Soul cakes are a very British treat traditionally served during Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Simple, sweet, delicately spiced and packed with juicy currants this recipe for Shropshire soul cakes is quick and easy to make.
On the Halloween theme, I've got a great spooky red mojito recipe.
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Soul cakes go by quite a few names including soulmass cakes, all soul's day cakes, all saint's day cakes and somas cakes. And they also go by a few different recipes, depending where in the country you are.
Unlike soulmass cakes from more northern regions in England (where they are commonly called harcakes), Shropshire soul cakes are not related to parkin. Instead they are rather like a combination of a scone and a biscuit. They are quite flat but soft and they have a delicate sweetness about them that tallies with the baking spices and tangy currants perfectly.
Although traditionally eaten during Allhallowtide (31st October to 2nd November) in my mind they are tasty enough to warrant being made any time a fruity sweet craving hits.
As Shropshire is located in the West Midlands region, my recipe for Shropshire soul cakes forms part of my collection of recipes from The Midlands. Take at this collection to discover more hidden gems such as fruit pikelets and Belvoir castle currant buns.
Why you'll love these All Saints Day cakes
Despite the custom of souling having faded drastically over the last century, there are still plenty of reasons to make Shropshire soul cakes:
- They are fun to make - get the children involved as they will love cutting the crosses into their All Saints Day cakes.
- The recipe uses basic baking ingredients so they are cheap to make.
- And the recipe makes plenty so it's great for feeding a crowd.
- Soul cakes make a welcome change from the predictable sweets and chocolate handed out at Halloween parties - especially when catering for an older age group who might not, perhaps, be quite so enamoured by Haribo sweets (that's me).
- The balance of flavour is ideal for anybody who prefers their bakes not too sweet. The natural sweetness of the currants and a scattering of caster sugar over the top is just right. There's no call for icing here.
- My soul cake recipe includes more dried fruit than is usual, ensuring that fruity flavour is delivered in every bite.
- They go wonderfully well with a cup of tea or coffee... at anytime of the year, not just Allhallowtide.
And, of course, it's always fun to educate the young (or not so young) about our historic British traditions and special regional bakes. Children might be impressed by the notion that to go a-souling was in fact a precursor to our very modern-day custom of going trick-or-treating. On that note, don't miss telling them about Thor cake either - it's another tasty bake emanating from an ancient English festival and ties in n
What are all soul's day cakes?
Soul cakes are small round cakes that are made for Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to commemorate the dead. They are flavoured with baking spices and currants and have a deep cross cut into the top of them.
In England, the giving of soul cakes is an old-fashioned tradition that stems from medieval times. Plenty of other nationalities, including the Portuguese and Filipinos, embraced this tradition long ago too.
What is souling?
In England, it was common for soul cakes to be handed to soulers (usually children and the poor) who would go from door to door begging for them during Allhallowtide. As they were handed their soul cakes the soulers would sing and say prayers for the souls of the cake givers and their deceased relatives and friends.
When did souling become less popular?
The souling tradition began to wane in England following the 1870 Education reforms which got more children into school (hurrah). As the children were occupied in school, this meant that they were not available to go a-souling (boo). Although souling has died out across England now, the custom did persist in Shropshire and nearby Staffordshire right up until the 1950s.
Exact tradition varies according to regional localities but, in Shropshire, children had a special soul cake song to sing when they went a-souling:
A soul-cake, a soul-cake, please.
Good missus, a soul-cake.
One for Peter, two for Paul,
Three for Him who saved us all.
Ingredients notes
The ingredients for soul cakes are humble, rustic, frugal and easy to obtain. Here's a little more information about the key ingredients:
Flour: this should be plain flour rather than self-raising flour. As only a small amount of baking powder is required to provide a limited rise to the dough, it's wiser to use plain flour so that the amount of baking powder added is easy to control.
Currants: always use currants from a packet that has not been opened for too long to ensure that the currants are soft and juicy (they can get hard if the packet has been opened for a long time or not sealed well after first use). My favourite currants are Vostizza currants, which I first found in M&S a few years ago. I've seen them in other UK supermarkets more recently though.
Spices: I've used a blend of mixed spice and ginger as, reading around, these seem prevalent in recipes for Shropshire soul cakes. However, you should feel free to adapt my spice suggestion as you see fit. Plenty of other recipes list allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger.
Note: Mixed spice is readily available in the UK. It's a blend of various spices typically including cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander seed, ground ginger, cloves and caraway seeds. Feel free to use any similar spice mix or perhaps your favourite chai blend or pumpkin spice blend.
Egg yolks: these serve both to bind the ingredients together and to bolster the final flavour of these All Saints Day cakes, adding depth and richness. They are essential. Use large eggs.
Butter: use real butter if budget and diet allow for the best flavour. If you need to use an alternative, ensure you use block baking margarine or block vegan butter. Don't opt for the softer versions that are spreadable straight from the fridge.
Milk: a dash of milk is also required to help form the dough. Although I've tested this recipe using just cow's milk I see no reason why dairy-free milk, such as almond milk or oat milk could not be used instead. I would, however, suggest avoiding coconut milk as it has a much thicker texture than cow's milk and a stronger flavour than alternative dairy-free milks.
Step by step instructions
Full instructions and measurements are given in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (use electric beaters) then add the yolks and beat well.
- Stir in half of the flour (sifted) along with all of the mixed spice, ginger and salt.
- Mix in the milk.
- Now stir in the remaining sifted flour along with the currants.
- Keep on mixing with the spoon until no streaks of flour remain. The dough should be fairly firm.
- Roll it out on a floured worktop to around ½cm thickness then use a 7cm cutter to punch out your cakes. Reroll the dough once to enable more cakes to be cut out.
- Prick each cake all over with a fork then cut a deep cross into the top of each one using a blunt knife.
- Transfer to lined baking sheets and cook for 15 minutes, turning the baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through the cooking time to ensure they bake evenly.
- When lightly golden take out of the oven, sprinkle with caster sugar, transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
Expert tips
- Whether or not to use a straight-sided or fluted cutter is entirely up to you. I went with straight-sided, but I'm not going to judge you for going down the fancy route.
- Don't let your opened packet of currants dry out. Use them to make other classic British bakes such as Banbury cakes, Chorley cakes, curd pastry cheesecakes and Belvoir Castle buns.
- When it comes to cutting the crosses, you may prefer to transfer the cut-out soul cakes onto the baking sheets before doing this. They can be fiddly to transfer once cut.
- Do take care to cut the crosses deeply (you can even gently wiggle the knife from side to side to widen the cut) but don't go all the way through the dough.
- Although traditional recipes do not suggest doing so, I also found that recutting the cross in the part-baked dough at the halfway point of baking ensured that the cross was nicely pronounced. This step is not essential though.
- If your baking sheets are on different shelves in the oven swap them over at the halfway stage of cooking (at the same time that you rotate the baking sheets). Again, this will help ensure the entire batch cooks evenly.
Frequently asked questions
Let them cool completely then store in an airtight tin or jar at room temperature for up to three days. I love using a Kilner clip-top jar for storing bakes such as these soul cakes. It just seems to keep them ultra-fresh.
They can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Just pop them into freezer bags once cold then label them and drop them into the freezer. Defrost for several hours at room temperature before consuming.
The cross is the sign of alms, a symbol historically used to signify the giving of food, money or goods to those living in poverty.
There's absolutely no reason not to try. To do so you'll need to replace the regular plain flour with a suitable gluten-free alternative. As I have not made gluten-free soul cakes, I cannot tell you exactly what type of flour is best. However, I have great faith in the knowledge of Georgina who writes the gluten-free blog From the Larder. She is a gluten-free baking expert and has a wealth of knowledge in her guide to gluten-free flours. It's well worth taking a look at if you need some guidance.
More traditional British bakes
If you like making traditional British baking recipes, be sure to take a look at these delicious sweet and savoury bakes too.
Have you made my Shropshire soul cake recipe? I hope you enjoyed them if you did. Please consider leaving a comment and/ or rating if you have made them as it really helps other readers know that they can trust my recipe.
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Soul Cakes from Shropshire
Ingredients
- 300 g Plain flour all-purpose
- 120 g Butter softened
- 120 g Caster sugar plus extra for sprinkling
- 75 g Currants
- 2 Egg yolks large, free-range
- 1½ teaspoons Baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon Mixed spice
- ¼ teaspoon Ground ginger
- 4 tablespoons Milk cow's milk, almond milk or oat milk
- ⅛ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM 4 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy (around 2 minutes).
- Add the egg yolks and beat well.
- Sieve half of the flour into the bowl along with all of the mixed spice, ginger, baking powder and salt. Stir in using a large metal spoon.
- Now mix in the milk to loosen the dough.
- Sieve the remaining flour into the bowl, add the currants and mix in. Keep on mixing until no streaks of flour remain. The dough should be fairly firm.
- Roll the dough out on a floured worktop to around ½cm thickness then use a 7cm cutter to punch out your soul cakes. Reroll the dough once to enable more cakes to be cut out. Aim for 18-20 cakes.
- Prick each cake all over with a fork then cut a deep cross into the top of each one using a blunt knife.
- Transfer to lined baking sheets and cook for 15 minutes, turning the sheet 180 degrees halfway through the cooking time to ensure they bake evenly. (Optional: use the blunt knife to recut the crosses at this stage if they are closing up.)
- When lightly golden transfer to a cooling rack, sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool completely.
Notes
- Whether or not to use a straight-sided or fluted cutter is entirely up to you. I went with straight-sided, but I'm not going to judge you for going down the fancy route.
- When it comes to cutting the crosses, you may prefer to transfer the cut-out soul cakes onto the baking sheets before doing this. They can be fiddly to transfer once cut.
- Do take care to cut the crosses deeply (you can even gently wiggle the knife from side to side to widen the cut) but don't go all the way through the dough.
- Although traditional recipes do not suggest doing so, I also found that recutting the cross in the part-baked dough at the halfway point of baking ensured that the cross was nicely pronounced. This step is not essential though.
- If your baking sheets are on different shelves in the oven swap them over at the halfway stage of cooking (at the same time that you rotate the baking sheets). Again, this will help ensure the entire batch cooks evenly.
- To make gluten-free soul cakes replace the regular plain flour with a suitable gluten-free alternative.
Anne says
I made these and they came out great, even though I was lazy and used a single egg instead of 2 yolks as stated in the recipe. The dough was a bit wetter so was generous with dusting with flour when rolling out. I also misremembered and grabbed a bag of raisins instead of currants. Wondering if I rolled it too thinly as I ended up with more than the number stated.... but doesn't matter as that meant more to share!
Jane Coupland says
Hi Anne, I'm so pleased you enjoyed them. As for the number, yes, likely you rolled them thinner or used a slightly different sized cutter to me. As long as they came out well and nobody went without, it's not a problem. Thanks for the review.
Rebecca Clark says
I blundered my way through this recipe because I was so tired but wanted to make it, I doubled the recipe because I’m greedy. I forgot the milk bit, but too much spice in, 😅 used too small eggs and ended up with a crumble type dough BUT I cobbled the thing together in the end and they still turned out smashing! I’m going to make these every year!
Jane Coupland says
Excellent Rebecca - pleased to hear you enjoyed them despite battling the urge to sleep. There's no such thing as too much spice in my opinion 🙂
Mariana says
I made soul cakes for the first time yesterday with your recipe and they turned out great. They're so easy to make that I'll probably make them regularly throughout the year and not just around Halloween. Thanks for sharing!
Jane Coupland says
Mariana, thankyou for taking the time to review. I'm delighted you enjoyed the recipe and the results and yes, I agree, there's no reason these should just be for halloween 🙂
Renee Reardon says
I must admit when working with three bowls (the bowl with the whipped butter and sugar, the bowl with the flour and spice mix and the spare bowl of flour that you have halved and separated) I may have gotten a bit lost with which bowl I was transferring into and which bowl you added the flour, I'm not sure it even matters but I have ADHD and I didn't find it an easy recipe to follow. They turned out ok, definitely not supermodel material but they tasted nice, I don't think I've every used a recipe where you've had to flip the biscuit over but there's always a first. Mine also blew out a little they didn't maintain there nice round cut, does that mean I had the oven too hot? If I make them again I would add more spice mix as I found the ratio of spice mix to flour to be a bit sparce. Thank you for sharing I will definitely delve into a few more of your recipes they all look amazing.
Jane Coupland says
Hi Renee, thanks for your comments. Sorry you found the recipe confusing, I try to be as straightforward as possible in my instructions. Did you spot the step-by-step photos in the post as these can often be very useful if you are unsure about anything. I'm not sure where you have read about 3 bowls in the recipe as ingredients are added to one bowl, in order. But it's up to you if you want to weigh things out beforehand and use separate bowls, plenty of people do. I have amended the recipe to make it clear that the baking sheet should be rotated in the oven half-way through the baking time rather than the soul cakes being flipped over (this is the most likely cause of them loosing their shape) - thanks for bringing that to my attention. Yes, feel free to add more spice according to taste, what is presented is a traditional recipe, but you can adapt the spices as you see fit.
Please feel free to reach out directly to me [email protected] if you need clarification on anything else regarding this recipe or others you are thinking of making.
Bronwen says
Hi!
thank you for sharing this recipe, I've made soul cakes before, a few years ago, but it was a 16th century recipe and I found it quite yeasty. This year I decided to make them again with another (more recent) recipe and found yours.
I was just wondering if you could tell me where the recipe comes from? Is it a family recipe? I'm interested in the age of the recipe.
very interested in our collective folk history which is why I'd like to know
Thank you and have a happy Hallowe'en!!
Jane Coupland says
Hi Bronwen, I've been compiling a collection of recipes from The Midlands and to do so I take a look at a wide variety of recipes that are available online and in print. For a recipe such as soul cakes there are recipes that go back a long way, often including hard to decipher measurements. I do my best to work out what the recipes mean, what modern day measures might work, contemplate the common components from the recipes knocking around (in this case spices, dried fruits), what the variations are and then devise my recipe from these findings. Then comes the testing to ensure it works and has stayed true to the character of the traditional bake. Only when I'm certain that Ive created a reliable recipe that stays true to the traditional interpretation of the bake does it get published.
Bronwen says
Hi Jane, thank you for the speedy reply!
I do basically the same thing for a lot of these traditional recipes, it's basically what I was doing when I found your recipe. I can see here that baking powder is used in place of yeast, I've seen versions without a raising agent but the older recipes involve a yeast so it seems clear to me they're meant to have that sort of texture.
I'm from the West Midlands myself so I'll check out your recipe collection!
Bronwen says
(I'm making the recipe now, and the ingredients list calls for baking powder but I don't see it included in the instructions.)
Jane Coupland says
Ohh, good spot - I've added it into the instructions now - hopefully it didn't hold you up!
Marie D says
The 120 g of sugar divided by 18 cookies is only 6.6 g each of sugar. Not sure where or how you came up with 9 g per cookie. Even if you get 20 cookies out of the batch, it’s only 6 g of sugar each.
Jane Coupland says
Hi Marie, the nutritional information takes account of all ingredients. Sugar occurs naturally in at least 2 other ingredients in this recipe (dried fruit and milk), aside from the sugar itself. I hope this clarifies why it's not just a straightforward calculation.
Marie D says
I have not made these yet however I like to use the whole eggs so I think what I will do is use two whole eggs and reduce the milk to 2 tablespoons. I’m also not a big fan of rolling out cookies anymore [I’m 76] so I’m very likely to use a small scoop and then to flatten them with the bottom of a glass that’s been greased lightly. Thank you for this recipe!
Jane Coupland says
Hi Marie, please be aware that adding whole eggs instead of just the yolk will affect the texture of your bake. They will rise a little more than they should. I hope you enjoy them.
Hollie says
Just got them out of the oven. Light golden brown as recommended. I followed the instructions in the recipe except that I replaced the currants with chopped cranberries and got crispy cookies Not soft ones as it is described above. Despite this they are ok but still sweet. I like the spices.
Jane Coupland says
Hi Hollie, if they are crispy are they also darker than pictured? It could be that your oven is running slightly hotter than it should. Try reducing your oven temperature slightly for next time or pull them out a couple of minutes early provided you are sure they are cooked through. I'm sure they will still be very tasty and I like the sound of the cranberries.