‘The Dumb-Cake Baking’ engraved by William Finden in 1843. Baking a ‘Dumb Cake’, also known as a ‘Si

‘The Dumb-Cake Baking’ engraved by William Finden in 1843. Baking a ‘Dumb Cake’, also known as a ‘Silent Cake’, was a traditional Halloween divination ritual which was popular across Britain throughout the Victorian period.There were a huge variety of rituals associated with the Dumb Cake but the main elements remained the same. Several women must be involved in each aspect of making the cake (a popular version held that just four women should take part). Every part of the process should be performed in complete silence. The cake should be made using very simple ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, and water which must not come from a spring) and then kneaded with only the left thumb. It must be baked at midnight on Halloween.The version of the ritual involving only four women held that once the cake was baked the women should place it on a table in the very centre of the room, divide it into 4 equal portions, and each set a portion on a separate plate. The women should then stand in the 4 corners of the room, having first made sure all the doors in the house were wide open. The belief was that the spectre of their future husband would then appear to one or more of the women and try the cake on their dish.Other variations involved a larger group of women who each took a lump of the dough, shaped it into their own small cake and marked it with their initials and those of their sweetheart. Those couples whose initials were still visible after baking would be married before the end of the year whereas those whose initials disappeared would be unfaithful and drift apart. -- source link

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