A cake is a form of food, usually sweet, often baked. Cakes normally combine some kind of wheat byproduct, a sweetening agent (commonly sugar), a binding agent (generally egg, though gluten or starch are often used by vegetarians and vegans, who also sometimes uses viniger and baking power in cakes), fats (usually butter or margarine, although a fruit puree can be substituted to avoid using fat), a liquid (milk, water or fruit juice), flavours and some form of leavening agent (such as yeast or baking powder).
Cake is often the dessert of choice for meals at ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings or birthday parties. In some traditions the bride and bridegroom are the first to eat their wedding cake, often serving each other a piece in their fingers. For birthdays, a frosted (iced) cake, often with inscriptions in frosting and figural decorations, is covered with candles, which are blown out after the celebrant makes a wish. Cake is considered delicious in many cultures.
History
[1] The history of cakes begins with the invention of flour. In medieval England, the word cake described any small flour-based product, including small, unsweetened bread items. The earliest examples of these were found in the remains of Neolithic villages where archaeologists discovered simple cakes made from crushed grains, which were most likely cooked on a hot stone.
In Ancient Greece, cakes were called plakous, from the word for flat, and were usually made of nuts and honey. Another kind of cake, flat and heavy, was called satura. In Ancient Rome, the name for cake was placenta. Another type was libum, primarily used as an offering to their gods. Placenta was like a cheesecake that was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case. Cakes during these times were usually baked for special occasions, because they were made with the finest and most expensive ingredients available to the cook.
During the middle of the 18th century, yeast had fallen out of use as a raising agent for cakes. Most people by this time used beaten eggs. Once air had been beaten in, the mixture would be poured into molds. The molds were usually as simple as two tin hoops, set on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. By the early 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, baking ingredients became more affordable and readily available due to mass production and the railroads. Modern leavening agents, such as baking soda and baking powder, were invented at that time.
Creating a cake
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Since cakes are often iced or frosted, the term cake usually refers to the entire finished object: the cake and its frosting (topping). However, cake also refers to the part that is typically made from flour.
Cake making ingredients and methods
Generally, cakes are meant to be edible. Most cakes are made with wheat flour and therefore gluten, which means special care needs to be taken to ensure cakes don't have a chewy texture. The cake ingredients are mixed as little as possible once the flour has been added. This differs markedly from sturdy food items made with flour such as bread, where the goal is to agitate the gluten as much as possible. Cakes often rely on beating eggs and addition of leavening agents such as baking powder to produce the air bubbles in the cake. This is what makes a traditional cake fluffy and spongy.
Typical ingredients are wheat flour, eggs, oil, water, baking powder, vanilla extract, and sugar. Soft flour/cake flour is often used, as it has less gluten than either hard flour/bread flour or regular flour. Cocoa powder or chocolate is added to make a chocolate cake. Butter or light-tasting oils such as canola oil are used. Strong-tasting oils such as olive oil are usually not used as they can overwhelm and contradicts the taste of other ingredients. There are several methods to combine cake ingredients:
- Creaming method - butter and sugar are creamed together before the rest of the ingredients are gradually added.
- Melt-and-mix - dry ingredients are mixed together and then melted butter and other liquids are added to complete the cake.
- Rubbing method - butter is rubbed into the dry ingredients before the liquid is added.
- 'All-in-together' - the dry ingredients and shortening are placed in the food processer and liquid is gradually added.
- Sponge-making - eggs and sugar are whipped to a froth and flour is carefully mixed in. No raising agent or fat is used in this method and it takes great skill to make a light sponge
When all the cake ingredients are mixed, the mixture is called cake batter or mix. The cake batter is usually poured into one or two baking pans. Baking pans can be rectangular, circular, square, or some other specialized shape. Sometimes flouring the baking pan is required to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan after it is baked. To flour a baking pan:
- entirely wipe the inside of the baking pan with a very thin layer of fat (usually butter or margarine)
- place some flour in the inside of the pan. Shake the flour around inside the pan until the inside is entirely coated with flour.
- tap the pan and shake out the excess flour that is not sticking to the pan. Discard this flour. The pan is now ready to have batter poured into it.
Most cakes are baked in an oven at a low temperature. Other cakes require refrigeration to make them set and stay firm.
Cake mixes
Cake mixes are often used at home because they are convenient. Most cake mixes simply require adding the package contents to eggs and oil in a bowl and mixing for two to three minutes. The mixture is then ready to be poured into pans and baked. The powder mix requires the addition of ingredients before baking. Typically, a modern cake mix contains flour, sugar, shortening, leavening agents, and appropriate flavorings, and instructs the user to add egg, oil and/or some form of water to the mix before baking. Some mixes do not require eggs or oil.
Prepackaged cake mixes were first introduced to American grocery store shelves in the 1940s by companies including Betty Crocker and General Mills, who touted the use of their product as more convenient and resistant to human error than the process of baking a cake from scratch.
The original Betty Crocker Cake Mix, requiring only water to be added, sold poorly. The company conducted a survey to find out why, and discovered that housewives felt guilty, believing that by making something so easy bake, they were cheating their families. The company responded by changing the recipe to require an egg to be mixed in, and sales turned sharply upward.[2]
Cake decorating methods
A finished cake is often enhanced by frosting (icing) and toppings such as sprinkles. Frosting is usually made from a fat of some sort, powdered (icing) sugar, sometimes milk, and often flavourings such as vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Commercial bakeries tend to use lard for the fat, and often whip the lard to introduce air bubbles. This makes the icing light and spreadable. Home bakers either use lard, butter, margarine or some combination thereof. Sprinkles are small firm pieces of sugar and oils that are colored with food colouring. In the late 20th century, new cake decorating products became available to the public. These included several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.
Cake decorating classes are popular. Special tools are needed for fancy cake decorating, such as piping bags and various piping tips. To use a piping bag, a piping tip is attached to the piping bag. The bag is filled with icing which is sometimes colored. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs.
Popular icing types include buttercream icing, which is made from butter, or cream cheese icing, which is typically made by substituting half the butter of an icing recipe with regular cream cheese.
Layered cakes are cakes with more than one cake or ingredient stacked on top of one another. Layered cakes can consist of cake along with fruits and other fillings such as custard or icing, or several thin cakes with icing in between the layers. The latter type is produced by either baking several thin cakes, or baking a thick cake and carefully cutting the cake horizontally.
Cake storage
Cakes that are not eaten right away should be wrapped in plastic wrap or an airtight or semi-airtight container to prevent drying out. Some cakes and/or icing require the cake to be refrigerated, and many can be frozen for eating later.
See also
Notes
- ^ What's Cooking America History of Cakes URL Accessed on January 21, 2006
References
- In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker's Companion by Regan Daley ISBN 1579652085