Soul Cake Recipe and Remembering Loved Ones

Soul Cake Recipe and Remembering Loved Ones

All Saints Day and All Souls Day are celebrated by many Christian families the first week of November. In olden times, people would leave ‘soul cakes’ out for the dead. Regardless of your faith, this is a fun old fashioned activity to share with your children.

Back in those days children would also go ‘souling’ from home to home asking for soul cakes in return, reciting the following verse:

“A soul, a soul, a soul cake.

Please good missus a soul cake.

An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry,

Any good thing to make us merry.

Up with your kettles and down with your pans

Give us an answer and we’ll be gone

Little Jack, Jack sat on his gate

Crying for butter to butter his cake

One for St. Peter, two for St. Paul,

Three for the man who made us all.”

Supplies Needed:

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup caster/superfine sugar

4 cups plain flour, sifted

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon allspice

3 tablespoons currants

a little milk

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.

Stir in the currants.

Add enough milk to make a soft dough.

Form into flat cakes and mark each top with a cross (if your faith pertains).

Bake on a well-greased baking tray in a hot oven until golden.

Remembering Loved Ones

Consider setting an extra setting at the table in remembrance of a loved one during mealtime. Light a candle for each person you wish to remember and place it on their plate. You may also like to place a personal item, photo, letter or poem on your nature place to honor someone who is gone. Allow children to embrace this activity with you and remember it is a celebration of life and should be approached with positive energy and happiness.