Today I will be sharing a very basic recipe for Moon cakes. These “cakes” are very traditional in their ingredients and method, though they resemble more of a shortbread cookie than our idea of “cake” in this modern world. They are perfect for any lunar ritual. You can also switch up the almonds for an ingredient that more reflects your path if you aren’t a witch. I have included a ritual for before cooking as well.
Celebratory Cooking Preparation
When making the following celebratory cakes, be sure to ground and center before you begin to cook. Focus on keeping yourself centered while you are baking. Reverence in the kitchen while cooking will add a sacred energy to the cakes you are making. You may want to say a prayer before you begin, to facilitate this energy.
Use this or something similar in your own words:
Spirit,
Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Please join together in this food.
Add your energy to mine
To bless these ingredients
As I create a sacred cake
To share with you and honor you.
blessed be.
Moon Cakes
In terms of a dough, this is pretty “traditional” in the sense that it contains mostly whole ingredients and a simple method that has been used throughout many generations in many parts of the world and is similar to many recipes that have been handed down orally from family to family. No matter what tradition or path you follow the basic recipe is great for any celebration and you can switch out the spices used here for any that correspond to the theme of your occasion. Get creative, but keep in mind this is a “cookie” so you’ll want to choose ingredients that go with cookie dough to keep them palatable.
Mix together:
1 Cup almonds, finely grated.
Almonds are associated with money and healing. We will use healing as a focus here since our celebrations are about our spirits. They’re perfect to give us extra spiritual healing that our rituals often facilitate. We’ve also found that often ingredients that correspond with money also work well to expand the riches in our soul; (love, light, positivity, spirituality etc.). A different kind of “currency” but one far more important than actual dollars.
(To make life easier, I like to buy slivered almonds, and just crush them up a bit in the mortar and pestle. Don’t have a mortar and pestle? Use a heavy duty freezer bag, place the almonds inside, let the air out, seal the bag and go over it with a rolling pin until they are crushed.)
1/4 cup flour
Made from wheat, flour connects us to the earth, and thus the divine. It provides balance not only in our recipes but in ourselves as well.
¼ cup confectioner’ sugar
Sugar is associated with Venus and love. Our celebrations are all about love. Our love for Spirit, our love between our brothers and sisters of the earth and our inner love for ourselves.
½ cup butter
Butter is associated with the Moon, Earth and spirituality.
1 egg yolk
We could devote pages and pages to eggs, but for the purpose of this ritual we are focusing on the history that eggs have been revered as a gift from the gods. Cultures from all over the globe have at least at one point revered eggs as sacred. While holding the egg, just before you crack it, feel gratitude deep in your heart that we are blessed to have this gift of nutritious food. Thankfulness is not only reserved for ritual but for all of the processes leading up to it.
Preheat oven to 325⁰F. Combine almonds, flour and sugar. Work in butter and egg yolk with hands until well blended. Chill. Pinch off pieces of dough the size of walnuts and shape into crescents. Place on a cookie sheet (we prefer to line our pans with parchment paper as it is healthier and recyclable, but you can used a greased cookie sheet as well), and bake for about 20 minutes. Yields about 20.
A nice addition to these is to drizzle a little honey on top of them right before serving them, to finish off the whole connection to our celebration.
Blessings
Sway