Depending on who you ask, the Salem Witch Trials were caused by fear, confusion or psychological trauma. The village reverend pointed out that cake was also a culprit as the fervor was only beginning.
Reverend Samuel Parris' home was the place where the tragic trials began. His niece Abigail Williams and Betty Williams claimed that they were experiencing fits and feeling attacked by an invisible force in January 1692. Mary Sibley, a local woman, suggested that the dark magic could be countered by baking a cake with flour and the girl's urine and feeding it to a dog. Sibley had Tituba and John slaved by the Parriss made the cake while the reverend was away. He then gave it to the pet.
Many images depict Tituba in an inaccurate way. He was also accused of witchcraft and terrorizing Salem children. Alfred Fredericks/Public Domain
Parris was furious when he found out. Parris was furious that the cake did not work to alleviate the girls' symptoms. Many more people claimed they were bewitched. Some of the girls also accused Tituba of witchcraft, even though he merely followed Mary Sibleys instructions. (Sibley wasn't charged). Parris believed that the evil unleashed upon Salem was more about the cake than the girls' symptoms. He said that Witchcraft had been suspected, but not confirmed, until the use of diabolic means to make a cake. Since wch Apparitions were numerous, and wch mischief has followed, This is how the Devil has been raised among us.
The year that followed was filled with false accusations and panic, which culminated in 20 executions. While the Salem trials' details are well-known, the pivotal, evil cake has been lost to time. Sibley's idea wasn't an original one. It was part of a common folk practice in 17th century England and the American colonies.
Owen Davies, a University of Hertfordshire historian who specializes in the history of magic and witchcraft, discovered references to anti-witchcraft cake dating back to 1620s. These cakes are found alongside other charms such as witch bottles and hag stones. These were very similar to the cakes in that they used the urine of a bewitched person, as well as materials like hair, nails and bent pins.
This was a diabolic method of making a cake. It seems that the Devil has been raised among us.
Witch cakes is a modern rebranding. These cakes were referred to as urine cakes, or, if the writer felt fancy, as a cake that contained a person's water. However, the key ingredient in protecting against witches was urine. According to Davies, the reason for the cakes' efficacy is rooted in sympathetic magic. Regardless of who the witch is, it is believed that there is a connection (an invisible connection) between the person bewitched and that person. This logic dictates that the best way to break the connection is to create a physical representation (i.e. their urine) and then manipulate it in any way.
It is important to be clear that no one eats the magic recipe except for the occasional pet who was hungry. Davies states that the cake was essentially a container for urine. It's still useful if you have some urine around. Mixing urine with cake will seal the urine in. You can also bury it. You can also burn it. It can be used to make something edible.
Witch bottles were often filled with nails, hair, or the urine of the deceived. Scarborough Museums Trust
Fire was frequently the preferred method of destruction. A witch cake was prescribed by a doctor in England to a boy who had been troubled in Yorkshire, England, just a few years before the outbreak of pandemonium in Salem. Reverends' diary records a 1688 house visit in which the doctor determined that the boy had been hurt by an evil tongue. He also suggested that they make a witch cake for the boy, using wheat meal, some of the boy's hair, and horse-shoe stumps. Then, put it in the oven.
Davies points out that the beliefs and traditions surrounding these charms vary greatly. They were sometimes used to identify witches: For example, if you burn the cake it could hurt the witch and force the witch to reveal herself. Sometimes they passed on a curse to another victim (see: the long-suffering dog in the family). Even records describe the cakes as weapons rather than shields that witches use to protect themselves. These witches are said to have hidden cakes in houses to curse victims.
This jumbled collection of traditions and applications can make witch cakes difficult for historians to understand and draw conclusions. Because every witch cake appears to have been destroyed, they are also difficult subjects.
William Clarke, a collector from Scarborough Museums Trust, dated this witch cake to 1850. Scarborough Museums Trust
Two British museums have the only remaining physical examples of witch cake: the Pitt Rivers Museum in London and Scarborough Museums Trust in Scarborough. Although we don't know the exact shape of Johns 1692 and Tituba's cakes, both museums cakes have the same unusual shape. They are a circular cake with spikes at its edges and a hole at its center.
It looks like a spicy bagel. Jim Middleton is Scarboroughs collections manager. It's possible to fall into a rabbit hole of symbolism. Is it a sun or a crown of thorns? Middleton claims it is a crown of thorns, but that this is speculation as there are no records about the shape's significance.
The Scarboroughs and Pitt Riverss cakes look very similar. They were both collected in the early 1900s by British folklorists from Flamborough, Bempton, two towns in Yorkshire that are only three miles apart. William Clarke donated Scarborough's cake. Edward Lovett donated the Pitt Riverss cake. He was a folklorist so obsessed with charms that he used London's docks to accost fishermen from rural areas, asking them if they had any talismans.
It looks like a spicy bagel. It is more or less the same thing.
This enthusiasm is what makes Davies and Middleton cautious about categorizing witch cakes in these museums. Clarke and Lovett were both involved in the British Isles folklore revival movement in the early 1900s. Books such as James Frazers the Golden Bough and Andrew Langs Fairy Books series rekindled interest in folk beliefs and music.
Modern historians believe Clarke and Lovett may have been ludicrous about the origins and purpose of the cakes, even though they are rooted in traditions and beliefs. Middleton says they are similar to folk songs, which were also collected during folklore revival in the early 1900s. Is it possible that many of the traditional songs that were collected were simply made up by someone who had a few beers in a pub and then told someone that it was an old traditional song that had been passed down from generation to generation.
Lovett said that Yorkshire residents used cakes similar to his as a protection device. They hung them in their front doors and had them replaced each year during Holy Week. Davies has not found any evidence to support this practice.
He says that the further you are from witchcraft and witches as a real threat and danger in communities, there is a greater desire to romanticize it. He believes that Scarborough cakes and the Pitt Rivers were probably the creation of a Yorkshire baker who wanted to profit from the folklore revival.
Even though they may be just spiky bagels in appearance, the artifacts are still linked to the Yorkshire region's history of charms.
Hag stones, which were used to protect cottage doors from the elements, had a hole in their center. Scarborough Museums Trust
Middleton mentions that it was a remote area at the time. Middleton also refers to 1850s Flamborough as the year Clarke created his witch cake. People who lived there depended on fishing and climbing down huge cliffs to collect seabird eggs. These are dangerous occupations. These amulets can be associated with difficult times or dangerous work.
Middleton believes that literal witchcraft beliefs were disappearing by the turn of this century and charms like these took on a more general purpose. It was likely more of a protective charm. I'm not sure if they believed there were people flying in on broomsticks.
We are currently experiencing another revival of folklore due to the popularity of modern witchcraft and Wicca. Davies isn't expecting a return to witch-cake anytime soon. He's not surprised that modern witches haven't embraced the urine cake, despite having seen them use charms and potions on TikTok.
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