When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn–
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
~ Madeleine L’Engle
I live in one of the richest nations on earth.
Yet even here, over 800,000 people (out of a population of only some 36 million) rely on food banks each month.
This is the season when we open our hearts, our wallets, our cupboards… but in January the need will remain and likely increase.
We live in violent times.
I’m not talking about the violence in the unending litany of crimes that are played and replayed constantly by a ratings-mad media in a distorted frenzy that warps our perceptions of the world around us and sucks us dry of hope.
This constant noise distracts us from the greater violence.
The greater violence is to the very core of human dignity:
when people are sacrificed to the altar of profit whereby they can spend their live’s energy working full-time for companies generating massive profits – yet still be unable to put food on their tables;
when the economy is considered to operate according to its own natural laws, rather than as a function of political and social will;
when we are positioned as consumers first rather than as citizens and valued solely for our economic viability;
and when poverty, hunger and economic slavery are viewed as necessary or as inevitable collateral damage in a misconstrued economy – rather than as gross violations of social justice.
The time for love to be born is now.
(And I realize that a recipe for an Eggnog Bundt Cake is trivial in the grand scheme of things, but community is built around tables, and it is at the tables of communities that we find solutions.)
May you have in your life both the sweetness of cake and those to share it with.
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil or substitute a lighter olive oil
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup dark rum
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup eggnog
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- GLAZE:
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons eggnog
- 1/2 tablespoon dark rum optional
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Grease 9 or 10 inch bundt pan.
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Beat olive and vegetable oil with sugar until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
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Add the rum and mix.
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Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
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Beat the mixture for 3-5 minutes until it looks light and a has a few large bubbles appearing on the surface.
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Add the eggnog and mix until completely blended in.
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Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg and stir or fold gently into oil mixture until all flour is blended in.
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Fill pan with batter and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
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Remove cake from oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.
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Let cool completely.
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While cake is cooling, stir together the icing sugar, eggnog and rum until completely blended. Spoon glaze over cooled cake. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
This recipe was adapted from Eggnog Pound Cake on Simply Recipes.
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