Cakes

Cakes is a term used to describe a very broad category of food.

A cake can be a large sweet item, or a small unsweetened item that is more used more like a bread. In a very small number of instances, it can even by a lozenge -- viz Pomfret Cakes. An "oil cake" is the mound or mass of what's left over from something after all the oil has been pressed out of it. We even use the word "cake" in English to refer to a "bar of soap."

The word "cake" used to be used for unrisen things that we now think of as cookies, biscuits or crackers, and this usage still survives in a very few examples, such as oatcakes. There are also fried cakes -- viz, pancakes.

Coffeecakes are halfway between a cake and a bread.

The difference between fruit breads and tea cakes is often just one of size.

Eccles Cakes are more like what we might now call "pastries."

In the Western world after 1900s onward, though, it's safe to start off with the assumption that a Cake is a sweet, risen baked good, containing flour, sugar, some kind of fat, flavourings, and generally eggs.

In this modern Western parlance, there are generally three classifications of cakes, based on their fat (solid fat or liquid oil) content:

Butter Cakes: 30 to 100% fat
Butter Sponges: 10 to 50% fat
Sponge Cakes: 0 to 10% fat

Risen cakes used to require a great deal of work, as there were no chemical leaveners. The leavener is usually a chemical one such as baking powder or baking soda, though in a few instances some Cakes will use only the eggs as the leavener, such as the classic Genoise and Sponge Cakes (Sponge Cakes also leave out the additional fat.)

After all the suspense of whether a cake will rise and brown properly, comes a final crucial moment of removing the cake from its baking pan. Generally, to aid this final stage, you grease the sides of a cake tin, but for some cakes, it's better to leave the sides ungreased. The fat used in greasing might seep into the cake and help deflate the foam you had worked so hard to build up. And, ungreased sides allow the cake to grip the sides of the pan better, aiding it in rising. This can be particularly true with non-stick pans: you may wish to grease only the bottom. Do not grease Cake Pans for Angel Food, sponge, chiffon or any foam cakes. Do grease pans for butter cakes, genoises, and cake mixes. Cake pans can be greased with butter, margarine, shortening, or a vegetable oil spray.

You can use an implement such as a rubber spatula or a knife to loosen a Cake along the sides before removing it from its Cake pan.

Some cakes need to be aged before eating (e.g. fruit cakes.)

Cooking Tips
To avoid crumbs from the cake getting caught up in any icing you might be putting on it, you can "crumb ice" it first. Put a layer of very thin icing over the cake (just icing sugar and lots of water, very runny), and let it dry thoroughly (you may wish to let it dry overnight.) And then ice your cake with your real icing. The first layer traps all the crumbs. It is sometimes also called a "crumb coat."

Some people just use standard table knifes to ice their cakes with. To get more graceful swirls, use a "Palette Knife" (a long, thin metal spatula.)

History
One of the words the Romans had for cake was "placenta", coming from the Greek word "plakous", which in turn came from the Greek word for "flat."

Whereas now a flat cake would reduce a cook to tears, back then it was considered completely normal. Only later did the Romans used yeast to leaven some of their cakes.

Some Roman unleavened cakes:

Libum was a cheesecake sweetened with honey. Small ones were mostly used as an offering to household gods. Larger versions for made for actual consumption;
Placenta was a cheesecake sweetened with honey and baked either in a pastry shell, or on a pastry base. It could also be used as an offering, though the prime purpose was eating;
Satura was a flat, heavy cake made with barley, raisins, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and a sweet wine.

In the mid-1700s, more sophisticated cooks turned away from yeast as a leavener, replacing it with well-beaten eggs.

Up until the advent of thermostats in ovens, getting the oven to the right temperature -- and keeping it there -- was a completely manual affair. In fact, you needed an oven in the first place, something not many people had.

The Victorian era brought to cakes:

more accessible white flour which allowed greater rising and finer texture;
baking powder and baking soda, obviating the need to beat egg for hours;
ovens, and not only oven, but temperature controlled ovens (for those that could afford it);
fancy cake moulds.

In fact, it was during the Victorian era that making a good cake became so possible that it became something that was a test of a good everyday housewife or cook.

Literature & Lore
Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it and prick it and mark it with T,
And put it in the oven for Tommy and me.

Language Notes
The French word "gateau" comes from the old French word for "fine bread", "guastel."

Gateau in English is now used as a word for very fancy cakes that require a great deal of work.

"Cake" is related to the English word "to cook", and the German word "kuchen." It comes from the Norse word, "kaka", which is still the Swedish word for cake.

"Cakehole" is American slang for "mouth."

Also called:

Pastel (Spanish); Bolo (Portuguese)

Cakes

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Other entries for: Dishes