Halloween approaches!! (I won’t be giving out candy or going to any costume parties this year, because I’m going to be in St. Louis for the SLICE expo. Come say hi!) I ended up going down a bit of a research rabbit hole this week, looking up recipes for the types of breads that different cultures make during this time of year, in honor of the people we’ve lost.

Some of these aren’t made as much anymore! Soul cakes were made during Allhallowtide (October 31-November 2) in Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages. In a possible precursor to modern trick-or-treating, children would go “souling” door to door, signing songs and collecting the sweet cakes, which were usually made with warming spices and raisins or currants. Different types of Pan de Ánimas were made in Spain for All Souls’ Day, a practice that seems to have fallen off in modern times.

Pão-de-Deus, a sweet bun topped with coconut, seems to still be popular in Portugal year round, and also given out to children on All Saints’ Day. Pan dei Morti can still be found at bakeries in northern Italy, and are flavored with cinnamon, figs, and almonds, and eaten the night before All Souls’ Day.

T’anta wawa are sweet (often filled) buns made all over the Andean regions of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Argentina, and eaten for All Souls’ Day and other holidays. And of course, Mexico’s famous Pan de Muerto is still made throughout Mexico and the U.S. for Día de Muertos, and decorated with dough shapes that mimic bones and skulls. Pan de Muerto is probably the most accessible of these, in the sense that I can find lots of modern recipes to compare and cross-reference. I think I’m going to try making some this week. If I don’t mess it up, I’ll report back with a recipe for you. :)

Upcoming Events:

Lotta fun stuff coming up this fall! I’d love to see you at any of these events!

What I’m Into Lately:

I finally picked up Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay again! I tried to read this earlier this year when I was in Armenia, but I was a bit distracted then, and not in the right mindset to get into it. Now that I’ve settled into drawing the new book, I have more time and attention for audiobooks and I’m thoroughly engaged. Dead but Dreaming is a fascinating story about a woman hired to test some disturbing next-gen AI tech by remote-control piloting a (mostly) dead man’s body from California to the east coast. It’s weird and unique and funny and extremely unsettling in a not-distant-enough future kind of way. A thoroughly bizarre but excellent read for our late-stage techno-capitalism times. I’ve been a fan of Tremblay’s since his A Head Full of Ghosts and he has yet to disappoint me!

What Toki’s Into Lately:

When I was younger, my family had a black and white cat named Domino. My mom used to call her a “Decorator Cat”, because she had a habit of positioning herself in a room in exactly the aesthetically correct spot, like she was the fabulous accent pillow that you designed the room around. Toki isn’t always a Decorator Cat, but when he is, he does a magnificent job of it.