41 Years. That’s the milestone my husband Joe and I celebrated on our wedding anniversary this week. We were married in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. We had next to no money, so for our honeymoon we rented the cheapest van we could find, put a flimsy foam mattress in the back and tooled around the south of England for four wonderful days.
Of course we visited Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. It was a popular tourist site, but wasn’t yet attracting the hordes that led the British government to cordon off the stones so that they could only be seen from a safe distance. In 1972, we could go right up to them and touch them. In fact, I posed for the obligatory photo showing how I was single-handedly holding up the massive structure.
No one really knows why Stonehenge was built or the purpose it served, but it definitely seems to be connected to the solar calendar. Every year at the summer solstice, the sun aligns perfectly with the space formed by some of the stones.
Thousands visit for summer solstice
I thought about our visit to Stonehenge when I read that tens of thousands of people converged on the ancient monument June 20 and 21 to watch the sun rise on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Here is the Guardian newspaper’s article about it. English Heritage, which manages the site, allows people to go right up to the stones for ceremonial purposes during the summer solstice – something it calls Managed Open Access.
Some were undoubtedly just out for a good time, but some were actual pagans celebrating an important date on their spiritual calendar. For Wiccans, the summer solstice is one of eight annual festivals, called sabbats (which is where the expression “Witch’s Sabbath,” a gathering of witches, comes from.)
Pagans are not non-believers!
Pagans have suffered from a lot of negative associations over the years. Many of us think “non-believer,” or “heathen” or even “savage” when we hear it. But professing pagans – most are Wiccans or Druids – take their faith seriously. Even the U.S. military recognizes paganism as a world faith and now provides pagan headstones in military cemeteries, when they are requested.
Paganism may be attracting new followers because it is based on a belief in the divinity of nature which appeals to many young adults. Professor Ronald Hutton, of Bristol University in England, a leading expert on paganism, believes there are at least 100,000 practicing pagans in Britain. Considering that fewer than 1 million people regularly attend services at the country’s official church, the Church of England, he says, “paganism matters.”
Read more about the history of paganism.
Pagans believe in magic, and use spells to encourage desired outcomes.
Different pots for different types of spells
About 20 years ago, while on assignment for my employer, I met a woman called Gundella the Witch who was a practicing Wiccan. She told me she had separate pots for cooking up potions for different kinds of spells – one set for “quiet” spells, like something to calm you down, and another set for more active spells, like something to give you extra energy. As someone who keeps the Jewish dietary laws, which involves separate sets of pots and dishes for meat and dairy foods, I found this fascinating.
There’s no witchcraft in today’s recipe, but it does have an appropriate name, Wiccan Magic Cake. There is definitely something magical about it. You mix up a batter, which is quite thin, bake it, and it magically separates into a bottom crust, a custard layer and a thin brown top. It’s got a lot of eggs and milk, and it’s not too sweet, so you can even eat it for breakfast. I got the recipe from a friend who posted it on Facebook — the only attribution was “Frisky.” So thank you, Frisky, whoever you are.
Wiccan Magic Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk, lukewarm
- powdered sugar for dusting cake
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking dish.
- Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer or whisk, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light. Add the butter and vanilla extract and continue beating for another minute or two. Add the flour and mix it in until it is fully incorporated.
- Slowly add the milk and beat until everything is well mixed together.
- Add the egg whites, a third at a time, gently folding them in using a spatula. Or you can add a third of the egg whites to the cake batter and gently whisk them in, then reverse the process and add a bit of the cake mixture to the egg whites and gently whisk in; repeat until all cake batter has been whisked in. (You may have to break up some clumps of egg white with the back of the spatula. Just be sure to do this gently, so you don't completely deflate the egg whites.)
- Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 40 to 60 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and the center is not jiggly. The baking time could vary depending on the oven, so take a peek at around 40 minutes and see how it looks; continue baking, if necessary, in 5-minute increments.
- Sprinkle some powdered sugar on the top after the cake has cooled.
Debra says
Sounds delicious and similar to a clafouti recipe.
Will have to make this.
Graham Cook (Cookie) says
Is it possible to get pagan recipes that Britons would have eaten? Most ‘so called’ recipes I have looked at have ingredients that simply were not around in pagan times. I have been looking for Yule recipes. Thank you.