The term "cake" has a
long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word
"kaka." Although clear examples of the difference between cake and
bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive.
The most primitive peoples in the
world began making cakes shortly after they discovered flour. In medieval
England, the cakes that were described in writings were not cakes in the
conventional sense. They were described as flour-based sweet foods as opposed
to the description of breads, which were just flour-based foods without
sweetening.
Bread and cake were somewhat
interchangeable words with the term "cake" being used for smaller
breads. The earliest examples were found among the remains of Neolithic
villages where archaeologists discovered simple cakes made from crushed grains,
moistened, compacted and probably cooked on a hot stone. Today's version of
this early cake would be oatcakes, though now we think of them more as a
biscuit or cookie.
Cakes were called
"plakous" by the Greeks, from the word for "flat." These
cakes were usually combinations of nuts and honey. They also had a cake called
"satura," which was a flat heavy cake.
In ancient Rome, basic bread
dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a
sweet and cake-like baked good. The Latin poet Ovid in his first book of exile,
Tristia, mentions a birthday
celebration for him and his brother. One of the main things he mentioned was
cake.
Early cakes in England were also
essentially bread: the most obvious differences between a "cake" and
"bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes, and the cooking
method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left
upright throughout the baking process.
Cakes were usually baked for
special occasions because they were made with the finest and most expensive
ingredients available to the cook. The wealthier you were, the more likely you
might consume cake on a more frequent basis.
By the early 19th century, due to
the Industrial Revolution, baking ingredients became more affordable and
readily available because of mass production and the railroads. Modern
leavening agents, such as baking soda and baking powder were invented. That is
really what brings us to today. Cake is an extremely old entity but we are
constantly trying to invent new ways to make it fun and exciting.
Sources: Whats Cooking America, Wikipedia, and our own genius minds
