Valentine's Rose Layer Cake

Valentine's Recipe -  Rose Cake

my mother's old Hot Milk Sponge Cake recipe, with a very special touch

Butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 Eggs

1  teaspoon Vanilla    Beat together until eggs are light, fluffy and thick.

1  Drop Pure Rose Otto

Beat in  1 Cup Sugar   beat until smooth.

Sift together:

1 Cup Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 dash salt

Stir into the egg mixture.  Will be VERY thick.

Heat until the butter melts:

1/2 cup milk

1 Tablespoon butter

Add the hot milk mixture to the batter, stir it QUICKLY together, (work fast here, because the hot milk will start the baking powder rising before the cake is in the pan.)  Stir together quickly, pour into prepared pan and into the hot oven.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and the cake tests done.

Cool upside down on a rack.

split the cooled cake in half to make two layers.  Fill with either Raspberry Jam or,

if you are among the really lucky ones who have some,  with some Rose Petal Jam.  (Trust me, the Raspberry is wonderful  in it!) Sift some confectioners sugar over the top.

and...another recipe...   if you are a white wine lover,  add a teaspoon of our Rose Hydrosol

to a glass of chilled dry white wine, for a romantic dinner a deux.

Shingles, again

Google Health defines Shingles so:

Shingles (herpes zoster) is a painful, blistering skin rash due to the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox.

They go on to describe the wide array of symptoms (almost all painful!) that occur with it, and say that it is normally a self limiting illness, but usually treated with oral antiviral drugs.

I've never suffered from Shingles, for which fact I am well and truly grateful.

Now...according to the law of the land, I am not allowed to make any statement that any product of ours can affect the course of a disease, or could possibly " cure, mitigate, treat or prevent" disease.

I believe I can still quote Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt, who writes in Medical aromatherapy: healing with essential oils that a dilution of Ravensara essential oil in a base of Calophyllum inophyllum (Foraha or Tamanu) can treat Shingles effectively.
And Dr. Jane Buckle writes of the use of Ravensara in Calophyllum to treat Shingles, and, in fact, any sort of Herpes outbreak.  She writes in Clinical Aromatherapy "the most successful essential oil Ihave used has been Ravensara Aromatica. "

Len Price, in Carrier Oils for Aromatherapy and Massage writes of Calophyllum (which he calls Tamanu "a combination of tamanu vegetable oil and Ravensara aromatica essential oil has been used successfully as a treatment for Shingles."

What triggered this rash of quoting?  An email received this week from Dusti Martin in Longbow TX.  Dusti has been a client since before my oldest records,  I think I made my first major error on one of her orders... received an order from a Dusty Miller and Dusti Martin on the same day...and switched the contents.  Dusti obviously forgave me, because she's been ordering from us ever since.  At any rate, she wrote Oct. 11:

I can really use your help with my new ailment!  Oct. 2 I felt "odd" in that I had a mild headache, felt weak for no reason I could think of, and the skin on the right of my torso was very sensitive to touch.  Wednesday night I discovered bumps on my right back waist (and they are multiplying and roaming along my right front).  I consulted WebMD for shingles and that was what I had.  On Thursday I saw my doctor who confirmed my hunch.  She prescribed an antiviral med to take 3 x daily for 7 days.  She also prescribed med for pain for when the blisters are gone.

Long story short, I have no Calophyllum and none of your Ravensara Aromatica.  I do have a 5ml? bottle!  Can you help me out here not only with the carrier and oil, but also number of drops of Ravensara in the Calophyllum?  Massage directly on the bumps?  Apply how often?  Sorry to be such a novice but this is my first excursion into medical application. 

I'm trying to get to where it's comfortable enough to wear jeans by next Sunday.  Our choir begins rehearsals for the Christmas Concert and I really want to participate!

We immediately shipped her both Calophyllum and ravensara.  Yesterday (12 days later) she wrote:

Hi All,

Three weeks ago I was developing a case of shingles, only didn't yet know why I was feeling "odd".  My doctor prescribed an antiviral medication which I took the requisite seven days.  In the meantime, I contacted Marge after looking up the article regarding shingles on your web page.  I ordered the Calophyllum and Ravensara and added the entire bottle of Ravensara to Calophyllum, per suggestion.  That was on October 15.  By the 17th, I was able to fairly comfortably wear jeans to choir practice in the evening.  That in itself was amazing!  I've applied my "Wonder Serum" daily, several times a day this past week and I cannot describe adequately the improvement in the way I feel!  The extreme skin sensitivity is almost gone.  The spots/bumps are drying up and going away.  I am finally able to wear clothing with a waistband and am NOT in pain!  I can drive and not cringe with every bump or hole in the roadway.  I knew this solution would be helpful but I
 had no idea just how much or how quickly it would bring welcome relief :)

Thanks so much,

When I wrote asking her to share, she replied:

Yes, PLEASE share it.  It's been a blessing, this "Wonder Serum", and it can help others IF they know about it!

We've written about this blend for Shingles before.  In December 2001, our newsletter contained the following thank you:

Beth Werner's husband John managed to contract a case of Shingles...

Nasty, PAINFUL stuff.  Beth had us shoot some callophyllum innophyllum and some ravensara her way. This is John's Emailed message the day after he received it:

Marge,

The stuff Beth ordered for treating my shingles arrived today, and she whipped up a batch.  I put it on before laying down for a nap at 4:00 and popped a Co-Tylenol.  It was the best few hours of sleep I have had in a week.  When I woke up, the angry red color of the shingles had noticeably subsided.  The swelling in my eye lid was also greatly reduced.  (My wife says I have an eye again.)  Even Beth is amazed at how well it worked.

Thanks,

- John

In October, 2002 From Juliana Lipe, in Shreveport:

Hi Marge,

Just wanted to give you some feedback on the Ravensara oil that I recently purchased for a friend with shingles. I did a 10% dilution in Calophyllum for her and she told me today that, in her words, "it healed me!" She said that it relieved the itching and healed the lesions that had plagued her for weeks. Another wonderful EO success!! Thanks again for your help!

Juliana

 And some of you remember Courtney raving about her mother's finally believing that what we make available WORKS when, after dealing with a Shingles outbreak for almost a month she finally agreed to try "some of your snake oil."... the next morning she was singing our praises.


Over the years we've had requests to offer this combination 'preblended', and always refused.  We finally decided that when someone is absolutely miserable and in pain they don't need to be measuring and blending. It seems an act of mercy to make the combination available preblended and ready to order.  So we are. Our description of Ravensara now gives a description of both the undiluted oil, and the Calophyllum dilution.    I hope the information given will be helpful to some of you.

"What can I bring????" - fast & easy recipes.

This Labor Day I've been invited to two picnic/cookouts.  One near noon, with my children and grands, one early this evening with another big group.  The problem is that I have been going straight out all weekend. No time to cook, shop, etc.



Dessert is easy.  I count on my well worn copy of The Cake Doctor.  (Yes, I can bake some wonderful cakes from scratch. Just ask my children. I baked both of my daughter's wedding cakes. But that takes time and energy that I sometimes lack.  So I count on recipes from The Cake Doctor and folks think I have done it all from scratch.)  My big KitchenAid stand mixer will hold TWO batches of cake mix with all the add ins... so last night after I came home, two fancied up sheet cakes went in the oven.   A quick pineapple/coconut glaze, and dessert was ready.

This morning I needed two Salads... time for my trusty "Instant Calico Pasta"... A secret a friend who was a caterer in a past life shared.  The part that takes the longest is boiling the water.

Have on hand:

• 1 Box Salad pasta: rotini, Bow Ties, your choice
• 1 bag/package Frozen Mixed Italian Vegetables (The brand I buy has carrots, zucchini, Italian flat green beans, cauliflower, I forget what else.)
• A amall bag of frozen mixed color sweet peppers and onions is nice to have, but not essential.
• Some sort of liquid Salad dressing.  Could be French or Italian, but those are more equally recognized, and the goal is to have people think you slaved.  I like Store Brand "Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette" but a "Roasted Red Pepper with Parmesan" has worked well.  

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water as long as the box says.  Toss into your biggest drainer or colander.  Add the FROZEN vegetables to the scalding hot pasta and toss like mad.  The frozen veggies will cool the pasta; the steaming pasta will thaw and wilt the veggies, and voila...room temperature salad.  Toss with a generous amount of your chosen dressing (nothing with a mayonnaise base, the glory of this is that it can sit, safely, at room temperature on a buffet or picnic table for several hours.)

If you have time you can add whatever other goodies seem appropriate...  I halved some presliced turkey pepperoni, snipped some deli ham. If you have some sundried tomatoes, snip them and toss in.  Olives would be good if you are an olive person. (I'm not!)  The frozen slices of pepper were fairly long, so I snapped them in half or thirds before adding.  The zucchini slices were huge, so I halved them. (A big heavy butchers knife will cut frozen vegetables nicely.) Coarsely grated or finely diced cheese is a great addition...I didn't have any, and no time to dice some.

For two HUGE bowls (two parties, remember?) I used one box of small Rotini, one box of Farfalle (bowtie noodles), two packages of mixed vegetables, one package of frozen peppers, and a full 16 oz bottle of salad dressing. (Had used less, but the batch at the first party was a tad dryer than I would have chosen, so when I came home, added more dressing to the second bowl.)    Leftovers work well for lunch or dinner, although there are seldom any leftovers available.

And that's what I brought to the two Labor Day parties.