Dumb Cakes: How to Find A Husband on Halloween

The Unusual History of Every Thing

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so using food to find a husband doesn't seem like such a bad idea. From the late 1600s to the mid-1900s, unmarried women in North America and the United Kingdom practiced a baking ritual on Halloween that was said to reveal who they would marry. They called the products of this ritual “dumb cakes.” The cakes themselves were simple: water, flour, sugar, salt. It was HOW you made them that was a bit more complicated. But finding a future husband is never easy! On this episode, we show unmarried women everywhere how to find a future spouse using nothing but cake and well-timed silence.