Les Coeurs de Sainte-Catherine

"In Northern France it is a custom on St. Catherine's day to give heart-shaped cakes to unmarried women who have reached the age of twenty-five.  The idea is to encourage them in their search for love (and a husband)."  ~ Cooking with the Saints

Back in 2008 I posted about the tradition of Heart Cakes on the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

Since our oldest daughter was named after this beautiful saint, we have always celebrated her nameday with a heart shaped cake!  This year we just made a simple applesauce cake, in a heart shaped pan, sprinkled with powdered sugar.  However,  any heart shaped cake would work perfectly!

Les Coeurs de Sainte-Catherine 

(St. Catherine Hearts)

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg Spice Cake Mix (I used Namaste Foods Spice Cake Mix) 
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 fresh apple, grated or chopped (skin left on is okay)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350˚ F. Grease and flour a 12" heart shaped pan.

Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely and then top sprinkle with powdered sugar.

From My Nameday: Come for Dessert: How fortunate are girls named after the glorious virgin-martyrs who battled to maintain their integrity and faith, and in return were divinely protected and rewarded. The virgin-martyrs sacrificed what was naturally good for the sake of God, the supreme Good. Their lives should inspire the faithful, and particularly their namesakes, to pay due homage to God. Nameday prayers on feasts of virgin-martyrs:

Father: Come, O spouse of Christ, receive the crown which has been prepared for you forever by the Lord, for whose love you shed your blood.

All: In your splendor and your beauty, make ready, ride in triumph, and rule.

Father: Let us pray. O God, from whose bounty all good gifts proceed and who in Your virgin-martyr N.... did both give the flower of virginity and the palm of martyrdom, at her intercession unite our souls to You by love so that we may avoid all perils and gain the rewards of eternity. Through Christ, our Lord.

All: Amen. Christ conquers, Christ reigns!


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Celebrating Michaelmas and Nameday Prayers for the Family

In honor of St. Michael, and a certain little boy's nameday, our family always celebrates today's feast with Devil's food cupcakes (this year it was a simple cake, made from a mix) topped with a St. Michael statue.  The celebration is never complete without little swords for stabbing the cake devil!

This year's feast is coming to an end, but I thought I'd pop in for a minute to share a picture, and the Nameday Prayers from My Nameday - Come for Dessert.   I hope you all had a very blessed feast!

Nameday prayers. Today the family prays the following:

Father: The Lord, King of archangels.

All: Come, let us adore, alleluia.

Father: I looked up and saw a man standing there clad all in linen and his girdle was of fine gold. Clear as a topaz his body was, like the play of lightning shone his face; and like burning crossets his eyes; arms and legs of him had the sheen of bronze, and when he spoke, it was like the murmur of a throng.

All: He bestows favors on those nations who honor him, and his prayer leads them to the kingdom of heaven, alleluia.

Father: The angel Michael, chief in paradise, to whom the angelic citizens pay honor.

All: Most glorious prince, archangel Michael, be mindful of us here and everywhere; pray ever for us to the Son of God, alleluia, alleluia.

Father: From the writings of Pope St. Gregory the Great:

Michael means "Who is like God!" When any work of remarkable power is to be done, we are told it is Michael who is sent, that from both his action and his name we may understand that none can accomplish what God in His might accomplishes.

All: Salvation belongs to our God, alleluia.

Father: Let us pray. O God, who ordained the services of angels and men in wonderful order, be pleased to grant that our life on earth may be guarded by those who stand always ready to serve You in heaven. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen. Christ conquers, Christ reigns!

Holy Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, 
Pray for us!

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Eagle Cake

As I mentioned earlier, today was the feast of St. John the Apostle. One of the symbols for St. John is the eagle. Since we celebrate one of my sons namedays today, I decided to make an Eagle cake using the directions for an Eaglet Cut-Up-Cake in My Nameday Come for Dessert by Helen McLoughlin as a guide. It was really easy and quite fun to put together!

It turned out very homemade looking -- but that never does matter to children, does it?!

EAGLET CAKE

Modified from: My Nameday Come for Dessert

1) You will need a 9-inch square cake. Bake it from a cake mix or
from your best-liked recipe. When cool, cut a strip diagonally
across the center of the cake, 3 inches wide to use for the body.
Cut the corner off one end to make a beak.

(In case some of you need visuals like I do, I drew a picture for you.)

2) Place the cake strip so that the pointed end is the head; use
the cut-off piece for the beak. Use remaining cake pieces as
spread-out wings. Frost with white seven-minute frosting.

(I used canned frosting in chocolate and lemon.)

3) When the fluffy frosting is swirled on the eaglet, add coconut
for feathers. Make a red gumdrop eye and a glistening beak of
tiny yellow candies. For the feet and wing tips use split pieces
of licorice "shoelaces."

(I skipped this step since my goal was to use what I had on hand. I frosted the body with chocolate frosting, the beak with lemon, and used powdered sugar for the head. I then added a couple candy corns for his talons. To finish him off I just added a brown M&M for his eye.)


This cake can also be used for the feasts of Sts. "John of the Cross; Augustine of Hippo; Priscilla, an early Christian martyr; the Benedictines Cuthbert, Bertolph, and Thierry (or Theodoric); Leopold; and Wenceslaus, who is shown in art with an eagle on a shield." ~ Helen McLoughlin
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A Crown for our Queen

This past spring, I ran across a darling Cookie Crown Cake recipe in a Family Fun Magazine. I have been waiting for an opportunity to make it, and what better reason than to celebrate the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 22nd. (On the Extraordinary Calendar it is celebrated on May 31st. )

Even though it looks complicated, it actually sounds fairly easy.... You won't even need a cookie cutter with this pdf template to use as a pattern. Enjoy!

Cookie Crown Cake

from Family Fun Magazine

Ingredients:

2/3 cup flour

16 1/2-ounce roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough

Template for cookie pattern

4 tablespoons yellow decorating sugar

2 (16-ounce) cans white frosting

Candy decorations (regular and mini M&M's, and Stardrops hard candies)

2 (8-inch) round cakes

Directions:

1. Knead the flour into the cookie dough to firm it up. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Using the template, cut out as many cookies as you can. (If you happen to have a small heart cookie cutter you can use that as well.) Keep rerolling the dough scraps and cutting until you have 12 cookies -- 11 for the cake plus a backup. Transfer the cookies to a foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle them generously with yellow sugar. Bake them according to the package directions until they're golden brown around the edges. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

2. Spoon 1/2 cup of the frosting into a resealable plastic bag. Snip off a corner of the bag and pipe designs onto the cookies. Add candy decorations as shown above. Allow the frosting to set for at least 1 hour before handling the cookies.

3. Use a long serrated knife to trim the top of one of the cakes flat, if needed. Place it on a serving platter, spread a thin layer of frosting on the top, then lay the other cake on it, rounded side up. Generously frost the stack and use a spoon to draw the frosting on top up to a point as shown. Carefully press the cookies around the side of the cake, piping lines of frosting between the cookies to secure them. Serves 11.

Mary, Queen of Heaven ~ Pray for us!

UPDATE: You can see my finished cake here.

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