Cakes from Around the World

One way we can view cakes in a geographical way is how different cultures makes cakes and how their styles are unique.

We begin with France. Being the food utopia that it is, France has a considerable amount of famous cakes. One in particular that stands out, in my opinion, is "Galette des Rois". The English translation of this is "King's Cake". Traditionally, Galette des Rois is eaten during the first week in January, however, due to it's immense popularity, many bakeries sell it for the whole month of January. A rich almond cream is encased by layers of puff pastry with icing sugar, before being baked until it has acquired it's beautiful golden brown colour, for which it is famous.

On the other side of the world, New Zealand and Australia's "Pavlova" is a personal favourite of mine. This meringue cake was invented when Anna Pavlova, whom the cake is named after, was visiting New Zealand. However, the Kiwis and the Aussies have always argued about it's true origin. There are various different ways of making meringue, but my favourite is using egg whites and sugar. Usually, cream and fruit such as strawberries sit upon a bed of meringue. Ideally, the meringue would have a hard shell and a marshmallow-like centre.

Going back to Europe, the "Black Forest Cherry Cake" of south-east Germany is world famous. This traditional cake is made of several layers of chocolate cake, cherries and whipped cream. It is believed that this type of cake originally came from Switzerland, but it was the Germans who perfected it. A Swedish version of the cake with the same name exists, however this is made with meringue and is very different.

Mexico's "Tres Leches Cake" is a moist, milk based cake that has gained popularity all over South America. The name translates to "Three Milks Cake". The main part of this cake is the butter sponge from which it is made. Over the course of the preparation, this sponge is soaked in regular, condensed and evaporated milk. After, it is normally finished off with whipped cream or meringue. The end result is a very moist and rich cake with a very unique flavour and texture to most other cakes.

Like Mexico, India also has a milk based cake. This cake is called "Mawa Cake" and is made with evaporated milk and served with almonds or cashews. This cake is especially popular in Mumbai where it is served Irani cafes.

The History of Cake

Today, cake is widely eaten and celebrated with a range of different types and styles of cake, made in different cake. But when was cake invented?

Food historians have taught us that cake was originally invented by the Egyptians. Back then, cake was more bread-like and was sweetened with honey. Dried fruit and nuts were also added. I doubt they knew back then just how big a phenomenon cake would become.

Food historians have also told us that the "modern" cake that we know and love today came about in the mid 17th century. Around this time, there was greater availability in things like reliable ovens, food moulds and refined sugar. A lot of cakes at this time still contained dried fruits such as raisins, currants, citrons.
Today, certain cakes still retain some of these characteristics, mainly the use of fruit in  fruitcakes and the popular round shape.


My source of information about cake's wonderful history is: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html

Introduction

Greetings, my name is Cian and I on this blog I will share with you the geography of cake. One can be forgiven for thinking that geography might not stem out as far as the exciting subject of cake, but I am here to show you how it does.

To start, what exactly is cake (other than the extremely delicious food commodity eaten mainly on special occasions and sometimes for breakfast)? Well, on a very basic level, cake is made up of eggs, milk, sugar, flour, baking powder and butter. This fact can be studied from a geographical perspective because of where all of these ingredients come from, who makes them, other ways they are used etc. Other ways that the subject of cake can be looked at geographically is where cake is popular, where cake is made and shipped to, etc.
The next post will go more in-depth into the interesting world of the geography of cake.