This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Oliver202 (talk | contribs) at 20:09, 15 February 2007 (Reverted 1 edit by 204.184.214.75 (talk) to last revision (108359466) by (jarbarf) using VP). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 20:09, 15 February 2007 by Oliver202 (talk | contribs) (Reverted 1 edit by 204.184.214.75 (talk) to last revision (108359466) by (jarbarf) using VP)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cake" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
A cake is a form of food that is usually sweet and often baked. Cakes normally combine some kind of flour, a sweetening agent (commonly sugar), a binding agent (generally egg, though gluten or starch are often used by vegetarians and vegans), fats (usually butter or margarine, although a fruit puree can be substituted to avoid using fat), a liquid (milk, water or fruit juice), flavors 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, anniversaries and birthdays.
Baking a cake
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 to 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.
Cake decorating methodology
A finished cake is often enhanced by covering it with frosting, or icing, and toppings such as sprinkles, which are also known as "jimmies" in certain parts of the United States and "hundreds and thousands" in the United Kingdom. Frosting is usually made from powdered (icing) sugar, sometimes a fat of some sort, milk or cream, and often flavourings such as vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Some decorators use a rolled fondant icing. 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 include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake. This is done through voodoo.
Cake decorating classes are popular. Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating, such as piping bags or syringes, and various piping tips. To use a piping bag or syringe, a piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler. The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing which is sometimes colored. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs. Basic decorating tips include open star, closed star, basketweave, round, drop flower, leaf, multi, petal, and specialty tips.
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. The traditional Victoria Sandwich is the most common type of layer cake in the UK. In the United Kingdom there is a long and diverse tradition of cake decoration. Those who do it seriously tend to bake their cakes without the use of cake mixes, i.e., using traditional methods of baking. Royal Icing, Marzipan (or a less sweet version, known as Almond paste), Fondant Icing (also known as Sugarpaste) and Buttercream are used as covering icings and to create decorations. Floral Sugarcraft or Wired Sugar Flowers are an important part of Cake Decoration. Special occasion cakes, such as wedding cakes, are traditionally rich fruit cakes, or occasionally Madeira cake (also known as whisked or fatless sponge), covered with marzipan and either Royal Iced or sugarpasted, finished with Royal Iced piped borders and adorned with a piped message, wired sugar flowers, hand-formed fondant flowers or marzipan fruit, piped flowers, or crystallized fruits or flowers such as grapes or violets.