Cakes – Where Do They Come From?

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Leavening

The word ‘leaven’ comes from the Latin word “levare,” meaning, “to raise.” In baking, leavening refers to the practice of introducing air into batter or dough in order to increase the volume of the finished product. Some of the ingredients that were added to bread dough in the making of cakes in medieval Europe (eggs, wine, brandy, or sack (an Elizabethan wine) acted as leavening agents.

Until the middle of the 18th century, fermented yeast – which may have been used as far back as in ancient Egypt - was the only leavening, or raising agent known to man. The mixed dough was left to ‘rise’ for a period of time, allowing tiny air bubbles to form and making the dough light and airy. When it was baked in the oven, the bubbles expanded and the cake rose. Cakes baked with yeast were softer, airier and easier to chew than unleavened baked breads and cakes.

By the middle of the 18th century, beaten eggs increasingly replaced yeast as a raising agent for cakes, but the most important development in the history of cake came with the discovery of chemical raising agents in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution in Europe in the early 19th century contributed to the development of cake as we now know it. Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) was introduced in the 1840's, followed by baking powder. In 1843, Alfred Bird, a British chemist, discovered and manufactured the first modern version of baking powder (a dry mixture of bicarbonate of soda with a mild acid). It is said that he developed baking powder because his wife was allergic to both yeast and eggs. The main advantage of baking powder over yeast is that it provides a greater leavening power with less effort and in less time. A few years later (around 1889) two chemists developed a double-acting baking powder whose leavening action began in the dough and repeated in the oven. 

Mass production and the building of railroads meant that baking ingredients (including the new chemical raising agents and refined sugar) were more affordable and more widely available. Another ‘technology breakthrough’ that has made cake what it is today was the ability to control oven temperature more accurately and to keep them constant.

The reason cakes today are mostly round in shape is that they are, in reality, the descendants of ancient cakes and breads, which were shaped by hand into round balls. Some food historians claim that the first round cakes with icing were baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century. Cake hoops (round molds made of metal, wood or paper and placed on flat baking trays) that were used to shape cakes before baking pans were developed.

Icing and Frosting

Cake icing preceded butter / cream frosting in the history of cake baking. Icing, of course, is made by boiling sugar and egg whites (and sometimes flavoring). The boiled mixture poured on the cake after it is baked and the cake is then returned to the oven for a few minutes. When the icing cools, it forms a hard, shiny covering, resembling ice. While it is thought that icing was used as early as the 17th century, frosting (made from butter, cream and powdered sugar) only appeared early in the 20th century, when it began to replace boiled icing.  

Cake Categories

Each one of us has a favorite kind of cake and we know that cakes are not all the same.  Some cakes retain bread-like qualities, others are rich and elaborate, and many of today’s cake recipes have hardly changed since they were first baked in the 18th century or even earlier. The modern cakes of today are divided into several broad categories, based on ingredients and cooking techniques:

• Yeast cakes, similar to bread, are the oldest. Babka and stollen are examples of this traditional category of cake.

• Cheesecakes, also very old, use some kind of cheese such as cream cheese or ricotta and contain little or no flour component. Evidence of honey-sweetened cheesecakes dating back to ancient Greece has been found.

• The first cakes baked without yeast are thought to be sponge cakes. This category of cake depends on beaten eggs for leavening, although some modern recipes call for a little bit of baking powder too. The French Génoise and the Italian/Jewish pan di Spagna are examples of sponge cakes.

• Finally, butter cakes are cakes made from the combination of flour, butter (or other shortening), eggs, and sometimes baking powder .

This brings us to the end of this account about the origin of cake. Of course, this article is mainly about the western-style cakes (which have been adopted by many other cultures in recent years).

It’s important to note that, even within the west (Europe and the United States), cakes differ from region to region. “The continental European gateau and torte often contain higher proportions of butter, eggs and enriching ingredients such as chocolate, and often lean towards pastry rather than cake. Central and East European items such as baba and the Easter kulich are likewise different." ( http://www.foodmuseum.com/excake2.html )
The French word for cake, ‘gateau’, usually refers to a lighter cake, often filled ‘crème patisserie’ and fruit and cakes in Eastern Europe generally darker, spicier and fruitier.

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