Whitsuntide

Pentecost mobile. Tutorial to come.

"Pentecost" flowers picked from the garden by my enthusiastic helpers.

(Why do they never pick them with stems? It's so odd.)

Today is Pentecost, "fifty days" after Easter, the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and the birthday of the Church.

I love the old-fashioned English word Whitsun, or White Sunday. In rural England, the Christian feast was blended with older, pre-Christian customs such as Morris Dancing and May Poles. The octave (eight days following) of the feast was called Whitesuntide.

We did a bit of "special" Whitsun preparations today.

A birthday cake, white, of course.

White doves

White shirts. At least, they were white for a good half-hour this morning. (I do love this picture)

Oh: about cake! I went on a sugar strike, and made my family do it too, as we had colds in the house. As a result, the sugarless cake was bland. BUT the brown filling, which you see, was a triumph...chocolate butter, like the creamiest truffle filling.

• butter
• some cream
• honey
• cocoa powder

I'm sorry I don't remember the proportions, but blended together (that's with blades, not mixers), it was light and soft. A bit slippery, maybe. If I'd had corn starch I would have tried adding a little. It's worth the experiment, as we do have so many reasons to celebrate around here, and baking a cake is one of the great things in life. Like white shirts.