50 Fun Facts About Cake

The English word 'cake' comes from kaka, a word in which language?

'Cake' derives from the Old Norse kaka, brought to England by Scandinavian settlers; the word appears in English by the 13th century.

Which ancient people are credited with first using beer as a leavening agent for cake?

The Greeks are credited with first using beer as a leavener; their plakous, named from the word for 'flat', combined flour, eggs, milk, nuts and honey.

A famous early record of a birthday cake with one candle per year comes from a 1746 party in which country?

Germany: the 1746 birthday festival for Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf at Marienborn featured a cake with a candle for each year, as big as the oven allowed.

By tradition, a birthday wish comes true only if what happens?

Blowing out all the candles in one breath is said to make the wish come true; a second superstition adds that the wish must be kept secret.

What new name did the white topping on Queen Victoria's wedding cake acquire?

Royal icing: after Queen Victoria's 1840 wedding the pure white sugar icing on her cake became known as royal icing, and white became the fashionable wedding-cake colour.

The first completely edible tiered wedding cake was made for the 1882 wedding of which royal?

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, married in 1882; his cake was the first tiered wedding cake built entirely of edible layers instead of resting on non-edible supports.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, what dessert with a hidden glass ring was served at most weddings?

Bride's pie was the usual wedding dish in 16th- and 17th-century England; a glass ring was hidden inside, and the maiden who found it would be the next to marry.

The phrase 'Let them eat cake' can be traced to a 1765 work by which writer?

Rousseau's Confessions, written around 1765, attributes the line to a 'great princess'; Marie Antoinette was then a nine-year-old in Austria who had never set foot in France.

The original French of 'Let them eat cake' actually refers to which food?

Brioche, enriched with butter and eggs, was a luxury; there is no evidence Marie Antoinette ever said the line.

Which spirit is the essential flavouring in an authentic Black Forest gateau?

Kirsch, a clear cherry brandy (Kirschwasser), soaks the layers of an authentic Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte; German food guidelines require it for a cake sold under that name.

Sachertorte, the Viennese chocolate cake, is layered with which jam?

Apricot jam is spread between the chocolate sponge layers and under the glaze; Franz Sacher is said to have created the torte in 1832 as a 16-year-old apprentice for Prince Metternich.

Which Viennese pastry shop fought the Hotel Sacher for decades over the 'original' Sachertorte?

Demel, the Viennese confectioner, fought the Hotel Sacher in court until a 1963 settlement over the 'Original Sacher-Torte'; the dispute even covered whether the jam went in one layer or two.

Battenberg cake, with its pink-and-yellow chequered cross-section, is wrapped in what?

Marzipan wraps the pink-and-yellow chequered sponge; the cake is reportedly named for the 1884 marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg.

The Victoria sponge became possible after Alfred Bird created which product in 1843?

Baking powder let bakers add butter and still get a high rise.

Which New York hotel claims to have invented red velvet cake in the 1920s?

The Waldorf-Astoria claims to have invented red velvet cake in the 1920s; Canada's Eaton's department store made a rival claim to the recipe.

Devil's food cake gets its reddish-mahogany colour from cocoa reacting with what?

Baking soda reacts with the acids in natural cocoa to give devil's food cake its reddish-mahogany tint; the name is thought to play on the light angel food cake of the same era.

Angel food cake is made with which part of the egg only?

Egg whites, sugar and flour go in at roughly a 3:3:1 ratio by weight, with no butter or oil at all.

The lamington is named after a governor of which Australian state?

Queensland: Lord Lamington was its governor from 1896 to 1901, and his French-born chef reportedly improvised the cake from leftover sponge to feed unexpected guests.

The pavlova, disputed between Australia and New Zealand, is named after a Russian what?

Ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s, and each country claims the meringue dessert was created in her honour.

Kouign-amann, a caramelised butter-and-sugar layered cake, comes from which French region?

Kouign-amann is Breton for 'butter cake'; it was created in Douarnenez, Brittany, around 1860 from bread dough folded with butter and sugar that caramelise in the oven.

Baumkuchen, the German 'tree cake', is baked how?

Baumkuchen is baked in layers on a rotating spit: each brushed-on coat of batter bakes to a golden line, so a slice shows rings like a tree trunk. It is hugely popular in Japan.

A king cake is traditionally associated with which Christian feast?

Epiphany, 6 January, is king cake day: whoever finds the hidden fève, often a tiny baby figure, is crowned king for the day and buys the next cake.

Panettone, the Christmas sweet bread, is associated with which Italian city?

Milan is panettone's home; a popular legend credits a poor Milanese baker named Toni, whose 'pan de Toni' won the approval of the Sforza court.

Dresden stollen was first mentioned in an official document in which year?

1474: a bill from Dresden's St Bartholomew hospital is the first official record of the Striezel, as stollen was then called; protected Dresdner Stollen carries a seal bearing Augustus the Strong.

Which town is home to the Great Fruitcake Toss, a January contest begun in the 1990s?

Manitou Springs, Colorado, launched the Great Fruitcake Toss in the mid-1990s; contestants hurl unwanted cakes by hand, catapult and pneumatic cannon for distance.

The earliest fruitcake-like recipe, from ancient Rome, mixed raisins, pine nuts and which seeds into barley?

Pomegranate seeds, with pine nuts and raisins stirred into barley mash, make up the earliest Roman fruitcake-like recipe; medieval cooks later added honey, spices and preserved fruit.

Cheesecake is reputed to have been served to athletes at the first what?

Olympic Games: athletes at the first Games of 776 BC are said to have been fed cheesecake for energy; Cato the Elder later recorded a Roman version, libum, baked over bay leaves.

American cream cheese was developed in 1872 by a dairyman trying to copy which French cheese?

Neufchâtel, the soft Normandy cheese, is what William Lawrence of Chester, New York, was trying to reproduce in 1872; his richer result was later sold as Philadelphia cream cheese.

Carrot cake's popularity in Britain was revived by rationing during which conflict?

World War II: with sugar rationed, Britain's Ministry of Food promoted carrots as a sweetener, reviving carrot cake; medieval cooks had used carrots the same way in puddings.

Pound cake is named because it traditionally used a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and what?

Eggs complete the set: a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs; the French call the same cake quatre-quarts, 'four quarters', for the same reason.

The earliest recorded pound cake recipe appears in a 1747 cookbook by which English writer?

Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, published in 1747, contains the earliest recorded pound cake recipe; the book went through many editions into the 19th century.

Which cookware company trademarked the name 'Bundt' and made the fluted pans from cast aluminium?

Nordic Ware of Minneapolis trademarked 'Bundt' after H. David Dalquist cast the first aluminium pans in 1950; the shape descends from the German Gugelhupf, known regionally as Bundkuchen.

Before his name went on cake mixes, Duncan Hines was famous as what?

A restaurant critic: Duncan Hines, a travelling salesman, turned his notes on roadside eateries into the guide Adventures in Good Eating in the mid-1930s; his name went on cake mixes only in 1951.

Betty Crocker was created in 1921 by which company to answer customer letters?

Washburn-Crosby, the Minneapolis flour miller, invented Betty Crocker in 1921 to sign replies to customer letters; the firm became General Mills in 1928 and added the red spoon logo in 1954.

In which year was the earliest known cupcake recipe, 'a light cake to bake in small cups', published?

1796: Amelia Simmons' American Cookery gave 'a light cake to bake in small cups'; the word 'cupcake' itself first appeared in print in Eliza Leslie's 1828 cookbook.

The Great British Bake Off is renamed in the US because 'Bake-Off' is trademarked by whom?

Pillsbury's Bake-Off contest, launched in 1949, gave the company the US trademark, so the series airs there as The Great British Baking Show.

On which channel did The Great British Bake Off first air in 2010?

BBC Two aired the first four series from August 2010; the show moved to BBC One in 2014 and to Channel 4 from 2017.

Cake Boss follows Carlo's Bake Shop, a family business in which New Jersey city?

Buddy Valastro's show premiered on TLC in April 2009 and spun off Next Great Baker and Kitchen Boss.

The cakewalk dance took its name from what?

Contests where a cake was the prize: enslaved people on plantations competed in strutting dances for a cake, which also gave us 'take the cake'; the dance's ease later made 'cakewalk' mean anything simple.

The Italian name tiramisu translates as what?

Tiramisù means 'pick me up' or 'lift me up' in Italian, a nod to its coffee and sugar; the recipe does not appear in any cookbook before the 1960s.

The Twinkie's original 1930 filling was what flavour?

Wartime banana rationing forced the switch to vanilla; banana returned briefly for a 2005 King Kong promotion.

James Dewar invented Twinkies in 1930 to use machines idle when which fruit was out of season?

The machines normally made cream-filled strawberry shortcakes.

Boston cream pie, actually a cake, is credited to a chef at which Boston hotel?

The Parker House hotel's chef, M. Sanzian, reportedly created it for the hotel's opening in 1856, when cakes and pies were baked in the same tins.

In a 1991 UK tax tribunal, McVitie's argued Jaffa Cakes were cakes partly because cakes do what as they go stale?

Cakes go hard as they stale while biscuits go soft, McVitie's argued; they even baked a 12-inch Jaffa Cake to show size was irrelevant, and the tribunal ruled them cakes, zero-rated for VAT.

Jaffa Cakes, introduced in 1927, are named after what?

A variety of orange: the Jaffa orange gave the 1927 McVitie's cake its name and its tangy centre; the company never trademarked the name, so rivals sell their own 'Jaffa Cakes'.

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during which Chinese celebration?

Mid-Autumn Festival, on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, is mooncake season; the Cantonese style, filled with lotus paste and salted egg yolk, is the best known.

Which ingredient does a genoise NOT use, relying on whipped eggs alone for lift?

Chemical leavening is absent: a genoise rises only on air beaten into whole eggs and sugar, with flour and melted butter folded in afterwards.

Which nut gives a French financier, baked in small rectangular moulds, its flavour?

Almond flour, with browned butter and egg whites, gives the financier its flavour; the small gold-bar-shaped cakes were popularised by Parisian pâtissier Lasne near the Bourse in the 1890s.

The famous panettone brand Motta was started by Angelo Motta in which year?

1919: Angelo Motta opened his Milan bakery that year and later gave panettone its tall dome by letting the dough rise three times; the first printed recipe had appeared in an 1853 Milanese cookbook.

Australia celebrates National Lamington Day on which date?

21 July is National Lamington Day in Australia; a 2014 Guardian Australia April Fools' story falsely claimed the cake began as a New Zealand 'Wellington'.