 So many cakes, so little time. This delectable mousse cake with a caramel topping is from FinancierPastries.com.
June 2008 |
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Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cookies, Cakes & PastryCake GlossaryHow Many Types Of Cakes Are There?
The ancient Egyptians were the world’s first great bakers, with large-scale bakeries that produced unleavened breads and cakes, first baked on hot stones. They were the first to discover how to use wild (natural) yeast to make those flatbreads and cakes rise. It took another few millennia, until the 18th century, to discover the technique of whipping eggs to make cakes rise. While it required many hours of beating, it heralded the dawn of modern baking. By the 1840s, baking soda had been invented, followed by baking powder in the 1860s. As ovens with regulated temperatures became available, and sugar became affordable to everyone, more people were able to bake, resulting in more creativity in recipe development; the modern cake as we know it began to take shape in the mid-19th century. Even though sugar originated in Asia, cakes as we now know them—flour, eggs, butter and sugar baked to a sweet, fluffy deliciousness—are a Western evolution. There are thousands of different types of cakes in the world today; each culture has its specialties, most of which never reach our shores. Here, we present some of the more popular types one is likely to encounter—or at least hear about—in the U.S. If your favorite isn’t represented, tell us about it. After you’ve checked out the cakes, take a look at our other food glossaries—an easy way to get up to speed on more than fifty different food categories. Most related to this Cake Glossary are our Chocolate Glossary, Custard Glossary, Dessert Sauce Glossary, Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts Glossary and Sugar Glossary. It is important to note that there is no one—or even 100—recipes for any of the cakes described here. Over the centuries, bakers have varied and refined the original recipes to their own preferences, and the challenge for everyone who loves to bake (or eat) good cake is to keep trying recipes until we find the one that suits us to perfection. Click on the letter of the alphabet in the bar below to get to a term. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z This glossary is protected by copyright and cannot be reproduced in whole or part. ALMOND PASTESee marzipan. ANGEL FOOD CAKEA light flourless cake made with sugar, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla or almond extract, APPLESAUCE CAKE BABA or BABA AU RHUM or RHUM BABASmall cakes baked in cylindrical molds, containing raisins or currants, made from yeast dough and soaked with sugar syrup, usually flavored with rum. According to legend, BABKAA yeast ring originating in Eastern European, baked with raisins or other dried fruit in the dough. Similar to coffee cake, without the glaze or streusel. BACCA DI MONTAGNA CAKE
This Bacca di Montagna cake is available from 1-800-Bakery.com.
BAKED ALASKA This dessert is ice cream encased in meringue and browned in an oven. Though it did BAKINGThe technique of cooking food in an enclosed space—it can be an oven, box, covered, dug pit, etc.—with dry heat. BAKING POWDERA chemical leavening agent that causes batter to rise during the baking process. Baking powder consists of baking soda, cream of tartar (and/or sodium aluminum sulfate), plus cornstarch. It creates a chemical reaction that enlarges the air bubbles already present in the batter. BAKING SODABaking soda, another leavening agent, is also known as bicarbonate of soda and by its chemical name, sodium bicarbonate. It is about four times as strong as baking powder. Baking soda is used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient: for example, brown sugar, buttermilk, chocolate, citrus juice, chocolate, fruit, honey, maple syrup, molasses, sour cream, vinegar and yogurt. BATTERBatter is the uncooked material from which cakes are made. The main ingredients generally include flour, eggs, sugar, butter, flavoring (almond, chocolate, vanilla, etc.) and sometimes milk, cream or sour cream. These are the same ingredients as in a dough; the only difference is that a batter is thinner in consistency. The word comes from the French “battre,” meaning “to beat.” BEE STING CAKE or BIENENDTICHA German yeast cake filled with custard and frosted with honey, butter and almonds. According to legend, it is named for a baker who made a cake with a honey topping, which attracted a bee that stung him. BIRTHDAY CAKEThis generally refers to a frosted layer cake, decorated with roses or other themes that h BLACK BOTTOM CAKEA cake fashioned after the black bottom pie, which has a chocolate layer bottom and a vanilla pudding top. In the cake version, a chocolate layer is topped with a cream cheese/chocolate chip layer, which bakes into a cheesecake-like top. BLACK FOREST CAKEA chocolate layer cake, filled with Kirsch-flavored whipped cream and sour Morello cherries and traditionally frosted with whipped cream and chocolate curls. The cake is believed to have originated in the late 16th century in the Black Forest region of Germany. The area is known for its sour Morello cherries and Kirschwasser, a clear brandy made from the cherries. Read more about the history of the Black Forest Cake, including a recipe.
BOSTON CREAM PIEJust as the cheesecake is really a pie, the Boston cream pie is really a cake: two layers of sponge cake filled with vanilla custard and glazed with chocolate. It is the descendant of the early American pudding-cake pie. The first reference, a recipe published in 1855, calls it a “pudding pie cake” and had a powdered sugar topping, which evolved to the current chocolate glaze. BOUCHONA small, bite-size chocolate cake with brownie-like qualities. Bouchon is the French BREADThere is a transition between sweet breads and low-sugar cakes baked in loaf pans, such as carrot bread and banana bread. What’s the difference between a banana abread and a banana cake? The obvious difference is that banana bread (or other BROWN BETTYMost often found in recipes for a Brown Betty or an Apple Brown Betty, a betty is like a pie without the crust. Sugared fruit is topped with buttered breadcrumbs and baked. The dish and name date back to Colonial times, but the original “Betty” is lost to history; the brown presumably refers to the browning of the fruit, as there is no brown sugar. See also crisp. BROWNIES & BARSWhile cake-like brownies and bars (like lemon bars) are baked in cake pans and have a dense, cakey texture, they are actually classified as bar cookies, not cakes. See the different types of cookies, and read the origin of brownies.
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and a dozen or so egg whites, depending on the recipe. There is no leavening. Angel food cake is popularly served with berries and whipped cream. Some historians think that the first angel food cakes were baked in the South by African-American slaves, due to the strength required to whip the air into the whites. Others theorize that the cake originated in Pennsylvania Dutch country in the early 1800s. Angel cakes are generally made in a 
the baba evolved from the kouglhopf or kugelhopf. As the story goes, Polish King Stanislas Leszczynska (1710–1774), the the father-in-law of King Louis XV of France, was deposed and exiled to Lorraine, where he found the traditional kouglhopf too dry and dipped it in rum. His chef refined the recipe, using brioche dough and adding raisins. The king named the cake after one of the characters in his favorite book, Ali Baba; the name became shortened to baba. Not all babas are rhum babas; baba refers to the shape. Today, rhum babas are made a variety of shapes, including fluted (Bundt-like, as in the photo above), unfluted circle molds and individual, brioche-like portions. See also 
A lovely summer cake, the name means “berries from the mountain” or mountain berries. The white sponge cake layered with almond pastry cream is topped with wild blueberries and raspberries covered with a natural jelly glaze. The sides are pressed with almond biscotti crumbs. 
not get its current name until 1896, it was invented in 1804 by Benjamin Thompson Rumford (1753-1814), an American-born physicist who became a British subject during the American Revolution. The dessert was the by-product of his study of the resistance of stiffly beaten egg whites to the induction of heat. He named the dessert Omelette Surprise. Later versions added sponge cake underneath the ice cream, the recipe that is common today. 
onor the interests of the celebrant. It typically has the inscription,“Happy Birthday” and the celebrant’s name. Tradition is to include one candle for each year—up to a certain point, when discretion and the surface area of the cake recommend only one or a few candles. The custom may have begun in ancient Greece with honey cakes. Ancient Romans also celebrated their 50th year with a honey cake. Much later, cakes celebrated birthdays of young children in Germany. In medieval England, coins were mixed into the batter and the tradition continues there today. From early times, fire sent signals to the gods; today, one makes a private wish while blowing out the candles on one’s cake. 
word for cork, and the cakes are baked in tin that produces cork shapes. Since French recipes tend to be on the bittersweet rather than the sugary side, they go well with a demi-sec or Pinot Noir-based Champagne—all the more reason to celebrate! They are a signature pastry at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery, where mini chocolate chips are baked into the batter (photo at right) and the tops are dusted with confectioner’s sugar.
bread) is baked in a loaf pan while a cake is baked in a round, square or rectangular cake pan. A less obvious distinction is that the bread style of cake, as a quickbread*, is leavened with baking soda. In general, loaf cakes or “breads” also have a denser crumb, a rougher texture and often less sugar than their cake counterparts. While the origin of the “bread” style of cake is unknown, food historians believe that it was originated in the 18th century with housewives experimenting with pearl ash. Banana bread became common in American cookbooks in the 1930s, with the popularization of baking soda and baking powder, and very popular in the 1960s, when variations with simple inclusions (nuts, chocolate morsels) created simple but delicious snack cakes. 
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