We All Eat: CAKE!

Clockwise upper right: Big elephant at the birthday party
eating wedding cake, cat in the hat eating cake toy, blowing out birthday candles

Cake is a term with a long history (the word is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse kaka) and denotes a baked flour confection sweetened with sugar or honey; it is mixed with eggs and often, but not invariably, with milk and fat; and it has a porous texture from the mixture rising during cooking. It is not surprising that the frontiers between cake and bread, biscuit and bun are indistinct. The progenitor of all is bread in its simplest form. As techniques for baking and leavening developed, and eating patterns changed, what were originally regarded as froms of bread came to be seen as categories of their own and named accordingly. Certain Roman breads, enriched with eggs and butter, must have achieved a cakelike consistency and thus approached one of these indistinct frontiers.

Europe and places such as North America where European influence is strong have always been the center of cakes. One might even draw a line more tightly, fourn English-speaking areas. No other language has a word that means exactly the same as the English 'cake.' The continental European gateau and torte often contain higher proportions of butter, eggs and enriching ingredients such as chocolate, and often lean towaars pastry rathern than cake. Central and East European items such as baba and the Easter kulich are likewise different.

The western tradition of cakes applies little in Asia. In some countries western-style cakes have been adopted on a small scale, for example the small sponge cakes called kasutera in Japan. But the 'cakes' which are imporant in Asian are quite different from anything occidental for examples, see mooncakes and rice cakes of the Philippines.

The history of cakes, goes a long way back. Among the remains found in Swiss lake villages were crude cakes make from roughly crushed gains, moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone. Such cakes can be regarded as a form of unleavened bread, as the precursor of all modern European baked products. Some modern survivors of these mixtures still go by the name 'cake', for instance oatcakes, although these are now considreed to be more closely related to biscuits by virtue of their flat, thin shape and brittle texture.

Ancient Egypt was the first culture to show evidence of true skill in bakin, making many kinds of bread including some sweetened with hone. The Greeks had a form of cheesecake and the Romans developed early versions of fruitcakes with raisins, nuts and other fruits. These ended up in 14th century Britain. Chaucer mentions immense cakes made for special occasions. One was made with 13 kilograms of flour and contained butter, cream, eggs, spices, currants and honey.

Moulds, in the form of cake hoops or pans have been used for forming cakes since at least the mid-17th century. Most cakes were eaten accompanied by a glass of sweet wine or tea. At large banquets, elaborately decorated cakes might form part of the display, but would probably not be eaten. By the mid-19th century the French were including a separate "sweet" course at the end of the meal which might include 'gateau.'

During the 19th century, technology made the cake-baker's life much easier. The chemical raising agent bicarbonate of soda, introduced in the 1840's, followed by baking powder ( a dry mixture of bicarbonate of soda with a mild acid), replaced yeast, providing a greater leavening power with less effort. Another technology breakthrough was more accuate temperature controlled ovens.

In most of NW Europe and North America a well-developed tradition of home baking survives, with a huge repertoire of cake recipes developed from the basic methods. The abililty to bake a good cake was a prized skill among housewives in the early to mid-20th century, when many households could produce a simple robust, filling 'cut and come again' cake, implying abundance and hospitality.

Although the popularity of home baking and the role of cakes in the diet have both changed during the 20th century, cakes remain almost ubiquitous in the western world. They have kept their image as 'treats' and maintain their ceremonial importance at weddings and birthdays.

Source: The Penguin Companion to Food by Alan Davidson

Our Cake Gallery

"Let Them Eat Cake"

Image Credits: counterclockwise from upper right: Marie Antoinette costumes,
walking cakestand costume, Marie Antoinette model, Marie eating cake cartoon

"At the time that whoever-she-was uttered the infamous quotation "let them eat cake," the word "cake" did not refer to the familiar dessert item that the modern-day French call le gateau. The operative term was brioche, a flour-and-water paste that was "caked" onto the interiors of the ovens and baking pans of the professional boulangers of the era. (The modern equivalent is the oil-and-flour mixture applied to non-Teflon cake pans.) At the end of the day, the baker would scrape the leavings from his pans and ovens and set them outside the door for the benefit of beggars and scavengers. Thus, the lady in question was simply giving practical, if somewhat flippant, advice to her poor subjects: If one cannot afford the bourgeois bread, he can avail himself of the poor man's "cake."

However, by the time Marie Antoinette ascended the throne, brioche had acquired its current meaning--a fancy pastry item which, like le gateau, was priced far beyond the means of any but the wealthiest classes. The anti-Marie propagandists were well aware that their compatriots, most of whom were uneducated in either history or semantics, would swallow the story whole, so to speak, and not get the joke."

Source: The Straight Dope

"To Have One's Cake and Eat It Too"

On the day before her 51st birthday, Secretary Rice enjoys a piece of "surprise" birthday cake with Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal after the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Saudi Strategic Dialogue on November, 13, 2005.
Photo credit

To wish to have one's cake and eat it too (sometimes eat one's cake and have it too) is to want more than one can handle or deserve, or to try to have two incompatible things. This is a popular English idiomatic proverb, or figure of speech.

The phrase's earliest recording is from 1546 as "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?", alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signaled in 1812.

Comedian George Carlin once critiqued this idiom by saying, "When people say, 'Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too.' What good is a cake you can't eat? What should I eat, someone else's cake instead?". Of course, in the original correct form (eat your cake and have it too), Carlin's critique does not apply.

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too is a book by Susan G. Purdy. Bob Dylan changed the phrase in his song "Lay Lady Lay" in the line: "You can have your cake and eat it, too."

---Wikipedia

Carrot Cake sculpture by Evan Izer, 1999

Image credit

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Roll it, and prick it, and mark it with a "B"
And put it in the oven for Baby and me!

Variation:
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man,
So I will, master, as fast as I can.
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with a "T"
And put it in the oven for Tommy and me!

This 410-pound cake was made by Unique Bakery owners Russell and Helen Smith (left) when the Chief Super Market celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1949. Store owner H.B. “Doc” Lowery is on the right.
Image credit

Birthday cake hot air balloon

Cake stand

French cakes or gateaux, including a buche de Noel and a "galette de rois" Epiphany cake

A common custom in many cultures, is the Epiphany cake containing a trinket or bean, the person who finds it in his piece becoming the king of the feast. Sometimes there are two trinkets, or one bean and one pea: one for a king and one one for a queen. In the royal courts of the later Middle Ages, these customs were very popular. Some believe these celebrations derived from pagan Roman customs associated with Saturnalia, which fell at around the same time as Christmas. If so, it can be seen as an example of "inculturation", or transforming pre-Christian customs and practices by giving them Christian significance. The Roman theme of the lordship of the feast was easily shifted to the Epiphany theme of kingship: that of Christ himself and of the Magi, or "Three Kings".

Different parts of Europe have different traditional recipes for the Epiphany cake -- from the almond-paste-filled pastry, the French "galette de Rois" topped by golden paper crown, to the British fruit-filled, iced and layered confection.

Wedding Cake

Jackie and John F Kennedy cutting their wedding cake

A wedding cake is the traditional cake served to the guests at a wedding breakfast, after a wedding. It is usually a large cake, multi-layered or tiered, and heavily decorated with icing, occasionally over a layer of marzipan, topped with a small statue of a bride and groom. Other common motifs include doves, gold rings and horseshoes, the latter symbolising good luck. Achieving a dense, strong cake that can support the decorations while remaining edible can be considered the epitome of the baker's art and skill.

Tradition generally requires that the first cut of the cake be performed by bride and groom together, often with a ceremonial knife, or even a sword. An older, archaic tradition had the bride serve all portions to the groom's family, as a symbolic transfer of her household labor from her family to the groom's family.

Tradition may also dictate that the bride and groom feed the first bites of this cake to each other.

Photo credit

Again, this may symbolize the new family unit formed and the replacement of the old parent-child union. It is also fairly popular for the bride and groom to shove the cake in each other's faces, rather than eating it.

Other guests may then partake of the cake, portions may be taken home or shipped to people who missed the festivities. (An old tradition held that if a bridesmaid slept with a piece of wedding cake beneath her pillow she might dream of her future husband.)

A portion may be stored, and eaten by the couple at their first wedding anniversary, or at the christening of their first child- The cake may be frozen for this purpose, formerly the top tier of the cake might consist of fruitcake which could be stored for a great length of time.

The origins of the tradition of the wedding cake are hard to determine. Sweets are traditional at many celebrations for most if not all cultures world-wide. Ancient Roman records detail sweets distributed at weddings. The book Folklore Myths and Legends of Britain details the ancient Roman practice of dropping a wedding cake on the head of the bride.

Medieval and Renaissance resources also mention large cakes at weddings. Such cakes may have been fruitcake.

A large cake can take a long time to make, and without modern refrigeration, a heavy fat and sugar frosting may have prevented spoilage by limiting moisture exposure. Another possibility is the use of sugar and fat required satisfying the need for conspicuous consumption for the families involved in the wedding.

Henry VIII of England enacted a law specifying the quantity of sugar a cake may have, possibly to control or tax this prevailing convention.

During World War II, sugar was rationed in the UK, so icing could not be made, and cakes were reduced in size. To overcome cakes were often served inside a box which had been decorated with plaster of Paris, to resemble a larger, traditional cake.

Source: Wikipedia

Birthday Cakes

Birthday cake for William Shakespeare

A birthday cake in Western culture is a pastry or dessert served to a person on his or her birthday, sometimes decorated with the person's name and/or a message of congratulations. It is often decorated with candles, one for each year the person has been alive. One tradition is to add an extra candle "for good luck," although this varies.

Tradition holds that the person with the birthday can make a wish, which will come true if all the candles can be blown out in one breath. But many people make a wish if it takes them more than one breath. Another tradition is to smear out the name of the person for good luck before slicing the cake for serving.

Birthday cakes are usually sponge cakes, although many other recipies can be used. One of the most popular flavors is chocolate.

The U.S. patent #6,319,530 is a "method of photocopying an image onto an edible web for decorating iced baked goods." This invention enables one to inkjet print a food-grade color photograph on the cake surface.

Source: Wikipedia

Other Types of Cakes

Angel food cake
Apple cake
Babka
Baumkuchen
Birthday cake
Black Forest cake
Buccellato
Bundt cake
Butter cake
Butterfly cake
Carrot cake
Cheesecake
Chocolate cake
Christmas cake
Chiffon cake
Croquembouche
Cupcake
Date and walnut loaf
Devil's food cake
Eccles cake
Fairy cake
Fifteens
Fruit cake
German chocolate cake
Génoise Cake
Gingerbread
Gob
Gooey butter cake
Honey cake
Hot milk cake
Hummingbird cake
Ice cream cake
Jaffa Cakes
Leavened cake, Hefekuchen
Mooncake
Orehnjaca
Pancake
Panettone
Petit fours
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Pound cake
Queen Elizabeth cake
Red bean cake
Red velvet cake
Sachertorte
St. Honoré Cake
Simnel cake
Spice cake
Sponge cake
Stack cake
Suncake
Tarte Tatin
Teacake
Tres leches cake
Vanilla slice
Vanilla cake
Victoria Sponge
Wedding cake

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