---
title: 'Soul Cakes from 1602'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1XllWbRJkE8'
video_id: '1XllWbRJkE8'
date: 2026-10-23
duration_sec: 99
channel: 'Tasting History with Max Miller'
---

# Soul Cakes from 1602

> Source: [Soul Cakes from 1602](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1XllWbRJkE8)

## Summary

This video explores the medieval tradition of soul cakes, tied to All Souls Day and Samhain, and provides a 1602 recipe. It clarifies that soul cakes were offered to humans, not spirits, and highlights the historical context.

### Key Points

- **Origins of Soul Cakes** [00:02] — The tradition of collecting treats before All Souls Day dates back to the Middle Ages, often linked to Samhain, a pagan festival.
- **Not for Spirits** [00:40] — Soul cakes were given to people, not spirits, who dressed up as ghosts and devils to collect them.
- **1602 Recipe Ingredients** [01:18] — A 1604 recipe includes sugar, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and sack (a type of wine), resulting in dense breads.
- **No Single Recipe** [01:06] — There was no single recipe; any cake or bun given around All Hallow''s Eve could be called a soul cake.

## Transcript

trick-or-treaters this year. See, it used to be that in the days leading up to All Souls Day on November 2nd, the poor and sometimes children would go from house to house collecting cakes, beer, and other little treats in
tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, though it's often linked to the pagan festival Sawin. It's a tenuous link, but they did occur at the same time of year, the boundary between the living and the dead was more easily crossed. So, it
folklore also say that sawin is when the spirits known as a shei would come to our world to cause havoc. So to stop with treats like this. But in the Middle Ages, it wasn't spirits you were
bribing, but regular people often dressed up as spirits. In some places, involved dressing up as ghosts, devils, costume for this year's Halloween party yet, you might consider dressing up as
St. Chel of Monermouth, and I bet you'll be the only one. Anyway, dressed in go from house to house offering their prayers for departed loved ones. And in thanks, they would receive a soul cake which often featured a little cross on
top for decoration. Now, there is no single recipe for soul cakes. Rather, it was any cake or bun that was given out around All Hallow's Eve. This recipe, for instance, which comes from 16004, is simply for cakes, and it is a bread
flavored with sugar, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and sack, an early type of cherry. yeast and you get these delicious, if maybe a little dense, breads to hand out don't want your house egged, you might be wise to stick to Snickers. For more
full video on YouTube. And this recipe is in the tasting history cookbook.