Katharina Buczek
Now that it is officially “cuffing season,” you also might be on a quest for love. And what better time to start manifesting your relationship than on Halloween?
I know what you might be thinking– isn’t that more of a Valentine’s Day thing and not something to think about during spooky season?
Well, according to women of the eighteenth century, there is no better time to summon your future spouse than All Hallows Eve. And the only thing you need to do is bake a cake.
Starting in the 1700s, stories of “dumb cakes” spread like wildfire throughout the press and became a solidified tradition among young women hoping to find love.
The idea was akin to a spooky Halloween ritual like “Bloody Mary,” but without all of the gore. Instead, girls would follow an explicit baking checklist in hopes of seeing their future husbands in a dream later that evening.
The origin of the name “dumb” likely refers to the word’s alternate meaning of “silent,”– which is exactly how girls were supposed to bake their cakes.
First, two or three women would quietly gather in a kitchen on Halloween night– an evening that was supposed to signify a time of transition and change. Then, they would silently bake a cake using only three ingredients– flour, salt, and water.
And after completing the dough, each woman would carve their initials into the gluten before popping their cake in the oven. Finally, after baking through, the women would remove their cakes from the heat, break them or take a bite, march back to their bedrooms, and sleep with the cake underneath their pillows.
The goal was to dream of their future husband just in time for the colder months. Kind of like a Victorian-era cuffing season ritual, right?
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