Soul Cakes from @MaddieDayAuthor, plus #giveaway

MADDIE here, for my Halloween contribution. Hallowe'en, of course, means Hallows' Evening, the night before All Souls Day. According to Wikipedia, the tradition of giving soul cakes was celebrated in Britain or Ireland during the Middle Ages, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.

These spice-filled little sweets are part scone and part cookie. Before baking, they are topped with the mark of a cross to signify that these were alms. They were traditionally set out with glasses of wine, an offering for the dead as in early Christian tradition. Either on All Hallows' Eve (Halloween), All Saints' Day, or All Souls' Day (November 2nd, this author's birthday...), children would go "souling", or ritually begging for cakes door to door.

Is a mini Baby Ruth a modern soul cake, or a handful of candy corn? I certainly didn't know about the holiday's origins when I was trick-or-treating, nor when my sons were,

My goddaughter Anna and my son Allan, Halloween, 1994

But it's never too late to enlarge our historical horizons

Soul Cakes

Note: The original recipe called for a bit of milk. I didn't need it but I'd already taken the ingredients photo!

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar, plus more for dusting

2 eggs

3 cups unbleached white flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon each allspice, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and nutmeg

1/2 cup golden raisins or currants

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375F and either grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together and then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Mix the spices into the flour. 

Stir it and the raisins into the mixture, making a soft dough.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter. Mark each cake with a cross, dust with sugar, and place them on the baking sheet.

Bake the cakes for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with tea, or even a glass of wine.

Readers: What's your favorite Halloween tradition? I'll send one of you a signed copy of Candy Slain Murder (US only)!

My most recent book is Candy Slain Murder, the eighth Country Store mystery. You guessed it, the story takes place at Christmas. As with all my books written as Maddie Day, you'll find easy recipes in the back.

I hope you'll visit Edith Maxwell and me on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.