Just up the road in Asheville, North Carolina bakers are campaigning to #MakeAmericaCakeAgain. Election day was once treated as a celebratory holiday to eat cake, drink, and play games. These sweet bakers are encouraging other bakers across the country to revive traditions and bake cakes on Election Day in hopes of making this November a more enjoyable voting season.
Susannah Gebhart of the OWL Bakery in Asheville, NC and her business partner Maia Surdam are inspiring bakers that are seeking to sweeten up election season with a historical twist.
According to the feature story by Bon Appetit, post-revolutionary women brought hoards of cake to polling places to “muster” up the votes. The term ‘muster’ was used to reference the many men who were gathered for military training while the women baked away in celebration of a new election.
At this time, women did not have the right to vote. Gebhart told NPR, “The cake offered an opportunity for women who didn’t have access to formal political channels to nevertheless participate in a civic culture surrounding voting.” She goes on to say that this election cake symbolizes the struggle that women have overcome. “Women can vote in America today… the election cake symbolizes that and the struggle,” she said.
On social media, we are able to see the frequently used words that are associated with the hashtag online as well as the spike in conversation around these patriotic pastries. Below, you can see that on October 17, little attention was given to the article on its release date. On October 23, NPR released a radio interview with the bakers at OWL Bakery from Asheville. NPR gave a major social boost for the article and the conversation around the lost Election Day tradition.
Within this peak, the conversation cloud brought up keywords like encouraging, history, bakers, election, and women. All of these words are used by social posters or are seen within the coverage by Bon Appetit or NPR.
Many hopeful voters suggest that bringing back this new tradition could encourage voter turn out. If you’re interested in being patriotic this November, the recipe can be found at Bon Appetit.
*Note: Aspiring bakers may consider adding more wine and brandy to ease election induced stress.
You didn’t hear it from me…
Just read about the #makeamericacakeagain movement- count me in for an election cake! (With A LOT of booze in it…)
— NEBULOX (@nebuloxio) October 19, 2016
