Maple N' Apple Sunshine Bread

Maple n' Apple Sunshine Bread

Today in honor of the cold full December moon I wanted to be full of productiveness. Which really meant-- honoring myself with overcoming my anxiety to go shopping, and make bird feeders for yule but unfortunately my apple stems weren't quite long enough to do this. So I'm going to forage for pinecones after work tomorrow for a substitute. Instead I took my apples and decided to still maintain my focus and motivation, making a lovely bread that I'm sure you'll enjoy and will fill your kitchen with a cinnamon and maple aroma.🍁

Yield: Makes 2 loaves.

Ingredients:

A cleansed quartz crystal to keep you company.

A bright yellow candle or white candle to represent joy and pureness.

2 peeled, cored, and chopped apples to represent fertility-- not in the reproductive sense but growth within ourselves in the new year.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2/3 cup golden raisins to represent the sun-- brightening up our winter which the days are shorter and the nights darker and frigid.

1/2 cup chopped walnuts for abundance and focus.

Zest of an orange for prosperity and happiness.

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

2 cups sugar

1-1/4 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon maple extract for longevity.

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon for love and protection.

About 4 light handed splashes of milk to smoothen out the batter (I eyeballed it but I'd say about 4 tbsp's)

Freshly ground nutmeg for luck.

Instructions:

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, eggs, maple, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix until thick then add in your splashes of milk or tablespoons one at a time, mixing in and folding gently until the batter is smooth. This batter will start out thick and then get creamy, smooth, and dense like banana bread.

Next peel, dice, and add your apples into a bowl with your golden raisins. Using a micro dermal blade grate some zest of orange over the fruit and some nutmeg, this is of course optional but smells heavenly and sends in imagery of falling delicate snow amongst bright rays of sunshine. Mix in until fully incorporated in the batter.

Pour into two greased 9x5-inch bread pans. Chop some walnuts, pecans-- or make your own special topping this is optional. Caramel chips or cinnamon sugar would be nice too, and sprinkle on top.

Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour. Take out from the oven and check with a tooth pick, if it comes out sticky pop back in for another 15-20 minutes to finish baking. Then Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pans, then cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy and have a blessed winter and holiday season.

It is often helpful to release extraneous energy that you may be carrying. This is called grounding. It can massively increase your ability to focus and help to stabilize your mood. It is, of course, not a replacement for proper medical care, but can be helpful for witches in a magical context.

Grounding, contrary to popular belief, isn’t about pushing away some nebulous “negative energy.” Instead, the goal is to release subtle forces that are neither necessary nor helpful to you. This energy isn’t inherently “negative,” but since it has a negative effect on you, you can ground it to achieve greater clarity!

It is considered important to ground after channeling energy in any form, including through magick and ritual. Also, since we can and do unconsciously channel and process energy all the time, regular grounding can help, too. I personally find grounding helpful when I feel tense, anxious, or spacey. It helps to avoid energetic burnout.

Many people think grounding just involves sending the energy into the ground. While that is certainly an option, passing energy into the sky or another part of your environment is a possibility, as well. 

A lot of people worry that they’ll be unable to ground if they’re not on a level, natural surface like a field or yard. I want to emphasize that this is a misconception!

You can ground almost anywhere. I ground in my fourth floor apartment, passing energy into the building and environment around me. It works quite well. There is something soothing about walking barefoot in a forest, but it isn’t necessary to do that when grounding.

To begin this, sense the energy within you. Then, expand that energy. Visualize it spreading out, above and below you. While doing this, you will find that you have an increased awareness of your surroundings.

You might have the brief sensation of being a fully integrated part of the environment. It may feel like the ground beneath your feet and other things around you are actually part of you.

I get this sensation often while grounding, and it can even verge into extrasensory awareness! For example, during very intense grounding sessions, I can sometimes sense people moving around on other floors of the building I’m in. This isn’t that uncommon, from what I’ve heard!

When you’ve reached this point, your energy has merged (in a way) with the rest of the environment. To finish grounding, allow the loose, diffuse parts of this energy, which hover farthest from your physical body, to dissipate. These parts will completely merge with your environment, leaving you. Slowly, your mind will become more serene as the energetic components that didn’t belong in your system drift away.

Once you feel this happen, you can pull you remaining energy back into your body’s central area and allow it to naturally condense. Throughout this entire process, visualizing your energy as roots or tendrils can be helpful, but I personally prefer to visualize it as wisps of extended light.

A lot of people worry about grounding “negative energy.” They are often concerned that when the extraneous energy leaves them, it will harm their surroundings in some way. This isn’t what usually happens, though. 

As I’ve emphasized above, what is “negative” for you yourself might be perfectly positive and useful for another person, place, or thing. It’s also important to consider that ambient energy is gradually filtered of its own accord, too. So, it’s unlikely that whatever you’ve grounded will remain in the same state for very long.

Grounding usually comes directly before centering. Both of these are followed by shielding. You can, of course, ground without centering or shielding, but I’ve found it most advantageous to do all three in that order. I’ll be posting other articles covering the other two topics soon!

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Written with a combination of the Saturn Square Numerology method and my own sigil writing method.

Kitchen Witch Masterpost

- General Posts: [The Basics Of Kitchen & Cottage Witchcraft] [Infusing and Charging your Drink] [Basic Ideas For Kitchen Witchery]  [Bedridden Witchcraft: Kitchen Witch Edition] [A Guide (Of Sorts) To Kitchen Witchcraft]  [Ethics of Enchantment of Food and Drink] [Mini Herb Packets] [On Kitchen Magic]

Correspondences:  [Fruit & Veggie Correspondences] [Useful Spices] [Taste Correspondences] [Onions In Witchcraft] [Grocery Store Alternatives for Magical Ingredients] [Food Correspondences]  [Witchcraft For The Home: Herbs & Spices] [Herbs & Witchcraft] [Herbs, Incense, Oils]  [Food Magic Correspondences]  [Magic Pies] [Herbal Correspondences] [Kitchen Magic Altar Herbs] [Cucumbers] [Magical Uses for Kitchen Tool] [Teas For Witches: The Basics] Spells:  [Charmain’s Self Love Mug] [Kitchen Charm Magnet for Fresher Food Longer] [Kitchen Cabnet Abundance Jar] [Protection Powder] [Rotten Apple Banishing]  [Abitwitchy’s Bath Bag] Recipes:  [Soups! Kitchen Witch Masterpost] [3 Spring Witchy Recipes] [Warming Autumn Soup] [Family Good Health Soup] [Honey Lavender Bread] [Pumpkin Pie Happiness Spell] [Grandma’s Pumpkin Bread] [Imbolc Poppy Seed Tea Bread] [Edible Wealth Spell] [Luck & Love Bread]  [Peace Spell] [Feel Better Charmed Soup] [Give Me Sunshine Potion for Happiness] [Healing Tea Recipe] [Soups & Broths In Magick] [Happiness & Luck Smoothie] Tips/Random: [Kitchen Witchcraft Baking Tips]  [Kitchen Witch (#10)] [Honey for sigils] [Storage tip] [Lemon Juice For Invisible Sigils] [Kitchen Witchery Tips] [Cinnamon Stick Runes] [Baby Kitchen Witch Tip]  Thank you for the suggestion @choijiae1893!  I hope this helped you! Enjoy! Have a lovely day 💖