Cake

A birthday cake decorated with fruit and topped with candles.

A cake is a type of bread or a bread-like food. Many cakes are for dessert. Sometimes made to celebrate special occasions, like a birthday. There are many kinds of cakes. It can be baked in an oven like bread. Some savory cakes are made in a griddle or a frying pan.

Construction

Cakes are made by carefully combining wet ingredients (like milk and eggs) together with dry ingredients (like sugar and flour) to make a batter which is then baked in an oven. This general process is known as the muffin method, because muffins are made this way, but they are usually simpler to make.

Just like bread, cakes rise in the oven because of many thousands of air bubbles. As cakes and breads rise in the oven, the air bubbles expand. This is why the cake batter expands in the pan (often to twice its original size). There are two ways of forming the air bubbles, which create different types of cakes. Almost every kind of cake belongs to one of these families.

Creamed Fat

These cakes are made with butter or another fat, like vegetable shortening. The fat should not be a liquid or a solid at room temperature; it should feel like playdough. By mixing the sugar with the fat, one creates lots of tiny holes which are filled with very small air bubbles. Most birthday cakes are made this way. Cupcakes are also made this way.

Egg foam

Egg foam cakes are made by whipping egg whites (which have no fat at all) for a very long time with sugar to create a very delicate and light batter. These cakes are typically much taller, lighter and often spongier than creamed fat cakes. A common example of an egg foam cake is angelfood cake, which can be found at most grocery stores with bakeries. Chiffon cake is another good example.

Decorations

After a cake has been baked and cooled for a while, some bakers add a frosting on top to make it look better. Sometimes people cut it in slices and fill those slices with more frosting, or a fruit filling. Birthday cakes are sometimes decorated with candles. Often cakes are topped with small pieces of fruit, such as raspberries.

A large, rich cake is often called by the French word for "cake": "gâteau" (plural: "gâteaux", both singular and plural pronounced "GA-toe"). It may have a lot of cream.

Gallery

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  A layered pound cake filled with raspberry jam and lemon curd and buttercream icing

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  A slice of Victoria Sponge cake

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  A cake for Valentine's Day

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  Austrian Sachertorte, a famous cake from the Hotel Sacher in Vienna

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  A flourless chocolate cake

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  A Halloween cake shaped like a pumpkin

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  A wedding cake

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  A Bundt cake

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  An art cake made to look like a camera

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  A single layer white wedding cake with strawberry slices on top

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  A cake decorated with multi-coloured icing

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  A whole traditional Victoria Sponge cake

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Cakes