The History of the Donut

The History of the Donut The doughnut has existed since the begining of time. So long that archaeologists continue to unearth fossilized bits of what look like doughnuts in the middens of prehistoric Native American settlements. The doughnut, as we know and love, supposedly came to Manhatten (then still New Amsterdam) under the Dutch name of olykoeks--"oily cakes." In early colonial times, US. Dutch immigrants discovered fried cake. So, the story goes, a cow kicked a pot full of boiling oil over onto some pastry mix, thus inventing the golden brown delight. Apparently, they didn't share this great discovery with their homeland and the fried cakes became a staple in the harsh conditions that existed in the colony. Around 1847, Elizibeth Gregory, a New England ship captain's mother, made a deep-fried dough that used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg, cinnimon, and lemon rind. She made the deep fried cakes for son Hansen and his crew so they could store the pastry on long voyages...and to help ward off scurvy and colds. Mrs. Gregory put hazel nuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through, and called them doughnuts. Hansen always took credit for the hole in the doughnut. Some doughnut historians think that Hansen was a bit of a cheapskate and was just trying to save on food costs. Others say that he gave the doughnut its first hole when, in the middle of a terrible storm and in order to get both hands on the ships wheel, he crammed one of his mothers fried sensations onto one of the wooded spokes of the wheel. Yet another tale claims that he decided, after a visit from an angel, that the doughy center of the fried cakes had to go. Her son Hanson presented "his" creation to the people who apparently sang and danced for days in praise of the best fried cake they had ever tasted. Is the doughnut heavenly food? 17th century America thought so, but unfortunately Hanson was eventually burnt at the stake for being a witch in the mid-19th century. Today, the town of Clam Cove, Maine has a plaque in honor of Captain Hanson Gregory, the man who invented the hole in the donut. In the Middle of World War I, millions of homesick American "doughboys" were served up countless doughnuts by women volunteers, trying to give the soldiers a taste of home. The first doughnut machine was invented in 1920, in New York City, by a man named Adolph Levitt, a refugee from czarist Russia. Levitt's doughnut machine was a huge hit causing doughnuts to spread like wildfire. By 1934, at the World's Fair in Chicago, doughnuts were billed as "the hit food of the Century of Progress". Seeing them made by machines "automatically" somehow made them seem all the more futuristic. Doughnuts became beloved. Legend says that dunking donuts first became a trend when actress Mae Murray accidentally dropped a donut in her coffee one day at Lindy's Deli on Broadway. In the 1934 film It Happened One Night newspaperman Clark Gable teaches young runaway heiress Claudette Corbet how to "dunk". In 1937 a popular song proclaimed that you can live on coffee and doughnuts if "you're in love". During World War II, Red Cross women, known as Doughnut Dollies passed out hot doughnuts to the hard fighting soldiers.

What Is the Difference Between Baking Soda & Baking Powder???

Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents, which means they are added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to 'rise'. Baking powder contains baking soda, but the two substances are used under different conditions.

Baking Soda

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat! 

Baking Powder

Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven. 

How Are Recipes Determined?

Some recipes call for baking soda, while others call for baking powder. Which ingredient is used depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. The ultimate goal is to produce a tasty product with a pleasing texture. Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. You'll find baking soda in cookie recipes. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and biscuits.

Substituting in Recipes

You can substitute baking powder in place of baking soda (you'll need more baking powder and it may affect the taste), but you can't use baking soda when a recipe calls for baking powder. Baking soda by itself lacks the acidity to make a cake rise. However, you can make your own baking powder if you have baking soda and cream of tartar. Simply mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.

Choux Pastry

eclairs

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (pronounced: [pɑt a ʃu]), is a light pastry dough used to make profiteroles, croquembouches, éclairs, French crullers, beignets, St. Honoré cake, Indonesian kue sus, and gougères. It contains only butter, water, flour, and eggs. In lieu of a raising agent it employs high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry.

beignets

saint honore

Choux pastry is usually baked but for beignets it is fried. In Spain and Latin America, churros are made of fried choux pastry, sugared and dipped in a thin chocolate blancmange for breakfast. In Austrian cuisine, it is also boiled to make Marillenknödel, a sweet apricot dumpling; in that case it does not puff, but remains relatively dense. They are sometimes filled with cream and used to make cream puffs or éclairs.

History

                                                

croquembouche

A chef by the name of Panterelli invented the dough in 1540, seven years after he left Florence, along with Catherine de' Medici and the entirety of her court. He used the dough to make a gâteau and named it Pâte à Panterelli. Over time, the recipe of the dough evolved, and the name changed to Pâte à Popelin, which was used to make Popelins, small cakes made in the shape of a woman's breasts. Then, Avice, a pâtissier in the eighteenth century, created what were then called Choux Buns. The name of the dough changed to Pâte à Choux, as Avice's buns resembled cabbages – choux in French. From there, Antoine Carême made modifications to the recipe, resulting in the recipe most commonly used now for profiteroles.

frozen dessert,,

Ice cream, ice milk, gelato, sorbet.... There are a lot of names for frozen desserts. But do you really know the difference between them? Well wonder no more! Here is a quick glossary of the cold confections so you can amaze your friends and win the trivia contest at the local bar.

Ice Cream Like the name suggests, ice cream is a frozen product made from cream. Milk is often adding to the mixture as well as other flavorings and sweeteners. Did you know that up to 60% of the volume of the container is air?!? This is introduced in the whipping process and gives ice cream a light and fluffy texture. Ice creams are further divided into categories based on the amount of butterfat they contain.ion!

Premium Ice Cream has between 11% and 15% butterfat. While this ice cream is richer and denser you pay for it in the calorie count. Usually these premium ice creams come in small containers and have "gourmet" style flavorings. 
Regular ice cream is somewhat less dense and contains 10% to 11% butterfat. This type of ice cream is sold in the standard larger containers, and contains the standard flavorings. This style is perfect for milkshakes.

Economy Ice Cream has exactly 10% butterfat by law. No frills here.

Light Ice Cream means that there is EITHER 50% less fat OR 33% fewer calories than the regular ice cream produced by that particular company. But if you are calorie conscious look at the label. Light versions of the premium brands can have more fat and calories than the regular version of other brands.  
Reduced Fat Ice Cream is required by law to have 25% less fat than that particular company's regular version.

Ice Milk is not a name you see too much anymore. At one time this was the low fat version of ice cream. But with advances in technology this has been replaced with reduced fat ice cream.

Soft Serve Ice Cream is the same as the harder ice cream except that it is served at a higher temperature. Sometimes it is seen as tastier because it does not numb the taste buds.

French Style Ice Cream This ice cream is made with a custard base that includes egg yolks. It is very rich and silky. Also called glace.

Gelato

The big difference between gelato and American style ice cream is in the amount of air that is whipped into the product. (20% air for gelato and up to 60% air for ice cream) The result is a denser and more intensely flavored dessert.

Sorbet This is a frozen dessert that is made from fruit purée and can include the flavorings of herbs and spices. It is then whipped to lighten its texture. Sorbet contains no milk.

Sherbet

Like a sorbet this is a fruit based product, but milk is added for creaminess. But by law it can contain no more than 2% butterfat.

 Granita

Very similar to sorbet but granita is not whipped and ice crystals are allowed form. It has a more granular appearance, and a crunchy texture

The Four Components of a Plated Dessert Part I

The Four Components of a Plated Dessert

-Main Item
-Sauce
-Crunch Component
-Garnish

It is widely accepted that there are four components of a plated dessert: The main item, the dessert sauces, the crunch component, and the garnish.  A plated dessert should have all of these items, but if it lacks any one of these items (except for the main item) it can still be a plated dessert.  It is also widely believed that all of the components should be edible, and many chefs also believe that each component should be eaten.  That second point is widely debated because many chefs like to create sugar decorations and structures for presentations which are technically edible but are never actually eaten.

Before describing each core component it is important to point out a plated dessert presentation’s purpose.  A plated dessert has three main goals (though it may have more).  The first goal is to satisfy the customer.  This goal emphasizes flavor above all else, though you can argue that the actual visual design of the plate also satisfies a customer.  The second goal is to complement the venue’s theme.  If you are at an Asian restaurant and they serve Tres Leches cake with white chocolate cowboy hats as a garnish, it may look nice but it doesn’t really work well for the restaurant.  This goal emphasizes the visual, and fun and creative expressions of a dessert continue to bring customers back.  The final goal is to make a dessert that is affordable in the terms of the restaurant.  This is in terms of both complexity and price.  A dessert that is too complex will put too much stress on the kitchen staff when it needs to be reproduced and a dessert that is too expensive will never be purchased by the customer.  The price point should make sense though so the restaurant doesn’t lose money if the dessert is priced too cheaply.

The Main Item – The main item of a plated dessert is the actual dessert itself.  The main item as a finished product should weigh between three and five ounces but it is not unusual for it to weigh as much as 8 ounces.  The main item should never be so large that is over

The main item can be anything such as a slice of pie, a mini tart, a cluster of cookies, custard. Here the main item is a slice of turtle pie.

whelming.  If served in a restaurant for example it should be a nice sweet ending.  However, if served in a dessert café it is expected to be on the larger side, since that will be the only meal a guest will have there.

 The main item should be the main focal point of the dessert presentation.  This reassures the guest’s choice and prevents the customer from being distracted from all the other components of the plated dessert.  In other words, the slice of cake (or whatever the dessert is) is the most important part of the dessert and should not be over whelmed or lost among the other components.  The main item should have taken longer to prepare than any other component in the presentation.  It should also be the main source of flavor for the presentation while the other components contrast and complement it.

The other components should be used with just as much care as the main item.  They should be purposeful and well thought out.  An intelligent customer can easily figure out which parts are necessary and which were just used as fillers and could be offended at the professionalism and integrity the venue lacks.  In other words, don’t just throw caramel sauce or a cookie into the dessert because a plated dessert should have a sauce and a crunch component.  The other components have a purpose and should be used in that manner.  They should also be visually appealing and help guide the guest’s eyes to the main item, though flavor is always the most important role of any of the components.

The Sauce – A plated dessert should have up to two sauces but if tastefully approached more can be used.  Overall the sauces should not weigh more than one to two ounces with the exception of a flooded design.  Sauce is very important for dry items like pies and cakes but a sauce can add to any dessert.  If you’ve read the section on common dessert sauces then you know sauce is a complicated category in itself.  Since there are so many different kinds of sauces the combination of flavors, colors, and textures is almost endless – but as

Plated linzer tart slice made by a team in one of my classes. The two sauces here are creme anglais and raspberry sauce. Notice that raspberries are used to help identify the secondary sauce. Also notice that the plate is flooded, which is accepted for very dry desserts like a linzer tart.

emphasized before each of these should be expressed tastefully and they should make sense to the dessert.  If you are serving a flan, a kiwi puree may not be a good way to go even if it does add color to the dessert.  If you are serving a sticky gooey dessert, a rich caramel sauce may not be a good direction – a smooth sauce may help balance out the stickiness.

 The sauces used should be about the same consistency.  This is so the sauces don’t run into each other.  This effect is called bleeding.  The sauces should be able to sit next to each, and even inside one another, and hold their own shape.  This allows for dessert sauces to be manipulated like paint and create fun designs.

Some dessert presentations may lack a sauce depending on what vessel it is served in, though these desserts should be very moist in nature.  Some have the sauce poured right on top – as in the case of an ice cream sundae for example.  Some desserts even make their own sauce such as flan.

Crunch Component – A crunch component is exactly how it sounds.  It is an added component that adds a crunch to the dessert.  This is especially important to soft desserts like custard and ice cream.  It is most commonly used when the main item lacks flour though it can be used to enhance any dish whether it has flour or not.  The main idea behind a crunch component is to add contrasting texture to a dessert.  Consider being in room with flowers.  Eventually you stop smelling the flowers because your nose gets used

Here is a slice of white chocolate mousse cake made by my team in school. Note that white chocolate mousse cake is very soft and even though it has a cake (flour) component it still needs a crunch component. Here we used almond lace cookies to provide that crunch. Notice too that the sauce on the plate matches the sauce on the top of the cake, and the second sauce was used to pipe chocolate dots on top of the cake which mirrors the cake layer.

to the smell.  The same feeling can happen with a dessert which is why contrasting components are just as important as complimentary ones.  A nice crunch here and there awakens the mouth so the dessert can be enjoyed at its max – from first bite to last bite.

 Crunch components are usually a dry decorative cookie, such as a tuille or biscotti, but anything can be used such as nougat.  Tuille is a very popular crunch component because it is easy to make, its flavor is easy altered, and it can be shaped into various shapes – even three dimensional shapes.  When it comes out of the oven and is still hot it is pliable and can be molded into a variety of shapes.

Garnish- The garnish is the final component of a plated dessert.  This broad category can be just about anything.  Common garnishes include fresh mint leaves, powdered sugar,

This almond tart has several garnishes including fruit peel, mint leaves, chantilly cream, and a chocolate butterfly. The tuille flower is a crunch component but because the main item has crunchy toasted almonds it may be considered more of a garnish in this instance.

chocolate piping, fruit, chocolate and sugar work, and sorbet.  Since the garnish category is so broad in nature, it allows the chef to add to the depth and complexity of the dessert.  However, a garnish should be used with restraint just as much as it should be used tastefully.  A garnish that is over used loses its effect and can ruin a dessert.  The most commonly over used garnish is the mint leaf.  Yes it has a refreshing flavor and adds a bright green to desserts but anybody can use a mint leaf.  A pastry chef should push his boundaries and use his creativity to find a garnish that works better than a mint leaf.

what is glucose syrup?????

Glucose syrup is a food syrup, made from the hydrolysis of starch. Maize is commonly used as the source of the starch in the USA, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but glucose syrup is also made from other starch crops, including potatoes, wheat, barley, rice and cassava. Glucose syrup containing over 90% glucose is used in industrial fermentation, but syrups used in confectionery manufacture contain varying amounts of glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade, and can typically contain 10% to 43% glucose. Glucose syrup is used in foods to soften texture, add volume, prevent crystallization of sugar, and enhance flavor. By converting some of the glucose in corn syrup into fructose (using an enzymatic process), a sweeter product, high-fructose corn syrup can be produced.

Types of glucose syrup

Depending on the method used to hydrolyse the starch and on the extent to which the hydrolysis reaction has been allowed to proceed, different grades of glucose syrup are produced, which have different characteristics and uses. The syrups are broadly categorised according to their dextrose equivalent (DE). The further the hydrolysis process proceeds, the more reducing sugars are produced, and the higher the DE. Depending on the process used, glucose syrups with different compositions, and hence different technical properties, can have the same DE.

Confectioner's syrup

The original glucose syrups were manufactured by acid hydrolysis of corn starch at high temperature and pressure. The typical product had a DE of 42, but quality was variable due to the difficulty of controlling the reaction. Higher DE syrups made by acid hydrolysis tend to have a bitter taste and a dark colour, due to the production of hydroxymethylfurfural and other byproducts. This type of product is now manufactured using a continuous process and is still widely used due to the low cost of acid hydrolysis. The sugar profile of a confectioner's syrup can also be mimicked by enzyme hydrolysis. A typical confectioner's syrup contains 19% glucose, 14% maltose, 11% maltotriose and 56% higher molecular mass carbohydrates.

High-maltose glucose syrups

Main article: High maltose corn syrup

By using β-amylase or fungal α-amylase, glucose syrups containing over 50% maltose, or even over 70% maltose (extra-high-maltose syrup) can be produced. This is possible because these enzymes remove two glucose units (i.e. one maltose molecule) at a time from the end of the starch molecule. High-maltose glucose syrup has a great advantage in the production of hard candy: at a given moisture level and temperature, a maltose solution has a lower viscosity than a glucose solution, but will still set to a hard product. Maltose is also less humectant than glucose, so that candy produced with high-maltose syrup will not become sticky as easily as candy produced with a standard glucose syrup.

Commercial preparation

Irrespective of the feedstock or the method used for hydrolysis, certain steps are common to the production of glucose syrup:

Preparation

Before conversion of starch to glucose can begin, the starch must be separated from the plant material. This includes removing fibre and protein (which can be valuable by-products, for example wheat or maize gluten.) Protein produces off-flavours and colours due to the Maillard reaction, and fibre is insoluble and has to be removed to allow the starch to become hydrated. The plant material also needs to be ground as part of this process to expose the starch to the water.

Soaking

The starch needs to be swelled to allow the enzymes or acid to act upon it. When grain is used, sulfur dioxide is added to prevent spoilage.

Gelatinisation

By heating the ground, cleaned feedstock, starch gelatinization takes place: the intermolecular bonds of the starch molecules are broken down, allowing the hydrogen bonding sites to engage more water. This irreversibly dissolves the starch granule, so that the chains begin to separate into an amorphous form. This prepares the starch for hydrolysis.

Hydrolysis

Glucose syrup can be produced by acid hydrolysis, enzyme hydrolysis, or a combination of the two. Currently, however, a variety of options are available.

Formerly, glucose syrup was only produced by combining corn starch with dilute hydrochloric acid, and then heating the mixture under pressure. Currently, glucose syrup is mainly produced by first adding the enzyme α-amylase to a mixture of corn starch and water. α-amylase is secreted by various species of the bacterium Bacillus; the enzyme is isolated from the liquid in which the bacteria are grown. The enzyme breaks the starch into oligosaccharides, which are then broken into glucose molecules by adding the enzyme glucoamylase, known also as "γ-amylase". Glucoamylase is secreted by various species of the fungus Aspergillus; the enzyme is isolated from the liquid in which the fungus is grown. The glucose can then be transformed into fructose by passing the glucose through a column that is loaded with the enzyme D-xylose isomerase, an enzyme that is isolated from the growth medium of any of several bacteria.

Clarification

After hydrolysis, the dilute syrup can be passed through columns to remove impurities, improving its colour and stability.

Evaporation

The dilute glucose syrup is finally evaporated under vacuum to raise the solids concentration.

Uses

Its major uses in commercially-prepared foods are as a thickener, sweetener, and humectant (an ingredient that retains moisture and thus maintains a food's freshness). Glucose syrup is also widely used in the manufacture of a variety of candy products.

In the United States, cane sugar quotas raise the price of sugar; hence, domestically produced corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are less expensive alternatives that are often used in American-made processed and mass-produced foods, candies, soft drinks and fruit drinks to help control cost.

Glucose syrup was the primary corn sweetener in the United States prior to the expanded use of HFCS production. HFCS is a variant in which other enzymes are used to convert some of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup is sweeter and more soluble. Corn syrup is also available as a retail product.

History of Sacher

Sachertorte (German pronunciation: [ˈzaxɐˌtɔʁtə]; is a chocolate cake, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. The Original Sachertorte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and is shipped from both locations. The only place where the Original Sacher Torte is available outside of Austria is in the Sacher shop of Bolzano/Bozen, Italy.

History

Origins

Recipes similar to that of the Sachertorte appeared as early as the eighteenth century, one instance being in the 1718 cookbook of Conrad Hagger, another individual represented in Gartler-Hickmann's 1749 Tried and True Viennese Cookbook (Wienerischem bewährtem Kochbuch).

The history of the Sachertorte itself begins, however, in 1832, when Prince Metternich charged his personal chef with creating a special dessert for several important guests. The head chef having taken ill, let the task fell to his sixteen-year-old apprentice, Franz Sacher, then in his second year of training with Metternich's kitchen. The Prince is reported to have declared, "Let there be no shame on me tonight!" While the torte created by Sacher on this occasion is said to have delighted Metternich's guests, the dessert received no immediate further attention. Sacher completed his training as a chef and afterward spent time in Pressburg and Budapest, ultimately settling in his hometown of Vienna where he opened a specialty delicatessen and winery.

Sacher's eldest son Eduard carried on his father's culinary legacy, completing his own training in Vienna with the Royal and Imperial Pastry Chef at the Demel bakery and chocolatier, during which time he perfected his father's recipe and developed the torte into its current form. The cake was first served at the Demel and later at the Hotel Sacher, established by Eduard in 1876. Since then, the cake remains among the most famous of Vienna's culinary specialties.

Legal issues

In the early decades of the twentieth century, a legal battle over the use of the label "The Original Sacher Torte" developed between the Hotel Sacher and the Demel bakery. Eduard Sacher had completed his recipe of the Sacher Torte in his time at Demel, which was the first establishment to offer the "Original" cake. Following the death of Eduard's widow Anna in 1930 and the bankruptcy of the Hotel Sacher in 1934, Eduard Sacher's son (also named Eduard Sacher) found employment at Demel and brought to the bakery the sole distribution right for an Eduard-Sacher-Torte.

The first differences of opinion arose in 1938, when the new owners of the Hotel Sacher began to sell Sacher Tortes from vendor carts under the trademarked name "The Original Sacher Torte." After interruptions brought about by the Second World War and the ensuing Allied occupation, the hotel owners sued Demel in 1954, with the hotel asserting its trademark rights and the bakery claiming that it had developed and bought the title "Original Sacher Torte."

Over the next seven years, both parties waged an intense legal war over several of the dessert's specific characteristics, including the change of the name, the second layer of marmalade in the middle of the cake, and the substitution of margarine for butter in the baking of the cake. The author Friedrich Torberg, who was a frequent guest at both establishments, served as a witness during this process and testified that, during the lifetime of Anna Sacher, the cake was never covered with marmalade or cut through the middle. In 1963 both parties agreed on an out of court settlement that gave the Hotel Sacher the rights to the phrase "The Original Sachertorte" and gave the Demel the rights to decorate its tortes with a triangular seal that reads Eduard-Sacher-Torte.

December 5th is National Sachertorte Day.

Composition

The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake (traditionally a sponge cake) with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it, as most Viennese consider the Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

Variations

The crucial differences between the "Original" Sacher Torte and "Demel's Sacher Torte" arise from each institution's treatment of the cake's distinctive layers of conserve. The Hotel Sacher's torte exhibits two separate layers of apricot-flavored preserve between the outer layer of chocolate icing and the biscuit base while Demel's cake has only one.

There are various recipes attempting to copy the "Original", and some may be found below. For example, at the cultural event "Graz-Kulturhauptstadt 2003", the "Sacher-Masoch-Torte" was presented (its name alluding to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch), a cake unique in that it uses redcurrant jam and marzipan. Sachertorte is made up of chocolate, nuts, apricot, butter, eggs and sugar.

Production and Sale of the "Original Sacher Torte"

The "Original Sacher Torte" is available exclusively at the Vienna and Salzburg locations of the Hotel Sacher, at the Cafes Sacher in Innsbruck and Graz, at the Sacher Shop in Bozen, in the Duty Free area of the Vienna airport and via the web at the Hotel Sacher's online shop.

The recipe of the Hotel Sacher's version of the cake is a closely-guarded secret. Those privy to it claim that the secret to the Sacher Torte's desirability lies not in the ingredients of the cake itself, but rather those of the chocolate icing. According to widely available information, the icing consists of three special types of chocolate, which are produced exclusively by different manufacturers for this sole purpose. The hotel obtains these products from Lübeck and Belgium.

History of Cake

Cake is a term with a long history (the word is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse kaka) and denotes a baked flour confection sweetened with sugar or honey; it is mixed with eggs and often, but not invariably, with milk and fat; and it has a porous texture from the mixture rising during cooking. It is not surprising that the frontiers between cake and bread, biscuit and bun are indistinct. The progenitor of all is bread in its simplest form. As techniques for baking and leavening developed, and eating patterns changed, what were originally regarded as froms of bread came to be seen as categories of their own and named accordingly. Certain Roman breads, enriched with eggs and butter, must have achieved a cakelike consistency and thus approached one of these indistinct frontiers.

Europe and places such as North America where European influence is strong have always been the center of cakes. One might even draw a line more tightly, fourn English-speaking areas. No other language has a word that means exactly the same as the English 'cake.' The continental European gateau and torte often contain higher proportions of butter, eggs and enriching ingredients such as chocolate, and often lean towaars pastry rathern than cake. Central and East European items such as baba and the Easter kulich are likewise different.

The western tradition of cakes applies little in Asia. In some countries western-style cakes have been adopted on a small scale, for example the small sponge cakes called kasutera in Japan. But the 'cakes' which are imporant in Asian are quite different from anything occidental for examples, see mooncakes and rice cakes of the Philippines.

The history of cakes, goes a long way back. Among the remains found in Swiss lake villages were crude cakes make from roughly crushed gains, moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone. Such cakes can be regarded as a form of unleavened bread, as the precursor of all modern European baked products. Some modern survivors of these mixtures still go by the name 'cake', for instance oatcakes, although these are now considreed to be more closely related to biscuits by virtue of their flat, thin shape and brittle texture.

Ancient Egypt was the first culture to show evidence of true skill in bakin, making many kinds of bread including some sweetened with hone. The Greeks had a form of cheesecake and the Romans developed early versions of fruitcakes with raisins, nuts and other fruits. These ended up in 14th century Britain. Chaucer mentions immense cakes made for special occasions. One was made with 13 kilograms of flour and contained butter, cream, eggs, spices, currants and honey.

Moulds, in the form of cake hoops or pans have been used for forming cakes since at least the mid-17th century. Most cakes were eaten accompanied by a glass of sweet wine or tea. At large banquets, elaborately decorated cakes might form part of the display, but would probably not be eaten. By the mid-19th century the French were including a separate "sweet" course at the end of the meal which might include 'gateau.'

During the 19th century, technology made the cake-baker's life much easier. The chemical raising agent bicarbonate of soda, introduced in the 1840's, followed by baking powder ( a dry mixture of bicarbonate of soda with a mild acid), replaced yeast, providing a greater leavening power with less effort. Another technology breakthrough was more accuate temperature controlled ovens.

In most of NW Europe and North America a well-developed tradition of home baking survives, with a huge repertoire of cake recipes developed from the basic methods. The abililty to bake a good cake was a prized skill among housewives in the early to mid-20th century, when many households could produce a simple robust, filling 'cut and come again' cake, implying abundance and hospitality.

Although the popularity of home baking and the role of cakes in the diet have both changed during the 20th century, cakes remain almost ubiquitous in the western world. They have kept their image as 'treats' and maintain their ceremonial importance at weddings and birthdays.