Hi, everyone!! Welcome back to the fourth installment of my 2026 Astrology Cake series! If you did not see the earlier months’ Aries Cake, Taurus Cake, and Gemini Cake, I’ll catch you up! Earlier this year, I decided to revamp my previous version of this series, expanding upon my 2024-2025 Astrology Cakes. This entire endeavor began with a single commission for a Taurus birthday cake in May 2024, which quickly turned into a passion project and an extremely playful creative outlet for me. I feel so grateful for the love this series received a few years ago, and now, with 2 years more experience and confidence in the kitchen, I felt an overhaul was warranted. I’ve made it my mission to push myself a bit more inventively this go around. I’m so excited for you to join me!
The flavors of my Astrology Cakes are not random. In classical astrology, each sign has a list of something called “correspondences.” This refers to the symbolic earthly elements (plants, animals, crystals, herbs, places, body parts, colors, planets, etc) that energetically connect to each astrological sign. I base my cake flavors on any associations that I feel could be applicable in edible form. For Cancer, I chose to focus on milk, verbena, high water content fruits, white, silver, grey, iridescence, and the moon. The decoration for this cake was based on an oil painting of the moon by @1llaxy on X.
The base of this cake is a toasted coconut sponge. This uses a coconut cake recipe I’ve previously posted, but warmly enhanced via toasted coconut and browned butter. I know, I did a (much less exciting) coconut cake base the last time I made a cake for Cancer season, but there truly is no better flavor to capture the essence of this sign or this time of year! The coconut sponge is brushed with a honey milk cake soak to incorporate the milk correspondence, as well as subtly nod towards the Summer Solstice, which commenced on the same day as the start of Cancer season this year.
I typically cook my fruit fillings for cakes, either making a jam or coulis of sorts, but to respect the importance of water content for Cancer, I chose to leave these peaches fresh and juicy. “Maceration” is fancy terminology for the extraordinarily simple technique of soaking a fresh fruit in sugar to soften and intensify the flavor. I am using a lemon verbena simple syrup as the soaking liquid here, which infuses the peaches with subtle but bright citrus.
The final component of this lovely cake is the osmanthus honey Italian meringue buttercream. This buttercream is silky, aromatic, and delicious, complementing the honey soak and rounding out the gentle, tender sweetness of this bake. The osmanthus flower is infused directly into the honey and strained out before whipping, so the final product remains smooth. A follower of mine on X tagged me in a stunning moon painting in April, asking if I could recreate it on a cake. I knew I had to file the inspiration away until the Cancer cake, as Cancer is ruled by the moon. I used blue spirulina, elderberry powder, ground turmeric, cherry juice, and black cocoa powder to dye my buttercream, finishing the design with edible pearls. Of course, decorate your cake however your heart desires!
I had so much fun developing, constructing, and eating this cake! I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for the rest of this series. As always, I’d love to hear from you with any questions, comments, concerns, and especially photos of your creations! Happy Cancer season and happy baking!!
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