Bunny poses with Maggie's gluten-free chocolate orange cake at a birthday celebration.
Straight to the point - Bunny and I basically have just one dessert. This gluten-free chocolate orange cake has been served at all matter of special occasions since I discovered it while on my Nutritional Therapy course four years ago. Its creator is Maggie Lynch, Director of Cooking at the Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health.
Maggie is an inspiration. She and her husband Richard Burton, the director of the Irish Institute of Nutrition & Health are in fact what compelled me to extend my intended one year of study to become a Nutrition & Health coach at the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health, to nearly four years to qualify as a Nutritional Therapist.
Maggie’s down-to-earth style, combined with her sincere love of people and food, immediately drew me to her, and Richard is a force of nature all of his own - there are few people I trust so wholly when it comes to advice and ideas about how to heal with food. So, in a way, whenever I make this cake, I’m back with them.
In January, I made this cake for the birthday of a friend and Claudio said, “this cake, again, don’t you have a different recipe?” No, not for now. When I serve up this cake it’s more than the rich, fresh, healthy, gluten-free ingredients that almost everyone finds delicious – it is a visit with Maggie & Richard and the part of myself who feels at once gentle, powerful, and in her groove nurturing the gentle, strong, powerful light in others.
In a way this is the essence of why I created the Food Speaks section of my blog. Every recipe, from the initial thought of it, through the shopping, the preparation, the making, the serving, and the eating represents for me a person, or persons, and what being with them inspires and provokes in me. A memory manifested into a tangible form, to nurture the body and soul.