St. Expedite’s Magickal Pound Cake

The classic ritual food offering to St. Expedite is pound cake. In New Orleans, it is Sarah Lee pound cake that has become tradition, most likely because it is cheap, easy to get, and for a few bucks you can keep a loaf in the freezer ready to pull out and slice off a piece at a moment’s notice.

The second best thing to Sarah Lee pound cake is homemade pound cake. It is easy to make and you can make some for yourself. The ingredients lend themselves to a very magickal pound cake, with luck drawing ingredients like sugar and vanilla, lemon to clear away blockages, and eggs and flour to bring abundance. In fact, the ingredients of pound cake reflect well the gifts St. Expedite has the ability to bring his devotees.

But pound cake is not limited to loafs. You can get creative with your pound cakes if you are an avid baker, You can make pound cake balls, pound cakes with pudding filling, bundt cakes, layered pound cakes, and swirled pound cakes, for example.

This recipe is from the cook book, The New Royal Cook Book, which was published in 1920 and is in the public domain. The magickal attributes are my additions.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter brings wealth and prosperity)
• 1 cup sugar (to sweeten the coming year)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (cut obstacles and clear the way)
• 5 eggs (abundance)
• 2 cups flour (abundance)
• 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder
• Reserve 2 egg whites for icing

Directions

Cream butter, add sugar slowly, beating well. Add flavoring and yolks of eggs which have been beaten until pale yellow. Beat three egg whites until light and add alternately a little at a time with the flour which has been sifted with baking powder. Mix well and bake in greased loaf pan in moderate oven about one hour. Cover with ornamental frosting, page 16, made with the two remaining egg whites.

Ornamental Frosting

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon flavoring extract
• 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder

Directions

Boil sugar and water without stirring until syrup spins a thread; add very slowly to beaten egg whites; add flavoring and baking powder and beat until smooth and stiff enough to spread. Put over boiling water, stirring continually until icing grates slightly on bottom of bowl. Spread on cake saving a small portion of icing to ornament the edge of cake. This can be forced through a pastry tube, or, through a cornucopia, made from ordinary white letter paper.


*Excerpt from The Conjurer's Guide to St. Expedite, Copyright 2014 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.
Image credit: http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2010/09/classic-pound-cake