The Empowered Lifestyle

Happy Birthday to K., same shout out, another day. For those just checking in for the Friday ‘Magically Delicious’ recipe and not following the last few days thread a quick recap: My best friend Kathleen is celebrating a very special birthday on Tuesday of next week. I have been mentioning this same celebratory event inside these posts during last few days and intend for today to be no different.

Now, I could say that the reason I am feting Kathleen is because she is so wonderful and her birthday so important that it’s worth a week long reach. OR I could say that once the mothership descends on her birthday I might have to phone home and then not be able to give the good greeting in case I have to go and pay a visit to dear old Mom. But, the real truth is that even though Kath is my best friend, year after year I get totally confused about what day her birthday is really on. I swear it’s like I have some K birthday block or something. Some years (like this one), I’m not sure if her birthday falls on the 9th and then there are years where I actually get it right on (as mentioned, the 14th.) So, killing two blogs with one post or something like that.

In honor of her gracing the planet, it’s Kath Takes The Cake Day with appropriate recipe to follow! But, first, a little bit about cakes. It seems that sweetened breads and cakes have always been somehow synergized with religion and even folk style magic. Just exploring the history of cakes was like a little trip through the history of the world! Babylonians baked cakes as a supreme offering to their gods and goddesses. Cakes that looked like the gods or the planets or any other symbolic image were common to every culture in the world. The Greek goddess Artemis was the first female to be offered a round cake upon which burning candles were placed in order to garner and gain her attention from the heavens (thereby beginning a tradition that exists to this day!)

In fact, offering a birthday cake to a celebrant started with these religious or traditional offerings as a way to ensure that the birthday boy or girl would have only great fortunes and tremendously good luck all during the next year of their lives. These cakes are said to be directly related to astrology as the circle of the cake symbolizes the Sun, or in what position the Sun was in when the birthday-er was born. In fact, way back when, small candles were placed atop a cake in the configuration of the celebrant’s astrological sign. Created from what are still considered sacred foods (such as eggs and grains) cakes are intricately linked with energies associated with the divine.

Writing on birthday cakes involves allowing the celebrant to eat only positive words that will magically transfer their invocations. Blowing out the candles and making a wish have obvious implications but did you know that the color of the candles is important as well? White candles are used for purification and protection, pink for love, red for sizzle and sex, blue for heavenly peace and purple for healing. Green candles are used for money while yellow are used to represent clarity and orange for uplifting and enthusiastic energies.

Round cakes speak to spirit while square or rectangular ones have a synergy with abundance, money and wealth. If you are actually baking the cake for a loved one, make sure to pour as much of your own love and good wishes into the batter as you do the sugar and the butter. Add to that the following two magical ingredients and the end result is really something saweeeeeet!

(In this case both the almonds and the apricots will magically imbue the cake. Almonds are believed to bring money into your life. They are widely known to speed healing as well as bring on great health and have a little lucky lore attached that says if you eat five almonds before drinking you won’t get a hangover! And apricots, eaten in any form or manner are said to bring both love, of the gooey and delicious kind and peace to any recipe they grace!)

Honoring A Special Birthday Cake
Serves 12

Ingredients:

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons dark rum
2/3 cup finely chopped almonds
½ cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
21 whole almonds
¾ cup premade buttercream frosting

Preheat the oven to 350 and then generously grease three 8 inch round cake pans. You might also line the pans with wax paper in order to remove the cake easier and in one piece. Mix together the eggs and the sugar in a double boiler over a low flame. Beat until three times the original size and keep slightly warmed. Remove from heat and mix in the flour, the butter and the vanilla. Divide the batter evenly among the three pans and bake for 25 minutes or until a fork tine comes out clean. Remove the pans and allow to cool.

Mix together the apricot preserves and the rum. Fold the chopped almonds into the whipped cream mixture. Spread one of the cakes with half of the preserves and then spread half of the whipped cream atop the preserves. Cover with another cake. Repeat this process and then ice the top cake with the buttercream frosting. Decorate around the edge of the top cake with the whole almonds and serve.