St Faith’s cake

On St Faith’s Day, 6 October, girls in the north of England tried a love charm with a cake of flour, spring water, salt and sugar, made by three maidens or three widows who each had an equal share in it. It was baked before the fire in silence and turned nine times, three times by each of them. Each then cut her third into nine slips, passed every slip three times through a wedding ring borrowed from a woman married at least seven years, and ate the slips while undressing, saying a rhyme to the saint. The three slept in one bed with the ring hung from the bedhead, and were sure to dream of their future husbands.