Traditionally made for All Saint's or All Soul's Day, a soul cake was a small, round cake made to celebrate the dead.
The soul cakes were given to soulers, typically children or the poor, who would go door-to-door singing and praying for the dead. The exchange was in hopes that the prayers might help deceased loved ones reach an eternal resting place.
Ingredients
3/4 cup each: butter, fine sugar
4 cups plain flour, sifted
3 egg yolks
1 tsp each: mixed spice, allspice
3 tsp currants
a little milk
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in color and fluffy in texture.
Beat in the egg yolks, fold in the sifted flour and spices, then stir in the currants.
Add enough milk to make dough soft.
Form into flat cakes, marking each top with a cross.
Bake on a well-greased baking tray in a hot oven until golden.
This is often seen as the origin of modern day trick-or-treating.Source: Latta Plantation
Soda-Cake
