Imbolc Cream Cheese & Lemon Seed Cookies

These seed cookies are a clever way to celebrate Imbolc and the coming season of spring. 

Imbolc is a traditional seed holiday.    It’s time to begin planning your magical garden and seeds are a key symbol of Imbolc for this reason.  But seeds aren’t just for planting! 

The earliest nomadic peoples relied on seeds during the early spring season.  Seed “cakes” are an ancient source of nourishment.  Enjoy them as a way to connect to our common human heritage this Imbolc.

Imbolc Lemon Cream Cheese Seed Cookies

Imbolc Lemon Cream Cheese Seed Cookies

Recipe by Lumina Indigo

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1.5 tbsp baking powder

• 4 oz cream cheese

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter

• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 egg

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

• 1 tbsp lemon zest

• For the icing

• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

• 3 tbsp lemon juice

• 4 tbsp lemon zest

• 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Prepare baking sheets. Either line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (recommended) or grease 2 baking sheets well with butter or oil.
• Cream together butter, sugar and cream cheese until well-blended. It should have a light, airy consistency.
• Add egg, lemon zest and lemon juice.
• Using a fork, blend together flour, poppy seeds, and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
• Combine flour mixture with wet ingredients.
• Using a large spoon, drop cookies on the baking sheets in 1.5-inch clumps. It should make about 18 cookies. Flatten each cookie with the back of a spatula or wooden spoon.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes. The cookies should be brown at the edges.
• Meanwhile, to make the icing, combine all the icing ingredients EXCEPT the remaining poppy seeds in a small bowl.
• ALLOW COOKIES TO COOL COMPLETELY before icing. Ice them lightly, then garnish with poppy seeds and (if desired) more lemon zest.

Magical Correspondences 

Cream cheese, lemon, and poppy seeds all symbolize something magical about this time of change, melting snow, and the return of the light.

Baking is one of my favorite ways to honor the Wheel of the Year.  I have baking recipes for every Sabbat.  All of them incorporate ingredients specific to the season and the holiday.  This one is no exception!  

Poppy Seeds

Of course, the key ingredient in this recipe is seeds!  In magic, poppy seeds symbolize psychic awareness, deep insight and the magic of intuition.  

Here, we use them to represent the coming season of potential and hope after a long winter of deep contemplation.

Cream Cheese

Imbolc is also considered a dairy holiday.  I try to include farm-fresh cream or milk from the farmer’s market in my Imbolc recipes and even on the Imbolc altar.

Lemon

Lemon is used in magic & spells as a sun symbol.  It’s also used for spiritual cleansing.

Imbolc is both a holiday that welcomes the return of the light (sun symbol) and a time for energy clearing in the home. 

Powdered Sugar

White sugar in general represents purity & sweetness in witchcraft.

But powdered sugar also symbolizes snow.  We use it in this recipe as a reminder that as the snow melts, we, too are changing form.  And everything around us is, too.