Cake

Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, such as weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays.

[2] The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς (plakous), which was derived from the word for "flat", πλακόεις (plakoeis).

[3] The Greeks invented beer as a leavener, frying fritters in olive oil, and cheesecakes using goat's milk.

[4] In ancient Rome, the basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good.

[5] The Latin poet Ovid refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile, Tristia.

[5] Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain.

[8] One company patented a cake-bread mix to deal with this economic situation and thereby established the first line of cake in a box.

Later, during the post-war boom, other American companies (notably General Mills) developed this idea further, marketing cake mix on the principle of convenience, especially to housewives.

When sales dropped heavily in the 1950s, marketers discovered that baking cakes, once a task at which housewives could exercise skill and creativity, had become dispiriting.

This was a period in American ideological history when women, retired from the war-time labor force, were confined to the domestic sphere while still exposed to the blossoming consumerism in the US.

[9] This inspired psychologist Ernest Dichter to find a solution to the cake mix problem in the frosting.

[citation needed] Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and mixing techniques.

Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive.

They rely on the combination of butter and sugar beaten for an extended time to incorporate air into the batter.

[12] According to Beth Tartan, this cake was one of the most common among the American pioneers who settled North Carolina.

[19] Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive.

Traditionally it is a two-layer cake filled and topped with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream.

Common shapes include: Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured, soft, low-protein wheat.

[22][23][24] Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour, notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired.

These include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.

The CDC has recommended not to eat raw cake batter because it can contain pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli.

Cake batter uses raw flour which can contain live bacteria and present a hazard if consumed.