From chocolate and vanilla to red velvet, orange, salted caramel and many, many more tantalizing tastes, to icing flavours and décor. Now, let’s delve into the history of some of my favourite cakes …
HISTORY
Nobody hates cakes. That is a fact. At least, my family members don’t dare to say they don’t like cake because currently my mom is obsessed with baking cakes. We eat it in the morning for breakfast and whenever we want a snack, my mom just produces a container full of cake squares and shovel a square into our mouths.
There is nothing wrong with eating cake every day, but Mom, we want variety. My mom’s cake is mostly chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and almonds and coconut shavings on top (yes, just like we decorate a kheer bowl).
So here I am thinking about all the awesome types of cakes people eat around the world, but as I gather some new cake recipes for my mom, I am more fascinated by the fact that every cake has its roots in history. The richer the cake, the richer its history.
Cake-making has been around for millenniums; in fact, the invention of cake originated in ancient Egypt as round, flat, unleavened bread that was cooked on a hot stone. With time, new ingredients and techniques were introduced to the culinary world. More and more flavours came to light. From chocolate and vanilla to red velvet, orange, salted caramel and many, many more tantalizing tastes, to icing flavours and décor. Now, let’s delve into the history of some of my favourite cakes …
Chiffon cake (USA)
This airy sponge cake was invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, a California insurance salesman-turned-baker. He kept the recipe secret for 20 years until he sold it to the Washburn-Crosby Company, today General Mills, who introduced it in 1948 with a major Betty Crocker marketing blitz, publishing a set of 14 different recipe variations.
Chiffon was advertised as ‘the first really new cake in a hundred years,’ thanks to its ‘secret ingredient’ — the recipe used vegetable oil instead of conventional shortening which made chiffon cake light and fluffy like angel food cake, yet rich and moist like classic butter cakes.
By the end of the 1950s, chiffon became a nationwide sensation. Apart from the basic recipe, variations included fruits like lemon, oranges and pineapple, but also chocolate, walnut, maple nut, pumpkin and allspice. Chiffon cake remains equally popular even today, and in the United States, March 29 is celebrated as the National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day.
Lamington (Australia)
The world-famous Australian culinary icon Lamington consists of a sponge cake that is dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with finely desiccated coconut. The cake is believed to have been created by accident when Lord Lamington’s maid accidentally dropped his favourite cake in melted chocolate.
Lamington, the eighth Governor of Queensland, suggested that the cake should be sprinkled with coconut in order to avoid the mess while consuming it - and the erroneous cake was proclaimed a massive success by all. Today, the cake is extremely popular due to its climate suitability, as it lasts longer in the heat when it’s cut in bite-sized squares and covered in coconut.
It is also a staple of fundraising events due to the fact that it can be easily made in large quantities. The cake can also be found throughout Australia and New Zealand in numerous supermarkets, cafés and bakeries.
Basbousa bil tamr (Libya)
Also known as semolina cake, basbousa goes back to the revani of Turkish cuisine, a classic cake from the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Indeed, revani was baked for the first time by Ottoman pastry chefs to celebrate the conquest of Armenia in the sixteenth century. The Battle of Revan, capital of the country, today called Yerevan, gave its name to this famous dessert.
As time passed, the revani started to delight many tables during the Ottoman period and its name was changed to revan-i meaning “precious” in the Ottoman language.
The cake is made with semolina, regular flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, milk, date-paste and baking powder. After it is baked, it is soaked in syrup. It is typically flavoured with cinnamon. Libyans enjoy their basbousa bil tamr with qashta cream, and pair it with Arabic cardamom coffee on the side.
Red velvet cake (USA)
This American classic is traditionally made for Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Red velvet cake is typically covered in a French-style butter roux icing, though recently cream cheese frosting and buttercream have both been used as a simpler and tastier alternative.
During World War II and the Depression, this moist cake got its vibrant colouring from boiled beets, but has since adapted into red food colouring, courtesy of a Texan company called Adams Extract. The cake gets its light and fluffy texture from the reaction caused by mixing buttermilk and vinegar together in addition to eggs, sugar, butter, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder and salt.
Interestingly enough, even though this cake is a typical southern American dessert, a department store in Canada called Eaton’s promoted it as an exclusive recipe, mistakenly fooling many people into believing it was created by the store’s matriarch, Lady Eaton.
Tres leches cake (Nicaragua)
Tres leches (three-milk) cake is a dense, moist dessert consisting of a sponge cake covered with three types of milk: evaporated, condensed, and whole milk.
Although its origins are quite murky, most sources claim it was invented in Nicaragua, but the cake is popular throughout Central America, the United States and Europe where it is a staple at numerous celebrations and festivities.
It is believed that the original recipe was first printed on milk cans in Latin America, to promote the use of the product, and as a result, the milk companies boosted their milk sales.
Baumkuchen (Germany)
The German version of spit cake, known as Baumkuchen (tree cake), is just one of many similar cakes found throughout Europe. Some say it was baked for the first time in a German town called Salzwedel in the 19th century, while others say it’s a descendant of the Hungarian wedding cake.
The batter – typically made from flour, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and butter – is thinly coated on a spit that’s rotating over a heat source. Before each new layer is applied, the previous one must be fully dry. Once sliced, the cake has a lovely texture and appearance which resembles growth rings, hence its name – baumkuchen or tree cake.
Brownies (USA)
Deliciously chewy, dense and fudgy with a rich chocolate flavour, the beloved brownies are one of the most popular American desserts. Some claim that Bertha Palmer, wife of the owner of Palmer House Hotel, asked the chef to invent a new chocolate dessert to serve at the 1893 Colombian Exposition.
Others say that it was an accident, when Brownie Schrumpf, a librarian, excluded baking powder from a chocolate cake and was left with a thick, black cake bar. Regardless of the origins, what really popularized the brownies were instant, boxed mixes from the 1950s made by two brands - Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker.
Nowadays, there is a number of brownie varieties with added walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips or even chili powder. Portable, easy to prepare and satisfying, brownies are said to taste the best when paired with a glass of cold milk.
New York-style cheesecake (USA)
New York-style cheesecake has a heavy and dense texture that feels extremely smooth and rich. Its flavour should be sweet and tangy, not citrusy, chewy or starchy. It is believed that the first New York-style cheesecake was made by Junior’s in the 1950s.
The magic formula includes heavy cream, eggs, vanilla, cream cheese, and (optionally) sour cream, while the base usually consists of a sponge cake crust or graham cracker crust.
Compiled by SG
