After the Revolution, the women brought the cake to early voting sites to help “muster” votes, and it became known as election cake. Back in those days, when elite white men were the only ones who could rock the vote, women claimed their place in political culture with a monstrous cake for the masses. And while it’s hard to believe now, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Election Day was a holiday just as important as Christmas, and food was central to it. Bonfires, barbecues, whiskey, and cake helped to amplify the revelry and encourage voting. Whiskey, cake, and voting, an American tradition we can get behind.

Read more about it at Bon Appetit.

And check out how you can make an easy-as-pie Election Day Apple Pie!