Baking spells

Yesterday, I made the bread pictured here. It's a traditional Italian Easter bread that's very slightly sweet and has orange zest in it. Plus, of course, the eggs, which get roasted while baking, are part of the treat.

I decorated the eggs with various symbols matching the intention I crafted before starting the entire process. I sang, danced, and kneaded, guiding the energy into the dough, which I love to do.

Although many recipes call for using the trusty Kitchen Aid for mixing, I often prefer to do it by hand, especially when I'm actively working magick into the material - which, to be honest, I almost always do.

This morning, I had a slice of the bread along with some AMAZING organic toasted Hazlenuts from Sicily suspended in honey from Tuscanny. It was sheer heaven!

Lately, I've been cooking my way through Gina DePalma's "Dolce Italiano," an incredible book of Italian desserts which are so different than the standard sweet fare.

I recently baked the Torta di Polenta Con Agrumi from her book - a cake that uses flour and polenta as the grain, mixed with orange, lemon and lime zests, topped with a glaze of confectioners' sugar and the juice of the citrus fruits. It was divine. Interestingly, there was no butter - the only fat was, of course, olive oil.

That spell was about bringing joy and pleasure into the lives of those who ate the cake, and at least while we were eating it, I knew this to be true (especially when Philip and I each ate a piece at the breakfast table on Monday morning!).