Cake

The cake transparent png download is created with a variety of ingredients, including refined flour, shortening, sweetener, eggs, milk, leavening agent, and flavoring. There are thousands of cake recipes (some of which are bread-like and others which are rich and ornate), many of which are centuries old. Making a cake is no longer a difficult task.

Baking utensils and instructions have been refined and simplified to the point where even a novice cook may become an excellent baker. There are five primary forms of cake, based on the leavening ingredient employed.

Shortly after discovering flour, the world’s most primitive peoples began baking cakes. The cakes depicted in writings in medieval England were not cakes in the traditional sense. They were classified as flour-based sweet dishes, as opposed to bread, which were just flour-based dishes that were not sweetened.

Bread and cake were often used interchangeably, with “cake” referring to smaller bread. Archaeologists uncovered basic cakes fashioned from crushed grains, moistened, compacted, and likely fried on a hot stone amidst the remains of Neolithic communities. Oatcakes are today’s version of this early cake, however, we now think of them as a biscuit or cookie.

The Greeks called cakes “plakous,” which comes from the term “flat.” These cakes were typically made with a mixture of almonds and honey. They also served a cake known as “satura,” which was a hefty, flat dessert.

The name for cake (derived from the Greek phrase) became “placenta” during the Roman era. The Romans referred to them as “libum,” and they were principally utilized as a gift to their gods. The placenta was baked on a pastry base or sometimes inside a pastry casing, similar to a cheesecake.

With the passage of time, the terms “bread” and “cake” became interchangeable. The words themselves are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and it’s likely that the smaller loaves were referred to as cake. Because cakes were produced with the finest and most expensive ingredients available to the cook, they were mainly created for special occasions. The more money you had, the more likely you were to eat cake on a regular basis.

By the mid-eighteenth century, yeast had lost favor as a cake raising agent in favor of beaten eggs. The liquid was poured into molds, often quite ornate constructions, but sometimes as simple as two tin hoops laid on parchment paper on a baking sheet, once as much air as possible had been beaten in. Our current cake pans are derived from antique cake hoops.

Early American cooks on the east coast thought of cakes as a symbol of happiness, with each section of the country having its own favorites.

Because of mass production and railroads, baking ingredients became more economical and widely available by the early nineteenth century, thanks to the Industrial Revolution. Baking soda and baking powder are examples of modern leavening agents.