The History of Cake Baking

Cakes come in all shapes and sizes now-a-days… but has it always that way; what is the history of cake?

Well, like all great recipes and creations, the cake started off with the basics. In medieval England, documents have been found relating to baking cakes. In these writings, the cake was basically just described as a flour-based sweet food. It was similar to bread, only bread didn’t have the sweetening.

As the times progressed, archaeologists began to find simple cakes made from grains, moistened, compacted, and probably cooked on a hot stone. This recipe was first considered a cake, but then it was transformed and took on a history all its own.

Today it is known as a biscuit or a cookie.

To the Greeks, cakes were known as “plakous” which was a cake created using only honey and nuts.

Doesn’t it sound tasty? No?

Well, without this “plakous” your favorite cake recipe may not even exist today! The Greek definitely affected the history of cake.

Also, the words “bread” and “cake” were sometimes considered interchangeable. Cake was just small bread. The words “bread” and “cake” come from the Anglo Saxon origin. To many people in the olden times, cake represented wealth.

If you were rich then by all means, let them eat cake, and lots of it.

For the wealthy people, cake was served on a more frequent basis compared to the citizens living in poverty, who rarely enjoyed such a fancy treat. Cake was also a rarity because, well if you are going to make a cake, then you might as well go all out. People used the finest ingredients available and made it as extravagant as possible. As for the poor, they were just happy to have any old cake.

In the middle of the 18th century, yeast- the common raising agent was replaced with beaten eggs. The eggs allowed more air to be poured into the mold which gave the cake a lighter/fluffier texture; not quite so heavy. Once the batter was ready it was poured into elaborate molds and shapes for baking… but only if you were of the affluent class.

For the average family, they were simply transferred into little tin hoops, which were then set on parchment paper and a cookie sheet. It is from this original idea, that the round pan we continue to use today was created.

Again, the history of cake began to prosper. Once it entered into the states, cake became a symbol of well-being and wealth. The more you could afford, the better off you were. In the 19th century, the cake ingredients became more and more available thanks to the efforts of the Industrial Revolution. From there, things like baking powder and baking soda were invented and then years later, popular names like Betty Crocker and Sarah Lee presented themselves onto the cake scene.

Thanks to revolutions, recipes, and names too numerous to mention; the history of cake has been forever changed; from its Greek roots all the way to American modifications.

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