Soul Cakes

As we move towards the end of October the season of All Saints and All Souls approaches. Last year I wrote a piece for this time of the year to which I am linking again at Commemorating All Saints and All Souls

This year I will add to that, with its various links to online material, which includes a link to a video from the always informative Tasting History cookery site which has a video about baking Soul Cakes, which has full instructions and can be seen at Soul Cakes & Trick-or-Treating

The addition is a reposting of part of a recent article by Claudio Salvucci on the Liturgical Arts Journal - his whole article can be read at Thirteen Ideas for Restoring the Catholic Roots of Halloween

This particular part is about the tradition of baking and distributing Soul Cakes in return for prayers for the departed and includes two links to recipe articles. They also include more historical information about the various aspects of the observance of the feasts of All Saints and All Souls.

The extract from his article is as follows:

Bake Soul-cakes. Originally, begging for treats on Halloween had a spiritual purpose. Even long after the Reformation, English mothers would bake soul cakes and hand them out to children who promised to pray for the souls of that household. The traditional observance didn’t encourage children to celebrate gluttony, it taught them to repay kindness with acts of charity, to offer spiritual works of mercy for corporal ones. Recipes for this classic All Hallows dish can be found here and here.

So with just over a week to go, get baking!