Food for Thought - Pre Production - Cake Research 1

Based on today's discussion, additional research is required on cakes.

So what are cakes precisely?

Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape. Determining whether a given food should be classified as bread, cake, or pastry can be difficult (???).

What kind of cakes are there?

Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and cooking techniques:

1. Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast breads. Such cakes are often very traditional in form, and include such pastries as babka and stollen.

2. Cheesecakes aren't actually cakes, but custard pies, with a filling made mostly of some form of cheese (Often cream cheese, mascarpone, ricotta or the like), and have very little flour added, although a flour-based or graham cracker crust may be used. Cheesecakes are also very old, with evidence of honey-sweetened cakes dating back to ancient Greece.

3. Sponge cakes are thought to be the first non-yeast based cakes and rely primarily on trapped air in a protein matrix (Generally of beaten eggs) to provide leavening, sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added as insurance. Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called gateau; the French word for cake.

4. Butter cakes, including the pound cake and devil's food cake, rely on the combination of butter, eggs, and sometimes baking powder or bicarbonate of soda to provide both life and a moist texture.

Beyond these classifications, cakes can be classified based on their appropriate accompaniment (Such as coffee cake) and contents (Eg, fruitcake or flour less chocolate cake).

Where did the term originate from?

The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka".

What can they be used for?

Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, baby showers, cake for first communion, Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes and Passover plava (A type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal) are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. The cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony in some cultures. The Ancient Roman marriage ritual of confarreatio originated in the sharing of a cake.

Particular types of cake may be associated with particular festivals, such as stollen or chocolate log cakes, babka and simnel cake (At Easter), or mooncake.