip them in, then add your desiccated coconut, now, straight into the spring form tin and straight into your preheated oven. Cook for about forty minutes until the top is goldish and quite firm to touch. Take out and immediately spoon over about half a cup of your syrup, let it soak in for five minutes, then some more syrup until the cake stops accepting any more, if you are not sure how much you need, and it can be tricky to tell, remove from cake tin and take a peep at the bottom of the cake, it should all be damp with syrup but not oozing.
For the syrup, combine all ingredients in a small saucepan, stir over a low heat until combined, pour over your cake whiles still hot.
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