"In olde tyme good people wolde on All halowen
days bake brade and dele it for all Crysten soules."
(1511)
In England a 16th century custom was to set upon the table a pile of ''Soul-cakes,'' and every visitor was expected to take one, repeating this rhyme:
"A soule-cake, a soule-cake,
Have mercy on all Christen soules
For a soule-cake.''
"This ancient chant of West Fenton, Shropshire, was sung until recently by bands of young people who made annual rounds of the neighborhood on All Souls' Eve (November 1), begging at each door for ''soul cakes'' for their Hallowmas feast. Soul cakes are spiced oval or round buns which, in early times, doubtless were given for prayers for the dead, or as ''a charity'' for departed souls. "Souling'', as the ceremony of singing for cakes is called, probably originated in the pagan Feast of All Souls''. Soul cakes and souling customs vary from country to country, but souling practices have always flourished best, perhaps, along the Welsh border. Nowadays the custom rapidly is dying out, even in this district, but many vestiges of the old songs still are found in tiny hamlets of Shropshire and Cheshire, as well as in Staffordshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire.
This custom of doling out bread for all Christian souls persisted well into the seventeenth century, for John Aubrey, the English antiquary, writes in 1686 of seeing ''. . . sett on the Board a high heap of Soulcakes, lyeing one upon another'', like the ''shew bread'' in old Bible pictures. He goes on to describe the bread as ''about the bigness'' of a two-penny cake. It was customary, according to this writer, to give one to each ''souler'', who in return for the gift, droned out one of the following "old rhythms or sayings.'' (above)
It was customary for the soulers to repeat their ditties over and over again in monotonous, droning tones, without pause or variation, as they made their rounds from parish to parish. The sound must have been familiar, indeed, to Shakespear's ears, for Speed remarks in "Two Gentleman of Verona'' that one of the ''special marks'' of a man in love is ''to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas''.
The composition of soul cakes used to vary considerably from one county to another. Usually they were rich with eggs and milk. They were rather flat, round or oval in shape, and pungently flavored with saffron and allspice. In a highly popular sense the ''cakes'' meant ale, fruit or money - anything, in fact, that was given to the soulers at Hallowmas. It is interesting to note that from this early British institution of souling, American boys and girls throughout the United States have inherited the ever popular custom of masquerading in fantastic costumes on October thirty-first, and going from door to door in the neighborhood to demand ''something for Halloween''.
Soul cakes, as adapted to American taste from recipes of early English housewives, make delicious teatime buns. Instead of the saffron and allspice originally employed, use of a few drops of yellow vegetable dye, if desired, and cinnamon, or a dash of nutmeg or mace.
The following recipe, patterned after an old Shropshire recipe, makes four dozen light fluffy tea buns, or three dozen good-sized breakfast ones. These soul cakes, served hot with cider and coffee and homemade strawberry or blackberry preserves, make delicious, hearty fare for the modern American Halloween party too.'' Spicer
Shropshire Soul Cakes:
- 6 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup butter or substitute
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cake compressed yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 cups milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- Cream together the butter and sugar.
- Crumble yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water, to which 1 teaspoon sugar has been added.
- Set yeast mixture in warm place until it becomes light and spongy.
- Scald milk and add to the creamed butter and sugar.
- When creamed mixture is cooled, add the yeast mixture.
- Sift flour, salt and cinnamon together.
- Add the dry ingredients gradually to the wet, kneading into a soft dough.
- Set the sponge to rise in a warm place in a greased, covered bowl.
- When doubled in bulk, shape the dough into small round or oval buns.
- Brush the tops with beaten egg.
- Bake in moderately hot oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, dropping the oven temperature to 350 and baking until the buns are delicately browned and thoroughly done.
- Yields 18-24 cakes, according to size.
