Some fun facts about Cake!
The festive season brings family and friends together and you can be sure that somebody will be ordering or baking cake; nothing is more symbolic of a celebratory occasion than cake. The origination of cake is slightly blurred and there’s no one particular person that we can thank for this wonderful delicacy. What we do know is that bread came before cake and somewhere along the way someone thought to sweeten the ingredients and bread evolved into what cake is today. The Hellofood family members are foodies at heart and we love to share with you some of the interesting facts about cake to put you into the festive mood!
The older the fruit cake, the better it is!
Originally Fruit cake was eaten by crusaders and hunters of Roman descendant as it was able to sustain them over long periods of time away from home.
The Brits however began their love affair with fruit cake when dried fruits from the Mediterranean arrived in their country in the 1400’s.
What makes fruit cake special is their preservative treatment where it can be soaked in brandy, bourbon, whiskey rum or any other available liquor, then wrapped in foil so that it ripens with age. This is a favorite for many during the festive season and it is believed that the longer it is preserved the tastier it will be.
Why is red velvet Red?
The story goes that in the U.S, congress passed the federal food and drug cosmetic act in 1938 which basically supported or approved of food colouring.
A man by the name of John Adams obviously thrilled by this decided that the best way to sell more food dyes is to put it in cake and thus Red Velvet came to be. The “velvet” comes from the smooth texture of fine cake crumb.
This is another great pastry to try out this season although it also has me thinking, would this cake have been popular if he opted to use green dye instead of red?
Blueberry cake – an accidental delight?
While we are on the subject of food dye, it is said that Native Americans originally used blueberries as dye and mixed it with boiled milk to make grey paint!
My version is that somewhere along this experiment the gentleman / lady must have accidentally tasted the blueberry and figured out that it might be a great fruit to include in cake batter. However it came to be, if you aren’t a fan of the traditional Christmas fruit cake then you might want to consider the Blueberry cake – it’s just as delicious although in terms of preservation, you may have to eat it a lot faster than the fruit cake as blueberries are known to make the cake incredibly moist.
The cake named after the Black forest
Do you remember “Hansel and Gretel”, “Snow White”, and “Rapunzel”? Well, apart from them all being German fairy tales, they are all based in the Black Forest, an actual forest in Germany. ‘The black forest’ is known for its thicket of wooded fir and pine trees.
The forest is also famous for its deep red cherries. As a result of all these similarities, the Black forest cake came to be named so. Black forest cake is one of the most famous German desserts. The German legal version states that ‘Kirsch’ which is brandy distilled from the fermented juice of cherries had to be a compulsory ingredient, otherwise the cake cannot be marketed as a rich cake with layers of cream or fruit.
Other wonderful cakes that you can enjoy this festive season include White Forest cake , Chocolate Truffle cake , Cheese Cake or even a box of scrumptious Cupcakes.
For more information on all of these please check out Hellofood.co.ke.
