My new favorite kitchen utensil: the mini mold for muffins. I rarely want or I need a full -size cake or even a Magdalena for Cakes & Ale. Here is the mini mold for muffins. With a perfect size to make ritual cakes, I constantly find new and creative ways to honor the moon stations using this simple utensil. This month?

I usually provide a link to the recipe and focus on the ritual meaning of the ingredients in my kitchen witch stalls. But one arose from my own experimentation and toy, so I’m going to tell (I know, I’m full of cheesy cooking jokes at this time of year).

In the moon of the harvest and the autumnal station in general they mean a time to recognize the memories of our dead loved ones (especially those who have died during the last year), give thanks for the abundance of the harvest and enjoy the company of our most beloved beings.

The baking process fills your space with the aroma and spirit of the autumnal station.

Sharing harvest moon cakes with a blanket, friends or family solidifies ties and honors relationships with our communities.

Make your ritual cakes for the cakes and beer part of your lunar ritual to give power to your spell work. The approach and concentration of choosing ingredients especially for the occasion elevates vibrations in your home.

This recipe makes 24 mini cakes, but you can do half quite easily.

1 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of butter (softened)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 Common flour cups
1 3/4 teaspoons of dusty yeast 1/2 cup of milk

Any combination of the following (I have calculated by eye):

*A whole bunch of ground ginger
*A whole bunch of ground cinnamon
*A Whole Bunch of Ground Jamaica pepper
*A little less nutry earth

For the glaze:

1/2 cup of butter (softened)
8 oz. of cream cheese (softened)
4 cups of icing sugar
A splash of vanilla

1. Preheat the oven at 300 degrees.

2. Shark the flour, dusty yeast and ground spices.

3. Mix butter and sugar.

4. Mix the dry ingredients and add the eggs and vanilla extract.

5. Gate the molds for muffins or use molds for muffins.

6. Pour the mixture in the molds and bake for 10 minutes or until when you puncture with a stick, it comes out clean.

7. While the cakes are baked, mix cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to make the glaze.

8. Let the cakes cool for at least 30 minutes before glaze them.

9. Optional: Decorate with ginger cookies.

Enjoy them in your ritual of the harvest moon or leave some on the altar as an offering. They freeze well, so you can bake a large lot and use them throughout the fall during the Esbat.

All spices included in these cakes are traditional of the era of harvest in the Wiccanian religion, as well as many neopagan traditions in general. Cinnamon in particular has many spiritual properties.

If you like this recipe, you may also like this entry about Yule’s cookies, in which I deepen the meaning of the ingredients of the harvest season.

Do not hesitate to leave your own harvest moon recipes in the comments or share your experience with it.

Blessed full moon!