November 26 recognizes a dessert that you will find at almost everyone’s birthday party whether they are age 1 or over 100. It is also the dessert of choice for bridal and baby showers, wedding receptions, retirement parties and just about any social event. Add ice cream, and you have America’s top favorite desserts in the same dish!
Whether it’s a shapely bundt cake (celebrated on November 15) to the less curvaceous sheet cake, these sweet layered, frosting covered or fondant decorated works of art scream celebration! It may be made at home from scratch, or from a box mix or picked up from the bakery or grocery store. Whichever way, a cake can be one, or a combination of, thousands of flavors.
No one can know how many, as there are countless cake recipes, some of which are bread-like, some rich and elaborate and many are centuries old. Of Viking origin, the word cake is derived from Old Norse “kaka”. Cake then was more like gingerbread due to the availability of refined ingredients.
Cakes typically contain a combination of flour, sugar, eggs and butter or oil, with some variety of liquid which may be milk or water, along with a leavening agent such as yeast or baking powder. Flavorful ingredients are often added, for example; chopped nuts, fresh, candied or dried fruit, fruit purees or extracts. Cake can be enjoyed with or without frosting or icing.
- From the 17th to 19th centuries, Scotland was humorously known as the ‘Land of Cakes’ and until comparatively recently. Hogmanay was also known as ‘Cake Day’ from the custom of calling on people’s houses at New Year and having cake.
- The ‘cakewalk’ dance originated in African American communities in the Southern United States and was originally a competition in graceful walking, with cake awarded as a prize.
- The word ‘cake’ comes from Middle English kake, and is probably a borrowing from Old Norse.
- The meaning of ‘cake’ has changed over time, and the first cake was: A comparatively small flattened sort of bread, round, oval, or otherwise regularly shaped, and usually baked hard on both sides by being turned during the process.
- In Scotland, and parts of Wales and northern England, cake took on the specific meaning of ‘a thick, hard biscuit made from oatmeal’.
- The world’s largest wedding cake weighed 15,032 lb and was made by chefs at the Mohegan Sun Hotel and Casino, Uncasville, CT in February 2004.
- The world’s tallest cake stood 108 feet, 3 inches high. Students and staff members at the Hakasima-Nilasari Culinary School in Jakarta, Indonesia baked it for their annual Christmas celebration.
- The world’s most expensive cake, christened the “Pirates Fantasy,” cost a whopping $35 million. Crafted by Chef D.K., Group Skills Development Chef at Aitken Spence Hotels. It was adorned with ten different stones belonging to the sapphire family with the most expensive and the rarest one being a “Padmaraja” or the ‘King Sapphire.” It also included ten pieces of jewelry ranging from necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches pendants, tie pins, cuff links to nose rings and toe rings.
- More than 29% of U.S. school districts have banned bake sales due to anti-obesity regulations.
- The saying “You can’t have you cake and eat it”(originally “eat your cake and have it”) is first seen in print in 1562 in John Heywood’s ‘Proverbs and Epigrams.’
- The proverb ‘a piece of cake’ was not coined until the 20th century.
- The first birthday cake was originally a cake given as an offering on a person’s birthday. The first reference to ‘birthday cake’ came in 1785.
- During the 17th century, in England, people believed that keeping fruitcakes under the pillow of those who are unmarried will give them sweet dreams about their fiancee.
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