Monday, 29 June 2015

My little Charlemagne

I thought you might want to look at my little Charlemagne for a change. 










AND little Charlemagne allows me to vacuum him for the first time today and I have done so three times today. I wonder what he will allow me to do with him next? I thank God for such a lovely and beautiful creature. 

Friday, 26 June 2015

Ordination Cake

Rev David spoke to me in September 2014 to indicate that he wanted a tiered cake for his ordination like a wedding cake because he would be getting married to the Church and to Jesus.  So I agreed and it has been such an exciting project for me, with lots of blessings from our Lord during the process. 

This ordination cake was the culmination of all the hard work which had been done before hand. I had done lots of design trials, which you may have seen in the cakes I have made since September last year. 

The St John Fisher's cake was a dry run for this ordination cake, which was really a gift from God.

Rev David said he wanted red on his cake. However, I have been disobedient and I have made an all white cake. 

However, I now know why Rev David wants red on his cake. This Sunday will be the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul, and the liturgical colour for this feast is red. However, there will be no red on the ordination cake but I have arranged for the Ostaria of my community to provide white and red flowers for the table. 

The reasons why I have made a white cake for Rev David are as follows. I hope and pray Rev David will have purity in all that he will do in the future. As a priest of the Church, he will have to have pure intentions in everything he will do and he will need to have clean hands and heart always; he will always need to give the benefit of the doubt to the people whom he will encounter; he will always have to make excuses for his parishioners and he will always have to go that extra mile for the people of God; and he will need to be a real good shepherd for the people of God, bringing them ever closer to our Lord.

Rev David's patron saint is St Therese of the Child Jesus, whose favourite flower is a rose.  For this reason, there are roses galore on the cake. 

There is a unity rose on his ordination cake.  This is an adaptation of a Tudor rose, but it has three layers - a sign of our Trinitarian God.  There is no better unity than between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

As the Church is very broad, I hope he will be able to gather all the various people of God and draw them together with great love - and hence the unity rose - like the way the Father gathers the Son and the Holy Spirit, as in the icon of the Hospitality of Abraham.

You should be able to see a dove on the top tier cake and this is the symbol of the Holy Spirit and I wish Rev David to be filled with the Holy Spirit so he can be a good instrument of God, doing the will of God.

This is a three tiered cake and three is a sign of the Trinity.  On the top tier, there are three roses, three of everything - again these are symbols of the Trinity. 

This cake is a gift from the sixth Community of Ogle Street to Fr David to wish him well in his work in the vineyard of the Lord - and you will notice some vine leaves [but no fruits yet] on the cake too.  I have made the cake with 52 large free range eggs, spending nearly 27 hours making the cake, excluding the making of the flowers from sugar - and I pray there will be enough cake on Sunday, the Solemnity of Ss Peter and Paul, to feed the people of God.  I pray Jesus will multiply the cake, like the way we read about the feeding of the 5000 men in the Bible. 

Father David - I wish you well for the ordination tomorrow. I wish you will always remember this day - your red letter day - and when things get difficult, you remember the love of God and the love of your community






The top of the cake has the same sentence as Rev David's ordination card - "You did not choose me, no, I chose you." - from the Gospel of John 15: 16.

In addition, you should be able to see a dove, a sign of the Holy Spirit in the top tier cake above. 



You can see the Unity Rose in the above picture. It has a gold centre and yellow stamens. 

Friday, 19 June 2015

St John Fisher

"I will make you fishers of men" - this is the motto of our dear cardinal saint, St John Fisher, who died a horrible death at the hands of his tutee - Henry VIII, for loving the Holy Mother Church and the supremacy of the Holy Father. 

My neighbouring parish's patron saint is St John Fisher and the feast day is transferred from Monday 22 June to 21 June Sunday, this year 2015, and there will be a big celebration and the Cardinal - as in the current living cardinal - is to preside at the celebration of Mass at this neighbouring parish. The parish priest, Fr Agustin, has commissioned me to make a special cake to celebrate our dear cardinal saint's feast day. 

The effigy on the cake is St John Fisher, and he is wearing red because he is a cardinal.  Cardinals wear red because they are willing to give up their life for our faith. 

The effigy of St John Fisher was made by my friend, Mrs Caroline Jones.  The Headteacher of her children's school, St John Fisher Primary School Oxford, saw the effigy and was so taken by it and commissioned Carrie [Mrs Jones] to make an effigy for the school. So thank you, Carrie, for making the joyful St John Fisher.

The saint has his hands together because he is constantly praying for us, so we do not turn our backs on the Church or do things against the teachings of the Holy Mother Church. 

The rest of the red on the cake - ribbons and flowers - is to signify our dear St John Fisher was martyred for our faith. 

On his feet is a golden palm of martyrdom. This is the symbol given to this holy saint by the Church. 

The flowers are modified Tudor roses.  Tudor roses normally have two layers and these flowers have three layers to signify the Trinity.  The three tiered cake also points to our Trinitarian God. The flowers are arranged in three also to signify this.

There is a dove just above the name "Fisher" to signify the Holy Spirit assisting St John Fisher to defend the Holy Mother Church until the end, on the top tier.

The vine leaves in between the cakes signify our dear saint having laboured in the vineyard of our Lord.

The cake is resting on golden drums and plinth as a sign of the saint living in heaven with our Lord and the cake is round to signify eternity, which is the saint in heaven with our God for all eternity.  

Now, you can have a look at pictures of the cake, so you can understand all the symbols on it. 

Besides thanking Carrie for making the effigy, I must also thank our Lord for helping me throughout the making of this cake and of course of our dear saint to be there for me - praying and helping me through the process.   


St John Fisher - Pray for us.





The Cardinal and the Cake