The decline of the printed peperkoek

Printed honey cakes were part of daily life: a young man could show his intentions to a girl by giving her a honey cake or peperkoek; a girl carried one at the kermis (fairground) to show she was spoken for. In some areas, girls went to sleep with a gingerbread man under their pillow after the first day of the village fair in the hope that they would find a husband that year. Queen Elizabeth I of England is said to have had a gingerbread man made of each of her suitors so she could bite off their heads, emasculating them along with it. A cake shaped like a man is a powerful symbol, as were the animals reminding us of pagan sacrifice.