"The Ring Cake is always an object of interest at Halloween parties. The cake itself is made like the ordinary kind, but before it is baked a plain gold ring is hidden in the dough, not to be taken out until the cake is cut and it falls to the share of the fortunate person in whose slice it happens to be found. The ring is sometimes put in a flour-cake, which is simply flour packed into a cake-mould so firmly that when it is turned out it retains the shape of the mould and can be sliced off with a knife. Each member of the party cuts her or his own section of flour, and whoever secures the ring, it is confidently stated, will be the first of the group to marry."
Lina Beard and Adelia B. Beard, How to Amuse Yourself and Others (1893)
Know what your Halloween parties have been missing? A brick of compressed flour with a choking hazard hidden inside!
Hey, that's a time-honoured tradition (the 'barm brack') that we still do in Ireland. They sell them in the shops around Halloween and everything.
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