We discussed an occult bake sale - briefly, since virtually all spices and ingredients have some sort of symbolic significance (cinnamon is used in some rituals somewhere for wealth, say), one could imagine a spice cookie that was a get-rich-quick charm, or a luck-with-love charm, or whatever (there's a certain halloween kitzch factor here, so a good name like "black magic cookies," "burnt offerings" or "heart of scone" would go a long way toward a sale).
There's also traditional stuff like "Dead Bread", which I've been wanting to make for years now. Good opportunity.
Aaanyway, any of my food/magickal-thinking friends done anything along these lines? Or have any off-the-wall suggestions? I've finally located my Cunningham's Kitchen Wicca and all the other kitchen witchery books I've accumulated, those should be a big help...
[edit: I'm focusing on an "occult bake sale," not a "spooky-ooky halloween bake sale," so this is more about symbolism and correspondences, less about squicky strawberry blood and bats :) ]
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edible flying spaghetti monster with google eyes.
Rose hips -sacred to the mother and a fertility symbol - my thoughts for a bake sale item would be a cupcake or cookie with rosehip jelly. The fact that they are also really high in vitamin C really isn't of use to you, though it may be of interest to your non-witchy buyers.
Lavender - sleep and protection and household harmony- added to shortbread is really most incredibly yummy.
Sage for wisdom (though I can't think off the top of my head any sweet recipes with sage, there's a sage flatbread / cracker sort of thing that is v. yummy) and salt and mint for purification (salt is too common in baked goods to stand out, but mint might be helpful)
All these are off the top of my head, but I'm sure you can think of others.
Also, an idea to add to your inventory... Sugar crystals+sweet almond oil+aromatic=a wonderful hand scrub for those of us with dry skin in situations where Avon just isn't good enough. 8-) Package it small and price it to recoup your costs and put a sample out for testing to encourage folks to buy. You'll want a basin of water, but seriously, it's good stuff. A variety of aromatic oils gives the metaphysically minded a chance to pick by intent and the non-metaphysically minded the option of choosing for scent or whatever. Rose Oil for beauty and Mint and juniper for clarity and Rosemary for healing and protection would be my first thoughts.
and chocolate anything sells well at a bake sale, so you'll want to pander tot he crowd on a couple of items. There will be folks who are willing to explore new things and there will be folks who just want to buy something for the kid tugging on her sleeve. Brownies or the like, something kid and impulse-friendly.
And now I have a yen to do a mixed cookie, dark chocolate and sugar, to represent the duality of Samhain, the light and dark, and life-from-death. Or the elemental thing from someone else's comment, chili pepper cocoa against liquid mint, crisp merengue against a flourless chocolate cake. Hmmmmm.....
Hey! Adults! Can you do infused liquors? Pomegranate, again, but also cassia/cinnamon and mint and wouldn't the elemental four pack be fun? Cinnamon for fire, mint for water, something delicate for air, maybe rose? and then something earthy, mushroom is all that springs to mind, but I'm multitasking, so I'm sure someone else can come up with something better and because they are all infused vodkas, you've *snicker* got spirit covered. Okay, I'm dropping into silliness now and not being helpful, so I'll go away.
I've infused liquors, preserved fruit, baked everything from bread to merengue, done really complicated dinners (duck, beef wellington), fed a thousand people (not hyperbole - con suite at a scifi convention) and I won't make real candy for the same reason I won't deepfry at home. The temperature required for hard crack worries me. I also can't make a pie crust to save my life. Truffles are different, because I can cheat. S'why I don't make risotto.
But now we are completely off topic, sorry.
Earth could be the no-bake chocolate stuff with a gummi worm sticking out.
The air ones could have a mouse center or extra fluffy batter.
For water, maybe a very liquidy center.
Fire could have some spicy cinnamon or maybe jalapeño cornbread.
If you decide to do spirit, maybe combine all of them or do an angel foodcake.
There is also making edible ritual implements, athames out of marzipan, divining and other crystals from hard candy, wands from cinnamon twists with decorations.
Also maybe green man faces painted onto sugar cookies with icing. Or the fertile goddess done the same way.
Really rich (in sugar) cakes baked with candy coins into the slices for prosperity.
Just ideas off the top of my head, I am sure you could come up with a lot more.
Divinity could represent air, too. For sheer comic value, using fondant to attach pastel rock candy to the end of one of those thick pretzel sticks for a "magic wand" would be entertaining, but I'm afraid it would lighten the whole too much, and there is some serious purpose here.
I sort of like the idea of sugar cookies with pomegranate syrup. Season-appropriate.
Lemme look around and see what I can come up with.
Btw, sorry I didn't make it out last night. I was up until 4 am working on display units and packing my car. I will have to just come by and visit at some point. *grin*
Like maybe you could have oatcakes with cranberries.