Symbolism in Jesus's birthday cake
Merry Christmas.
No, not Merry belated Christmas. It's a season, not a day, so it's definitely not over yet. This post is definitely going to be one of my more heartfelt posts because it's not about a recipe or product, but more about the story behind my creation. One way I chose to keep Jesus at the center of the season was to make him a birthday cake after my family got done opening presents. I'd been thinking about my vision for this cake for awhile. Early in Advent, at around the time of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it hit me that I need to develop a recipe for an "Immaculate Heart of Mary" cake to use for feast days concerning Mary. Because each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity were involved in what Mary is known for (It was the will of the Father that his son Jesus would be conceived in her by the Holy Spirit), I wanted there to be white somewhere in the cake (for purity, the absence of sin) and a color to be assigned for each person of the Trinity. I asked a few of my friends at church for help coming up with ideas for that part of it, and then I needed help coming up with ingredients that would help me achieve the colors I was going for naturally. If any of you who helped me develop my vision are reading this, thank you! You played a vital role in the development of this project. By the fourth weekend of Advent, I had a pretty solid vision for the Immaculate Heart of Mary cake that took the ideas my church friends helped me come up with, and I then saw an idea online that I should make Jesus a birthday cake. I thought the vision I had already developed for the Immaculate Heart of Mary cake fit perfectly for Jesus's birthday cake too and I could just decorate it a little bit differently.
The colors I chose were blue for the Father, because his love for us is like an ocean, red for the Son for the blood he would shed on the cross to save us from our sins, and gold for the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit sanctifies (makes things holy) and the sacred vessels we use at my parish in which the Eucharist is contained are gold in color.
What I had in mind was to make a red velvet cake for the bottom layer, and for the top layer, an almond cake that I colored blue by using the liquid from boiling red cabbage instead of using plant milk or water. If you boil red cabbage, the water turns blue and remains blue in the absence of acid. I used strawberry chia seed jam for my filling between the layers, and I was originally going to use coconut cream cheese frosting but I came across one problem. I ran to the grocery store on my way to church on Christmas Eve to grab piping bags, vegan cream cheese, shredded coconut, almond extract, and coconut extract to do this project, they had everything I needed (and just in the nick of time. I grabbed the LAST box of piping bags) except the coconut extract! So I texted a few church friends (including some who had helped me to develop my vision for the cake) because I knew I'd be seeing them at Mass and I asked them if they by chance had any coconut extract they could bring for me, knowing they probably wouldn't but it couldn't hurt to ask. They didn't have coconut extract either but with the power of prayer, the Lord came through for me and gave me new inspiration yet again. I got a couple other extracts for Christmas. Coconut was not one of them but peppermint was, and it's Christmassy and goes with the other flavors I had in mind, so I went with it for my cream cheese frosting, and I'm really glad I did. It was clearly God's plan at work and I love the way it turned out.
As for my decoration, I used the shredded coconut on the sides of the cake mostly to cover up spots where it still wasn't pure white after frosting it and it looks really pretty and adds a fun texture, and on top of the cake, I spelled Jesus's name using a candy cane and golden raisins, and I applied one dried hibiscus flower for each person of the Holy Trinity, and used a little bit of green leaf lettuce to make grass, because green is symbolic of the new life that Jesus came to bring us. The lettuce took on the peppermint flavor of my frosting because I had to use extra frosting between layers of the lettuce to hold it down.
I hope I can be a source of inspiration to remember the reason for the season and it is my prayer that the love you guys show me on my social media will be reflected to you all tenfold this Christmas season.
No, not Merry belated Christmas. It's a season, not a day, so it's definitely not over yet. This post is definitely going to be one of my more heartfelt posts because it's not about a recipe or product, but more about the story behind my creation. One way I chose to keep Jesus at the center of the season was to make him a birthday cake after my family got done opening presents. I'd been thinking about my vision for this cake for awhile. Early in Advent, at around the time of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it hit me that I need to develop a recipe for an "Immaculate Heart of Mary" cake to use for feast days concerning Mary. Because each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity were involved in what Mary is known for (It was the will of the Father that his son Jesus would be conceived in her by the Holy Spirit), I wanted there to be white somewhere in the cake (for purity, the absence of sin) and a color to be assigned for each person of the Trinity. I asked a few of my friends at church for help coming up with ideas for that part of it, and then I needed help coming up with ingredients that would help me achieve the colors I was going for naturally. If any of you who helped me develop my vision are reading this, thank you! You played a vital role in the development of this project. By the fourth weekend of Advent, I had a pretty solid vision for the Immaculate Heart of Mary cake that took the ideas my church friends helped me come up with, and I then saw an idea online that I should make Jesus a birthday cake. I thought the vision I had already developed for the Immaculate Heart of Mary cake fit perfectly for Jesus's birthday cake too and I could just decorate it a little bit differently.
The colors I chose were blue for the Father, because his love for us is like an ocean, red for the Son for the blood he would shed on the cross to save us from our sins, and gold for the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit sanctifies (makes things holy) and the sacred vessels we use at my parish in which the Eucharist is contained are gold in color.
What I had in mind was to make a red velvet cake for the bottom layer, and for the top layer, an almond cake that I colored blue by using the liquid from boiling red cabbage instead of using plant milk or water. If you boil red cabbage, the water turns blue and remains blue in the absence of acid. I used strawberry chia seed jam for my filling between the layers, and I was originally going to use coconut cream cheese frosting but I came across one problem. I ran to the grocery store on my way to church on Christmas Eve to grab piping bags, vegan cream cheese, shredded coconut, almond extract, and coconut extract to do this project, they had everything I needed (and just in the nick of time. I grabbed the LAST box of piping bags) except the coconut extract! So I texted a few church friends (including some who had helped me to develop my vision for the cake) because I knew I'd be seeing them at Mass and I asked them if they by chance had any coconut extract they could bring for me, knowing they probably wouldn't but it couldn't hurt to ask. They didn't have coconut extract either but with the power of prayer, the Lord came through for me and gave me new inspiration yet again. I got a couple other extracts for Christmas. Coconut was not one of them but peppermint was, and it's Christmassy and goes with the other flavors I had in mind, so I went with it for my cream cheese frosting, and I'm really glad I did. It was clearly God's plan at work and I love the way it turned out.
As for my decoration, I used the shredded coconut on the sides of the cake mostly to cover up spots where it still wasn't pure white after frosting it and it looks really pretty and adds a fun texture, and on top of the cake, I spelled Jesus's name using a candy cane and golden raisins, and I applied one dried hibiscus flower for each person of the Holy Trinity, and used a little bit of green leaf lettuce to make grass, because green is symbolic of the new life that Jesus came to bring us. The lettuce took on the peppermint flavor of my frosting because I had to use extra frosting between layers of the lettuce to hold it down.
I hope I can be a source of inspiration to remember the reason for the season and it is my prayer that the love you guys show me on my social media will be reflected to you all tenfold this Christmas season.