It came from the English Catholics ....apparently they were begging from door to door, the earlier and more pure form of "trick-or-treating." Children would go about begging their neighbors for a "Soul Cake," for which they would say a prayer for those neighbors' dead. Instead of knocking on a door and saying the threatening, "Trick-or-treat" (or the silly "Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat"), children would say either:

A Soul Cake, a Soul Cake, have mercy on all Christian souls for a soul cake!

or

Soul, soul, an apple or two, If you haven't an apple, a pear will do,
One for Peter, two for Paul, Three for the Man Who made us all.

While Soul Cakes were originally a type of shortbread, it is said that a clever medieval cook wanted to make Soul Cakes designed to remind people of eternity, so she cut a hole in the middle of round cakes before frying them, thereby inventing donuts! Many enjoy fresh plain cake donuts to eat on this day. (heck and on many other days!!)

Hmmm..learned something new...I never knew the origin of the doughnut!  and I love them!! 

I guess I better dig some more ~ as the bread (pan in spanish) here is NOT a doughnut!! I do not know why it is this shape.

This is what we have been enjoying....