Fall Asleep While Learning About Cake
In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about cake. This episode also contains bonus material about various confections, so I want to know how many of you find yourself getting a donut or related pastry for breakfast the next day because of the subliminal messaging from this episode. Happy sleeping!
Transcript
Welcome back,
Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,
Cake.
Cake is a flour confection made from flour,
Sugar,
And other ingredients,
And is usually baked.
In their oldest forms,
Cakes were modifications of bread.
But cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate,
And which share features with desserts,
Such as pastries,
Meringues,
Custards,
And pies.
The most common ingredients include flour,
Sugar,
Eggs,
Fat,
Such as butter,
Oil,
Or margarine,
A liquid,
And a leavening agent,
Such as baking soda or baking powder.
Common additional ingredients include dried,
Candied,
Or fresh fruit,
Nuts,
Cocoa,
And extracts such as vanilla,
With numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients.
Cakes can also be filled with fruit preserves,
Nuts,
Or dessert sauces,
Like custard,
Jelly,
Cooked fruit,
Whipped cream,
Or syrup,
Iced with buttercream,
Or other icings,
And decorated with marzipan,
Piped borders,
Or candied fruit.
Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions,
Such as weddings,
Anniversaries,
And birthdays.
There are countless cake recipes.
Some are bread-like,
Some are rich and elaborate,
And many are centuries old.
Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure.
While at one time considerable labor went into cake making,
Particularly the whisking of egg foams,
Baking equipment and directions have been simplified so that even the most amateur of cooks may bake a cake.
The term cake has a long history.
The word itself is of Viking origin from the Old Norse word kaka.
The ancient Greeks called the cake plakaus,
Which was derived from the word for flat,
Plakos.
It was baked using flour,
Mixed with eggs,
Milk,
Nuts,
And honey.
They also had a cake called satura,
Which was a flat,
Heavy cake.
During the Roman period,
The name for cake became placenta,
Which was derived from the Greek term.
A placenta was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case.
The Greeks invented beer as a leavener,
Frying fritters in olive oil,
And cheesecakes using goat's milk.
In ancient Rome,
The basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter,
Eggs,
And honey,
Which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good.
The Latin poet Ovid refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile,
Tristia.
Early cakes in England were also essentially bread.
The most obvious difference 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.
Sponge cakes,
Leavened with beaten eggs,
Originated during the Renaissance,
Possibly in Spain.
During the Great Depression,
There was a surplus of molasses and the need to provide easily made food to millions of economically depressed people in the United States.
One company patented a cake bread mix to deal with the economic situation,
And thereby established the first line of cake in a box.
In doing so,
Cake as it is known today became a mass-produced good,
Rather than a home Later during the post-war boom,
Other American companies,
Notably General Mills,
Developed this idea further,
Making cake mix on the principle of convenience,
Especially to housewives.
When sales dropped heavily in the 1950s,
Marketers discovered that baking cakes,
Once a task at which housewives could exercise skill and creativity,
Had become dispiriting.
This was a period in American ideological history when women,
Retired from the wartime labor force,
Were confined to the domestic sphere,
While still exposed to the blossoming consumerism in the U.
S.
This inspired psychologist Ernest Dichter to find a solution to the cake mix problem in the frosting.
Since making the cake was so simple,
Housewives and other businessmen were forced to make the cake themselves.
Housewives and other in-home cake makers could expend their creative energy on cake decorating,
Inspired by,
Among other things,
Photographs and magazines of elaborately decorated cakes.
Ever since,
Cake in a box has become a staple of supermarkets,
And is complemented with frosting in a can.
Cakes are broadly divided into several categories based primarily on ingredients and mixing techniques.
There are hundreds of different types of cakes,
But there are two broad categories that divide them into shortened and unshortened cakes.
Unshortened cakes contain no fat,
While shortened cakes do.
These types may be combined in baking.
Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find,
The precise classification has always been elusive.
Butter cakes are made from creamed butter,
Sugar,
Eggs,
And flour.
They rely on the combination of butter and sugar beaten for an extended time to incorporate air into the batter.
A classic pound cake is made with a pound each of butter,
Sugar,
Eggs,
And flour.
Another type of butter cake that takes its name from the proportion of ingredients used is 1-2-3-4 cake,
1 cup butter,
2 cups sugar,
3 cups flour,
And 4 eggs.
According to Beth Tarden,
This cake was one of the most common among the American pioneers who settled North Carolina.
Baking powder is in many butter cakes,
Such as Victoria sponge.
The ingredients are sometimes mixed without creaming the butter,
Using recipes for simple and quick cakes.
Sponge cakes,
Or foam cakes,
Are made from whipped eggs,
Sugar,
And flour.
Traditional sponge cakes are leavened only with eggs.
They rely primarily on trapped air in a protein matrix,
Generally beaten eggs,
To provide leavening,
Sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added.
Egg-leavened sponge cakes are thought to be the oldest cakes made without yeast,
Angel food cake is a white cake that uses only the whites of the eggs and is traditionally baked in a tube pan.
The French Genoise is a sponge cake that includes clarified butter.
Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called gâteau,
The French word for cake.
Chiffon cakes are sponge cakes with vegetable oil,
Which adds moisture to the cake.
Chiffon cakes are sponge cakes with vegetable oil,
Which adds moistness.
Chocolate cakes are butter cakes,
Sponge cakes,
Or other cakes flavored with melted chocolate or cocoa powder.
German chocolate cake is a variety of chocolate cake.
Coffee cake is generally thought of as a cake to serve with coffee or tea at breakfast,
Or a coffee break.
Sometimes use yeast as a leavening agent,
While others use baking soda or baking powder.
These cakes often have a crumb topping called streusel or a light glazed drizzle.
Baked flourless cakes include baked cheesecakes and flourless chocolate cakes.
Layer cakes are cakes made with layers of sponge or butter cake filled with cream,
Jam,
Or other filling to hold the layers together.
One-egg cakes are made with one egg.
They can be made with butter or vegetable shortening.
One-egg cake was an economical recipe when using two eggs for each cake was too costly.
Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find,
The precise classification has always been elusive.
For example,
Banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake.
Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast bread.
Such cakes are often very traditional in form and include such bread as well.
Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended.
For example,
Wedding cakes,
Birthday cakes,
Cakes for First Communion,
Christmas cakes,
Halloween cakes,
And Passover plava,
A type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal,
Are all identified primarily as cakes for the occasion.
The ancient Roman marriage ritual of confagriatio originated in the sharing of a cake.
Particular types of cake may be associated with particular festivals,
Such as stolon or chocolate log at Christmas,
Babka and simno cake at Easter,
Or mooncake at Christmas.
The tradition of confagriatio is often associated with the celebration of or chocolate log at Christmas,
Babka and simno cake at Easter,
Or mooncake.
There has been a long tradition of decorating an iced cake at Christmastime.
Other cakes associated with Christmas include chocolate log and mince pies.
A Lancashire courting cake is a fruit-filled cake baked by a fiancée for her betrothed.
The cake has been described as somewhere between a firm sponge with a greater proportion of flour to fat and eggs than a Victoria sponge cake,
And a shortbread base and was proof of the bride-to-be's baking skills.
Traditionally,
It is a two-layer cake filled and topped with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream.
Cakes are frequently described according to their physical form.
Cakes may be small and intended for individual consumption.
Larger cakes may be made to be sliced and serve as part of a meal or social function.
Common shapes include bund cake,
Cake dress,
Cake balls,
Cake pops,
Conical,
Such as the Krenze cake,
Cupcakes,
And madeleines,
Which are both sized for a single person.
Layer cakes,
Frequently baked in a spring-formed pan and decorated.
Sheet cakes,
Simple,
Flat,
Rectangular cakes baked in sheet pans.
Swiss rolls,
Cakes by shape,
A plate of white chocolate cake balls.
The Krenzekaga is an example of a conical cake.
Dobostorte is an older form of layer cake,
A sheet cake.
Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured,
Soft,
Low-protein wheat.
It is strongly bleached,
And compared to all-purpose flour,
Cake flour tends to result in cakes with a lighter,
Less dense texture.
Therefore,
It is frequently specified or preferred in cakes meant to be soft,
Light,
Or bright white,
Such as angel food cake.
However,
If cakes are made with cake flour,
A substitute can be made by replacing a small percentage of all-purpose flour with cornstarch or removing two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour.
Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour,
Notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired.
A cake can fail to bake properly,
Which is called falling.
In a cake that falls,
Parts may sink or flatten because it was baked at a temperature that is too low or too hot when it has been underbaked and when placed in an oven that is too hot at the beginning of the baking process.
The use of excessive amounts of sugar,
Flour,
Fat,
Or leavening can also cause a cake to fall.
A cake can also fall when subjected to cool air that enters an oven when the oven door is open during the cooking process.
A finished cake is often enhanced by covering it with icing or frosting and toppings such as sprinkles,
Which are also known as jimmies in certain parts of the United States and hundreds and thousands in the United Kingdom.
The frosting is usually made from powdered icing sugar,
Sometimes a fat of some sort,
Milk or cream,
And often flavorings such as vanilla extract or cocoa powder.
Some decorators use a rolled fondant icing.
Commercial bakeries tend to use lard for the fat and often whip the lard to introduce air bubbles.
This makes the icing light and spreadable.
Home bakers either use lard,
Butter,
Margarine,
Or some combination thereof.
Sprinkles are small,
Firm pieces of sugar and oils that are colored with food coloring.
In the late 20th century,
New cake decorating products became available to the public.
These include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.
Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating,
Such as piping bags and various piping tips,
Syringes,
And embossing mats.
To use a piping bag or syringe,
A piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler.
The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing,
Which is sometimes colored.
Using different piping tips and various techniques,
A cake decorator can make many different designs.
Basic decorating tips include open star,
Closed star,
Basket weave,
Round,
Drop flower,
Leaf,
Multi,
Petal,
And specialty tips.
An embossing mat is used to create embossed effects.
A cake turntable that cakes are spun upon may be used in cake decoration.
Royal icing,
Marzipan,
Or a less sweet version known as almond paste,
Fondant icing,
Also known as sugar paste,
And buttercream are used as covering icings and to create decorations.
Floral sugar craft or wired sugar flowers are an important part of cake decoration.
Cakes for special occasions,
Such as wedding cakes,
Are traditionally rich fruit cakes or occasionally Madeira cakes that are covered with marzipan and iced using royal icing or sugar paste.
They are finished with pipe borders made with royal icing and adorned with a piped message,
Wired sugar flowers,
Hand-formed fondant flowers,
Marzipan fruit,
Piped flowers,
Or crystallized fruits or flowers such as grapes or violets.
The shelf life of cakes packages for commercial sale depends on several factors.
Cakes are intermediate moisture products prone to mold growth.
Commercial cakes are frequently and commonly exposed to different mold varieties before they are packaged for sale,
Including Aspergillus flavus and various penicillins,
And Aspergillus niger.
Preservatives and oxygen absorbents are currently used to control and inhibit mold growth.
The CDC has recommended not to eat raw cake batter because it can contain pathogens like salmonella and E.
Coli.
Cake batter uses raw flour which can contain live bacteria and present a hazard if consumed.
Confectionery is the art of making confections,
The sweet foods themselves,
Or the confectioner's shop.
Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates,
Although exact definitions are difficult.
In general,
However,
Confections are divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories,
Baker's confections and sugar confections.
The occupation of confectioner encompasses the categories of cooking performed by both the French pâtissier,
Pastry chef,
And the confectioner,
Sugar worker.
Baker's confectionery,
Also called flour confections,
Includes principally sweet pastries,
Cakes,
And similar baked goods.
Baker's confectionery includes everyday breads and thus is a subset of products produced by a baker.
Sugar confectionery includes candies,
Also called sweets,
Short for sweet meats.
In many English speaking countries,
Candied nuts,
Chocolates,
Chewing gum,
Bubble gum,
Pastillage,
And other confections that are made primarily of sugar.
In some cases,
Chocolate confections,
Confections In some cases,
Chocolate confections,
Confections made of chocolate,
Are treated as a separate category,
As are sugar-free versions of sugar confections.
The words candy,
Canada and US,
Sweets,
UK,
Ireland,
And others,
And lollies,
Australia and New Zealand,
Are common words for some of the most popular varieties of sugar confectionery.
The confectionery industry also includes specialized training schools and extensive historical records.
Traditional confectionery goes back to ancient times and continued to be eaten through the Middle Ages and into the modern era.
The oldest recorded use of the word confectionery discovered so far by the Oxford English Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary is by Richard Jonas in 1540,
Who spelled or misspelled it as confectionaire.
In a passage,
Amber,
Musk,
Frankincense,
Gallia muscata,
And confectionaire,
Thus in the sense of things made or sold by a confectioner.
Also,
According to the OED,
A sense of the art and business of confectioner is first recorded in 1743,
And the earliest use in the sense of a confectioner's shop dates to 1803.
The entire entry is,
However,
Currently under revision as of May 2024.
Before sugar was readily available in the ancient Western world,
Confectionery was based on honey.
Honey was used in ancient China,
Ancient India,
Ancient Egypt,
Ancient Greece,
And ancient Rome.
To coat fruits and flowers,
To preserve them,
Or to create sweetmeats.
Between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE,
The Persians,
Followed by the Greeks,
Made contact with the Indian subcontinent and its reeds that produced honey without bees.
They adopted and then spread sugar and sugarcane agriculture.
Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical Indian subcontinent in Southeast Asia.
In the early history of sugar usage in Europe,
It was initially the apothecary who had the most important role in the production of sugar-based preparations.
Medieval European physicians learned the medicinal uses of the material from the Arabs and Byzantine Greeks.
One Middle Eastern remedy for rooms and fevers were little twisted sticks of pulled sugar,
Called in Arabic al-fanad or al-panad.
These became known in England as alphenics,
Or more commonly as panidia,
Panids,
Panids,
Or pan sugar.
They were the precursors of barley sugar and modern cough drops.
In 1390,
The Earl of Derby paid two shillings for two pounds of panids.
As the non-medicinal applications of sugar developed,
The comfit maker or confectioner gradually came into being as a separate trade.
In the late medieval period,
The words comfide,
Confect,
Or comfit were generic terms for all kinds of sweetmeats made from fruits,
Roots,
Or flowers preserved with sugar.
A comfide was more specifically a seed,
Nut,
Or small piece of spice enclosed in a round or ovoid mass of sugar.
The production of comfides was a core skill of the early confectioner,
Who was known more commonly in 16th and 17th century England as a comfit maker.
Reflecting their original medicinal purpose,
However,
Comfides were also produced by apothecaries and directions on how to make them appear in dispensatories as well as cookery texts.
An early medieval Latin name for an apothecary was confectionarius,
And it was in this sort of sugar work that the activities of the two trades overlapped and that the word confectionary originated.
In the cuisine of the late Ottoman Empire,
Diverse cosmopolitan cultural influences were reflected in published recipes,
Such as European-style molded jellies flavored with such as European-style molded jellies flavored with cordials.
In Europe,
Ottoman confections,
Especially lumps of delight,
Turkish delight,
Became very fashionable among European and British high society.
An important study of Ottoman confectionery called Conditore des Orients was published by the royal confectioner Frederick Unger in 1838.
The first confectionery in Manchester,
England was opened by Elizabeth Rofeld,
Who had worked six years in domestic service as a housekeeper.
Confections are defined by the presence of sweeteners.
These are usually sugars,
But it is possible to buy sugar-free candies,
Such as sugar-free peppermints.
The most common sweetener for home cooking is table sugar,
Which is chemically a disaccharide containing both glucose and fructose.
Hydrolysis of sucrose gives a mixture called invert sugar,
Which is sweeter and is also a common commercial ingredient.
Finally,
Confections,
Especially commercial ones,
Are sweetened by a variety of syrups obtained by hydrolysis of starch.
These sweeteners include all types of corn syrup.
Baker's confectionery includes sweet baked goods,
Especially those that are served for the dessert course.
Baker's confections are sweet foods that feature flour as a main ingredient and are baked.
Major categories include cakes,
Sweet pastries,
Doughnuts,
Scones,
And cookies.
In the Middle East and Asia,
Flour-based confections predominate.
The definition of which foods are confectionary versus bread can vary based on cultures and laws.
In Ireland,
The definition of bread as a staple food for tax purposes requires that the sugar or fat content be no more than 2% of the weight of a flour,
So some products sold as bread in the U.
S.
Would be treated as confectionary there.
Cakes have a somewhat bread-like texture,
And many early cakes,
Such as the centuries-old stollen fruitcake or the even older king cake,
Were rich yeast breads.
The variety of styles and presentations extends from simple to elaborate.
Major categories include butter cakes,
Torts,
And foam cakes.
Confusingly,
Some confections that have the word cake in their names,
Such as cheesecake,
Are not technically cakes,
While others,
Such as Boston cream pie,
Are cakes,
Despite seeming to be named something else.
Welsh cakes are cooked on a griddle.
Korean rainbow rice cake is for celebrations.
Birthday cakes may be elaborately decorated.
European spit cakes are baked around a metal cylinder.
Pastry is a large and diverse category of baked goods,
United by the flour-based doughs used as the base for the product.
These doughs are not always sweet,
And the sweetness may come from the sugar,
Fruit,
Chocolate,
Cream,
Or other fillings that are added to the finished confection.
Pastries can be elaborately decorated,
Or they can be plain dough.
Choux pastry.
Empty shells made with puff pastry can be filled with fruit or cream.
Pie is made from a pie crust and a sweet filling.
Baklava is made with phyllo pastry.
Mooncake pastries are made to celebrate the mid-autumn festival in East Asia.
Donuts may be fried or baked.
Glazed raised donut.
Alebelin and similar donuts are fried in hot fat.
Decorated donuts.
Apple fritter with powdered sugar.
Scones and related sweet quick breads,
Such as bannock,
Are similar to baking powder biscuits,
And in sweeter,
Less traditional interpretations,
Can seem like a cupcake.
Scones with jam.
Cranberry scones with icing.
A sweet rock cake.
Cookies are small,
Sweet baked treats.
They originated as small cakes,
And some traditional cookies have a soft,
Cake-like texture.
Others are crisp or hard.
Thin wafer cookies,
Such as Bissell,
Have been made since the Middle Ages.
Spicy Liebkuchen are a Christmas treat in Germany.
Cookies can be elaborately decorated.
Oreos are an example of a mass-produced cookie.
Sugar confections include sweet,
Sugar-based foods,
Which are usually eaten as snack food.
This includes sugar candies,
Chocolates,
Candy fruits and nuts,
Chewing gum,
And sometimes ice cream.
In some cases,
Chocolate confections are treated as a separate category,
As are sugar-free versions of sugar confections.
Different dialects of English use regional terms for sugar confections.
In Britain,
Ireland,
And some Commonwealth countries,
Sweets,
The Scottish Gaelic word sweetais,
Is a derivative.
Candy is used,
Especially for rock candy and occasionally for brittle,
Boiled sweets.
Lollies are boiled sweets fixed on sticks.
In Australia and New Zealand,
Lollies,
Chewy and chuddy,
Are Australian slang for chewing gum.
In North America,
Candy,
Although this term generally refers to a specific range of confectionery and does not include some items of sugar confectionery,
E.
G.
Ice cream,
Sweet is occasionally used as well as treat.
In the U.
S.
,
A chocolate-coated candy bar,
E.
G.
Snickers,
Would be called a candy bar.
In Britain,
More likely a chocolate bar than unspecifically a sweet.
The United Nations International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities,
ISIC,
Scheme,
Revision 4,
Classifies both chocolate and sugar confectionery as ISIC 1073,
Which includes the manufacture of chocolate and chocolate confectionery,
Sugar confectionery proper,
Caramels,
Catches,
Nougats,
Fondant,
White chocolate,
Chewing gum,
Preserving fruit,
Nuts,
Fruit peels,
And making confectionery lozenges and pastilles.
In the European Union,
The Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community,
NACE Scheme,
Revision 2,
Matches the UN classification under Code No.
10.
82.
In the United States,
The North American Industry Classification System,
NAICS 2012,
Splits sugar confectionery across three categories,
National Industry Code 311340 for all non-chocolate confectionery manufacturing,
311351 for chocolate and confectionery manufacturing from cacao beans,
And National Industry 311352 for confectionery manufacturing from purchased chocolate.
Ice cream and sorbet are classified with dairy products under ISIC 1050,
NACE 10.
52,
And NAICS 311520.
Sugar confectionery items include candies,
Lollipops,
Candy bars,
Chocolate,
Cotton candy,
And other sweet items of snack food.
Some of the categories and types of sugar confectionery include the following.
Chocolates,
Bite-sized confectioneries generally made with chocolate,
Considered different from a candy bar made of chocolate.
Divinity,
A nougat-like confectionery based on egg whites with chopped nuts.
Dodol,
A toffee-like delicacy popular in Indonesia,
Malaysia,
And the Philippines.
Drague,
Sugar-coated almonds and other types of sugar-panned candies.
Fudge,
Made by boiling milk and sugar to the soft ball stage.
In the U.
S.
,
It tends to be chocolate-flavored.
Halva,
Confectionery based on tahini,
A paste made from ground sesame seeds.
Hard candy,
Based on sugars cooked to the hard crack stage.
Examples include lollipops,
Jawbreakers,
Or gobstoppers,
Lemon drops,
Peppermint drops,
And discs,
Candy canes,
Rock candy,
Etc.
Also includes all types,
Often mixed with nuts such as brittle,
Which is similar to chickus.
Ice cream,
Frozen flavored cream,
Often containing small pieces of chocolate,
Fruits,
And or nuts.
Jelly candies,
Including those based on sugar and starch,
Pectin,
Gum,
Or gelatin such as Turkish Delight,
Locum,
Jelly beans,
Gumdrops,
Jujubes,
Gummies,
Etc.
Licorice,
Containing extract of the licorice root.
This candy is chewier and more resilient than gums or gelatin candies.
For example,
Licorice allsorts.
It has a similar taste to star anise.
Marshmallow,
For example,
Circus peanuts.
Marzipan,
An almond-based confection,
Doughy in consistency.
Methay,
A generic term for confectionery in the Indian subcontinent,
Typically made from dairy products and or some form of flour.
Sugar or molasses are used as sweeteners.
Parsipan,
Similar to marzipan,
But made with peaches or apricots instead of almonds.
Pastelige,
A thick sugar paste made with gelatin,
Water,
And confectioner's sugar,
Similar to gum paste,
Which is molded into shapes,
Which then harden.
Tablet,
A crumbly,
Milky-based soft and hard candy,
Based on sugars cooked to the soft ball stage.
Comes in several forms,
Such as wafers and heart shapes.
Not to be confused with tableting,
A method of candy production.
Taffy,
British chews,
A sugar confection that is folded many times above 120 degrees Fahrenheit,
Incorporating air bubbles,
Thus reducing its density and making it opaque.
Toffee,
A confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses along with butter.
Toffee has a glossy surface and textures ranging from soft and sticky to a hard,
Brittle material.
Its brown color and smoky taste arise from the caramelization of the sugars.
Toffee has a glossy surface and textures ranging from soft and sticky to a hard,
Brittle material.
Its brown color and smoky taste arise from the caramelization of the sugars.
