166 Fun Facts About Dessert

What does the Italian name of the dessert tiramisu literally mean?

Tiramisù means 'pick me up' in Italian (tira mi sù), a nod to the coffee and sugar in its soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone; the dessert appeared in the Veneto and Friuli region only in the 1960s–70s.

Which New York restaurant is credited with naming baked Alaska after the 1867 purchase from Russia?

Delmonico's supposedly coined 'baked Alaska' in 1876, and the restaurant's own recipe had been called 'Alaska, Florida' for its contrast of frozen ice cream and hot meringue.

The pavlova, the meringue dessert fought over by Australia and New Zealand, is named after a famous Russian what?

The ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926, and both countries claim to have created the meringue-and-cream dessert in her honour.

Franz Sacher, who created the Sachertorte as a teenager, served in the Vienna kitchen of which statesman?

Sixteen-year-old apprentice Franz Sacher devised the chocolate cake in 1832 for Prince Metternich, Austria's chancellor, when the head chef fell ill; Hotel Sacher and Demel later fought a court battle over the 'Original' name.

Tarte Tatin, the upside-down caramelised apple tart, is named after two sisters who ran what kind of business?

Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin served it as the signature dish of the Hôtel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, about 169 km south of Paris.

Banoffee pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in which English county?

The Hungry Monk in Jevington, East Sussex, is where owner Nigel Mackenzie and chef Ian Dowding adapted a San Francisco coffee-toffee pie in 1971; adding banana made it so popular it never left the menu.

Legend says the first brownie was made at the Palmer House in 1893 for ladies at which event?

Bertha Palmer asked the Palmer House kitchen for a boxed-lunch dessert for ladies attending the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago; the walnut-and-apricot-glaze brownie was the result.

Which youth organisation did a 1925 Connecticut newspaper describe eating 'Some-mores'?

The Norwalk Hour in 1925 described Girl Scouts eating 'Some-mores' on a camp outing; the Girl Scouts' 1927 handbook Tramping and Trailing printed the first known recipe, and the contraction s'more took hold by the 1930s.

Bananas Foster, created at Brennan's in New Orleans in 1951, was named after a man who chaired what?

Richard Foster was a friend of owner Owen Brennan; at the time New Orleans was the main US port for bananas arriving from South America.

Peach Melba was created in the 1890s at London's Savoy Hotel by which celebrated French chef?

Auguste Escoffier, then the Savoy's chef, first served it on an ice swan to honour soprano Nellie Melba after she sang Wagner's Lohengrin at Covent Garden in 1892; the raspberry sauce came later.

The name of the cream-filled éclair comes from a French word meaning what?

Éclair is French for 'flash of lightning': one theory says it is eaten in a flash, another that its glossy icing glistens like lightning; the word is first recorded in the 1860s.

Rum baba reached France via Lorraine in the 18th century and is attributed to an exiled king of which country?

Stanislaus I supposedly revived a dried-out cake by soaking it in spirits; his daughter married Louis XV, which helped the idea travel.

Brazil's beloved brigadeiro, a chocolate fudge ball rolled in sprinkles, was created to promote what?

Confectioner Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira made them for Brigadier Eduardo Gomes's 1945 presidential campaign; he lost the election to Eurico Dutra, but the condensed-milk sweet conquered the country.

The pastel de nata custard tart was created by monks at a monastery in which Lisbon parish?

The Jerónimos Monastery in Belém sold its recipe after closing in 1834; the buyers opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém in 1837, where the secret recipe has been kept in a locked room ever since.

The caramelised, buttery kouign-amann originated around 1860 in which region of France?

Kouign-amann is Breton for 'butter cake'; the Brittany fishing town of Douarnenez credits baker Yves-René Scordia with inventing the laminated, caramelised pastry around 1860.

The Australian lamington is believed to be named after a Governor of which state?

Lord Lamington was Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901; his French-born chef Armand Galland reportedly improvised the coconut-coated sponge squares for unexpected guests at Government House in Brisbane.

In which Pennsylvania town did a 23-year-old soda jerk create the banana split in 1904, per most historians?

David 'Doc' Strickler, a pharmacy apprentice at Tassel's in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was inspired by fruit-laden sundaes he saw on holiday in Atlantic City; Wilmington, Ohio, disputes the claim with its own 1907 story.

Frank Epperson said he invented the ice pop in 1905 by leaving a stirred drink out on a cold night, aged what?

Epperson said he was 11 in 1905 when he left a soda-powder drink with its stirring stick outside overnight in Oakland; he applied to patent his 'frozen confectionery' on a stick in 1923, first calling it the Epsicle.

Jell-O was trademarked in 1897 by Pearle Bixby Wait, whose day job was carpenter and maker of what?

Pearle Wait of LeRoy, New York, made cough syrup and laxatives; he and his wife May flavoured gelatin with strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon, then sold Jell-O to neighbour Orator Woodward in 1899 for $450.

In 2011 which US state officially recognised the whoopie pie as its state treat?

Maine's 2011 law made the whoopie pie the official state treat while blueberry pie became the state dessert; that March bakers in South Portland, Maine, built a 1,062-pound whoopie pie for the record.

Boston cream pie is said to have been created for the 1856 opening of which hotel?

The Parker House hotel, which opened in 1856, claims the cake; it descends from earlier 'pudding-cake pies' and appeared on menus as chocolate cream pie before taking Boston's name and becoming the Massachusetts state dessert in 1996.

Cherries jubilee, flambéed with kirsch over vanilla ice cream, was created for a jubilee of which monarch?

Auguste Escoffier is usually credited with creating it for Queen Victoria's jubilee, most accounts saying the Diamond Jubilee of 1897; the Victoria sponge is another dessert named for the same queen.

Baklava's Turkish version was probably perfected in the imperial kitchens of which Ottoman palace in Constantinople, today's Istanbul?

Topkapı Palace's kitchens are the likely birthplace of baklava in its Turkish form, though an archaic version was already made in the Byzantine empire; the word reached English in 1650.

In Spain, long thick churros are known in some regions by which name?

Porras are the thicker, softer cousins of churros in Madrid and much of Spain; both are choux-style dough piped through a star tip into hot oil and dipped in coffee at breakfast or thick hot chocolate.

Gulab jamun is made mainly from khoya. What is khoya?

The dough balls are deep-fried at low temperature, then soaked in syrup scented with cardamom and rose water, kewra or saffron.

Cannoli, fried pastry tubes filled with sweetened ricotta, come from which Italian island?

In Palermo they are finished with candied orange zest; on the mainland the pastry is simply called cannolo siciliano.

Panna cotta, 'cooked cream', is usually cited as a traditional dessert of which northern Italian region?

Despite the tradition, the name does not appear in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s; Piedmont added it to its list of traditional products in 2001.

What makes kulfi, the frozen dessert of the Indian subcontinent, denser than regular ice cream?

The lack of churning keeps air out, so it counts as a distinct category of frozen dairy dessert rather than an ice cream.

Traditional Cantonese mooncakes are filled with a paste made from what?

Cantonese mooncakes are filled with sweet lotus seed paste, often around a salted duck-egg yolk standing for the full moon; the round pastry is about 10 cm across and is eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival.

A tres leches cake is soaked in evaporated milk, whole milk and which third milk?

Condensed milk is the third, and the cake's airy sponge is why it drinks up all that liquid without turning soggy; the recipe spread with US condensed-milk exports to Nicaragua.

West Bengal won GI status for its rosogolla in 2017 after a long dispute with which neighbouring state?

The registry noted Odisha could claim its own variant, and in 2019 'Odisha rasagola' received its own GI tag; the sweet is offered at the Puri Jagannath Temple.

Kagami mochi, Japan's stacked display of rice cakes, is set out for which occasion?

Kagami mochi is the New Year decoration: families pound rice in late December and display the stacked cakes in the home's alcove, which samurai once decorated with armour and swords to pray for prosperity.

Turkish delight, or lokum, is a confection built on a gel of sugar and what?

Lokum is a gel of starch and sugar, often flavoured with rosewater or mastic; the name comes via Arabic words meaning 'morsel' or 'mouthful', and an older term translates as 'comfort of the throat'.

Panettone, the tall domed Christmas sweet bread, is most closely associated with which Italian city?

The name comes from the Milanese dialect panattón, an augmentative of pan, 'bread'; Milan's bakers made it famous, and Italian emigrants carried it to South America, where it became a Christmas staple.

Which Lenten buns is King Adolf Frederick of Sweden said to have died from overeating in 1771?

Semlor, cardamom buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream and served in warm milk as hetvägg, followed his meal of sauerkraut, turnips, caviar, smoked herring and champagne; he reportedly ate 14.

Since 1999, Sweden has celebrated a national Cinnamon Roll Day (Kanelbullens dag) on which date?

Kanelbullens dag falls on 4 October, launched in 1999 by Sweden's Home Baking Council for its 40th anniversary; Gothenburg's Haga district is known for enormous versions, and Danes call the bun a kanelsnegl.

The earliest known recipe for crème brûlée appears in a 1691 cookbook by which French author?

He instructed cooks to burn the sugared top with a red-hot fire shovel; the 1702 English translation called it 'burnt cream'.

During the French Revolution, two Carmelite nuns famously baked and sold macarons in which city?

Two Carmelite nuns, Marguerite Gaillot and Marie-Elisabeth Morlot, sheltered in Nancy in 1792 and sold almond macarons to survive, earning the name 'Sœurs Macarons'; the ganache-filled 'Paris macaron' came much later, popularised by Ladurée.

A traditional mille-feuille is built from how many layers of puff pastry?

Three layers of puff pastry sandwich two layers of pastry cream, with icing or fondant on top; in North America and post-Soviet countries the same dessert is called a Napoleon.

The French wedding centrepiece croquembouche is a cone of choux puffs bound together with what?

Choux puffs are stacked and bound with threads of spun caramel; the name means 'crunches in the mouth', and it is also served at baptisms and First Communions in France and Italy.

Key lime pie probably derives from a 1931 'Magic Lemon Cream Pie' in a brochure by which company?

Borden's 1931 Eagle Brand condensed-milk brochure printed a 'Magic Lemon Cream Pie' that sets without baking because the acidic juice curdles the egg yolks and sweetened milk; Florida cooks swapped in key limes.

In 2013, which state's legislature designated pecan pie its official state pie?

Texas named pecan pie its official state pie in 2013, the pecan already being its state tree; Native Americans in the region used pecans more than 8,000 years ago, and Karo syrup's makers popularised the pie from the 1920s.

Cheesecake was reputedly served to athletes at the first ancient Olympic Games, held in which year?

The first Olympic Games are dated to 776 BC, and Greek athletes reputedly ate cheesecake for energy; American cream cheese came far later, developed by William Lawrence of Chester, New York, in 1872 while copying French Neufchâtel.

Sticky toffee pudding gets its moist sponge from which chopped fruit?

Chopped dates soaked in hot water and bicarbonate of soda keep the sponge moist; it was popularised in the 1970s at the Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel in Cumbria by Francis Coulson and Robert Lee.

Eton mess is traditionally served at Eton College's annual cricket match against which school?

It is served at the annual Eton v Harrow cricket match at Lord's; first mentioned in print in 1893, it was sold in the school tuck shop in the 1930s, originally with either strawberries or bananas.

Spotted dick, the British steamed pudding, is 'spotted' with what?

The 'spots' are dried fruit, usually currants or raisins, in a suet pudding served with custard; the first printed recipe appears in Alexis Soyer's 1849 book The Modern Housewife.

Knafeh's most famous variant is named after which Palestinian city?

Knafeh Nabulsieh takes its name from Nablus, where it is made with the city's white Nabulsi cheese under shredded or semolina pastry and orange-blossom syrup; it is the standard version across Jordan and Palestine.

The name of halo-halo, the Philippine shaved-ice dessert, literally translates as what?

Halo-halo means 'mix-mix' in Tagalog: evaporated milk is poured over shaved ice layered with sweetened beans, coconut, sago, jelly, flan and fruit preserves, then everything is stirred together before eating.

An affogato is a scoop of gelato 'drowned' in what?

Affogato means 'drowned': a shot of hot espresso is poured over a scoop of gelato, usually fior di latte or vanilla, and cafés serve it in a small glass so the gelato melts into the coffee.

Classic zabaione is whisked over a bain-marie from egg yolks, sugar and which fortified wine?

Marsala, the fortified wine of Sicily, is the classic choice, though sweet Moscato d'Asti is also traditional; the frothy custard is sometimes served as a drink rather than a dessert.

The OED's first recorded 'Sunday' ice-cream dish (1892) was served in which New York town?

Chester Platt's Platt & Colt pharmacy in Ithaca advertised a 'Cherry Sunday' in the Ithaca Daily Journal in April 1892; Platt later sought trademark advice, and the 'sundae' spelling may have been rivals dodging his claim.

Rocky road ice cream reportedly got its name in 1929 to give people 'something to smile about' amid what?

Dreyer's says William Dreyer cut walnuts and marshmallows with his wife's sewing scissors in Oakland, California, in 1929, naming the flavour Rocky Road after the Wall Street crash to give people something to smile about during the Great Depression.

A traditional pound cake uses a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and what?

Eggs complete the four-pound formula with flour, butter and sugar; the recipe was first recorded in England in the 18th century, and the French equivalent quatre-quarts means 'four quarters'.

Angel food cake gets its airy texture from being made with egg whites and no what?

With no fat or oil and no egg yolks, the cake is leavened only by whipped whites, sugar and flour at roughly a 3:3:1 ratio by weight, with cream of tartar stabilising the foam for a lighter crumb.

Making fudge became a popular pastime in the 1880s at which women's college in Poughkeepsie, New York?

Vassar student Emelyn Hartridge wrote of buying fudge in Baltimore for 40 cents a pound in 1886, the earliest known reference; she made 30 pounds for the Vassar Senior Auction in 1888 and the craze spread to other women's colleges.

Artisanal gelato has 6–9% butterfat, less than most ice cream, and typically about how much air?

Artisanal gelato is churned slowly, taking in only about 35% air by volume, versus 50% or more for much commercial ice cream; less air and more flavouring give its dense texture, and in Italy the word means any ice cream.

Baumkuchen, the layered German spit cake, is also hugely popular as a dessert in which country?

Its ancestor may be the ancient Greek obelias, dough wrapped around a spit and sold for an obol.

Which pastry chef developed and trademarked the Cronut, a croissant-doughnut hybrid, in New York in 2013?

Dominique Ansel launched it on 10 May 2013 at his SoHo bakery, where queues formed before dawn for months; he trademarked the name Cronut that same month.

Michel Bras says his 1981 molten chocolate cake was inspired by a family warming up after what?

His version hides a frozen ganache core inside a thin dough; Jean-Georges Vongerichten claims a separate 1987 invention in New York.

Traditional alfajores in Argentina, Peru and Uruguay are two round biscuits sandwiched with what?

Dulce de leche is the classic filling, with the edges often rolled in coconut or the whole biscuit coated in chocolate; the name reached Spain from Arabic during al-Andalus, and cornstarch 'maizena' versions are an Argentine favourite.

Sicilian cassata, sponge layered with ricotta and candied fruit, is wrapped in a shell of what?

A shell of green-tinted marzipan, pasta reale, wraps the sponge, sweetened ricotta and candied fruit; the cake is said to date from the island's Arab rule around the 10th century, and candied fruit crowns the white icing.

Black Forest gateau is traditionally flavoured with which spirit?

Kirsch, the clear cherry brandy distilled in the Black Forest, gives the gateau its German name Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte; German food rules require real Kirschwasser in any cake sold under that name.

Which confectioner claimed to have created Black Forest gateau in 1915 at a Bad Godesberg café?

Josef Keller said he first made the cake in 1915 at Café Agner in Bad Godesberg; a Tübingen archivist instead credits pastry chef Erwin Hildenbrand of Café Walz with inventing it in 1930.

The earliest English apple pie recipe, in the 14th-century Forme of Cury, coloured its filling with what?

The recipe also called for figs, raisins and pears baked in a pastry 'cofyn'.

Serving apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar or Wensleydale is a custom that began in which century in England?

The habit persists in dairy regions of the US and Canada such as New England.

Libby's canned pumpkin is made exclusively from which pumpkin variety?

Libby's grows its own Dickinson pumpkin, a tan, oblong Cucurbita moschata closer to butternut squash than to carving jack-o'-lanterns, mostly around Morton, Illinois.

An early custard-style pumpkin pie appeared in American Cookery, a cookbook published in which year?

American Cookery (1796), the first cookbook written by an American, gave two 'pompkin' pudding recipes baked in crust; earlier colonial 'pumpkin pies' were more likely stews cooked inside a hollowed pumpkin.

Crème caramel in its modern bain-marie form was first documented in an 1897 cookbook from which French region?

Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1897), the classic cookbook of Provence, is the earliest known record of the soft-caramel version cooked gently in a bain-marie.

In Venezuela, the condensed-milk version of crème caramel is called quesillo, a word meaning what?

Quesillo means 'small cheese', a nod to the flan's holey, cheese-like texture from whole eggs and condensed milk; Brazil's equivalent is pudim de leite, which comes in flavours from coconut to paçoca peanut candy.

In 17th-century France, profiteroles were small hollow rolls filled with what?

Seventeenth-century French profiteroles were small bread rolls, baked in the ashes, hollowed and stuffed with savoury meats and truffles, often floated in soup; the sweet cream-filled choux profiterole only appeared in the 19th century.

Which chef is credited with developing the modern choux pastry recipe in the 19th century?

The tale that Catherine de' Medici's cook invented choux is itself a 19th-century invention.

The earliest recipe called 'trifle', in Thomas Dawson's 1585 Good Huswifes Jewell, was essentially what?

Dawson's 'trifle' was simply thick cream flavoured with sugar, ginger and rosewater, warmed and served in a silver bowl; the sponge, jelly and custard layers came later.

Hannah Glasse's 1760 'grand trifle' recipe made its jelly from what?

Biscuits and macaroons were stuck into the jelly before it set, then covered with thick sweet cream.

Bread pudding is said to have originated with cooks repurposing stale bread in which century?

It became known as 'poor man's pudding'; eggs and milk only joined the recipe in the 13th century.

In Liverpool, a moist local bread pudding with shortcrust pastry is nicknamed what?

Wet Nelly, a Liverpool version of Nelson cake, is a sweet spiced bread pudding set between layers of pastry and traditionally served with custard; Mexico's Lenten equivalent is capirotada.

Sholezard, the Iranian rice pudding served during Muharram and Ramadan, is flavoured with rose water and what?

The Turkish sütlaç, by contrast, is browned under a broiler and dusted with cinnamon.

Crêpes Suzette are flamed tableside in a sauce of caramelised sugar, butter, liqueur and which fruit's juice?

Orange juice and zest go into the beurre Suzette along with Grand Marnier or a similar liqueur; Henri Charpentier claimed he created the dish by accident for the Prince of Wales in 1895.

A rival origin story says crêpes Suzette honour actress Suzanne Reichenberg, who served crêpes on stage where?

Reichenberg, a Comédie-Française actress known professionally as Suzette, served crêpes on stage in a play; restaurateur Monsieur Joseph of the Marivaux supposedly flambéed them to catch the audience's eye and keep them warm.

Soufflé Rothschild, a 19th-century creation, originally contained candied fruit macerated in which liqueur?

Later recipes swap the gold-flecked Goldwasser for kirsch, cognac or Grand Marnier.

The word soufflé is the past participle of a French verb meaning what?

Soufflé comes from souffler, 'to blow or puff', since the dish puffs up as steam expands inside the egg-white foam; the earliest recipes are attributed to François Massialot in the early 18th century.

The French word mousse literally means what?

Mousse means 'foam' in French, describing the airy texture from whipped egg whites or cream; desserts called crème en mousse, whipped cream in pyramid shapes, appear in French cookbooks as early as 1768.

Dutch settlers brought an early doughnut called olykoek to New York. What does the name mean?

The ring-shaped doughnut had not yet appeared; a 'dow nuts' recipe turned up in Hertfordshire around 1800.

The ancient Roman writer Cato the Elder recorded a fried dough ball called globi made with honey, poppy seeds and what?

Cato's De Agricultura mixes cheese with spelt flour, fries the balls in fat and coats them with honey and poppy seeds; the 13th-century Andalusian cookbook of Ibn Razin al-Tujibi described a similar fried semolina dough.

The first known description of a cupcake, 'a light cake to bake in small cups', appeared in a 1796 book by whom?

Amelia Simmons's American Cookery (1796) gave 'a light cake to bake in small cups'; the word 'cupcake' itself was first documented in Eliza Leslie's 1828 Seventy-five Receipts.

An American '1234 cake' is named for its ingredients: one cup of butter, two of sugar, three of flour and what?

Four eggs complete the 1-2-3-4 formula of butter, sugar and flour measured by the cup, which signalled a volume-measured 'cup cake' as opposed to the weighed pound cake.

An armadillo-shaped red velvet cake in which 1989 film helped revive the cake's popularity?

Steel Magnolias featured a red velvet groom's cake shaped like an armadillo, grey icing and all; the cake's popularity had dipped in the 1970s after Red Dye No. 2 was banned over cancer fears.

Carrot cake's popularity was revived in Britain during World War II chiefly because of what?

Sugar rationing made carrots, which had long stood in for expensive sugar, the sweetener of choice, and the government was promoting carrot consumption at the same time.

Brazil celebrates a national day for bolo de cenoura, its chocolate-topped carrot cake, on which date?

The Brazilian cake only appeared in cookbooks in the 1960s, inspired by the American recipe.

Devil's food cake's reddish-mahogany colour comes from natural cocoa reacting with which ingredient?

Baking soda raises the batter's pH, and natural cocoa's anthocyanin pigments turn reddish in that alkaline setting, which is also how early red velvet got its tint; Dutch-process cocoa, already alkalised, gives a darker crumb.

German chocolate cake, with its coconut-pecan frosting, actually originated in which US city?

The recipe ran in the Dallas Morning News on 3 June 1957, sent in by Dallas homemaker Mrs George Clay; it is named for Samuel German, whose 1852 sweet baking chocolate for Baker's supplies the cake's chocolate.

Samuel German developed his sweet baking chocolate in 1852 for a firm in which US city?

Baker's Chocolate Company of Dorchester, Boston, sold German's Sweet Chocolate from 1852; when General Foods spread the cake recipe nationwide in 1957, sales of the bar reportedly jumped by as much as 73%.

The almond sponge used in layers of a French opera cake is known by what name?

Joconde, a thin almond sponge, is brushed with coffee syrup and layered with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache; Cyriaque Gavillon of Dalloyau claimed to have created the cake in 1955, his wife naming it after the Opéra Garnier.

A Mont Blanc dessert is made from the sweetened purée of which nut, piped into vermicelli strands?

Sweetened chestnut purée is piped in vermicelli strands over meringue and whipped cream to mimic the snowy Alpine peak; it is an autumn favourite at the Parisian tea room Angelina.

The Paris-Brest choux pastry was created in 1910 to commemorate what?

Pâtissier Louis Durand of Maisons-Laffitte shaped the choux like a wheel at the request of Pierre Giffard, who founded the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race of about 1,200 km in 1891.

The gâteau St-Honoré is named after the French patron saint of bakers, who was bishop of which city?

Saint Honoré was bishop of Amiens in the 6th century and is the patron of bakers; Auguste Julien created the cake in 1847 at the Chiboust bakery on Paris's Rue Saint-Honoré, named for the same saint.

Shell-shaped madeleines originated in Commercy and Liverdun, two communes in which French region?

Legend credits a cook named Madeleine Paulmier in the service of Stanislaus Leszczyński, duke of Lorraine, at Commercy around 1755; the town's bakeries have sold the shell-shaped cakes ever since.

The rum-and-vanilla canelé, with its dark caramelised crust, is a speciality of the region around which city?

Bordeaux's canelé bakers, the canauliers, won a 1755 ruling from the city's parliament ending the pastry guild's monopoly on milk and sugar; the batter is baked in fluted copper moulds coated with beeswax.

A traditional clafoutis from Limousin is baked with which fruit, stones and all?

Black cherries, stones left in, are the traditional filling; the kernels lend a faint almond note from benzaldehyde, and versions made with other fruits are properly called flaugnardes.

Priyamkarnrpakatha, a c.1450 text that first mentions jalebi in India, belongs to which faith's literature?

Its author Jinasura was a Jain monk, and his Priyamkarnrpakatha of about 1450 CE is the earliest Indian mention of jalebi; the Sanskrit Gunyagunabodhini, from before 1600, lists ingredients identical to modern jalebi.

Ras malai is made from flattened balls of which fresh cheese soaked in sweetened, flavoured milk?

Chhena, the crumbly unpressed curd made by splitting milk with lemon or vinegar, is kneaded into discs, boiled in syrup and soaked in cardamom-scented milk; K.C. Das of Kolkata and Comilla's Matri Bhandar both claim the original.

The word halva derives from an Arabic root meaning what?

Halva comes from the Arabic ḥalwā, 'sweet', from the root ḥ-l-w; in the 7th century the word described a paste of dates kneaded with milk, while sesame-tahini halva became the Middle Eastern type and semolina halva the South Asian one.

In 2003 which doughnut became the second official US state doughnut, after Louisiana's beignet?

The Boston cream doughnut became Massachusetts's official state doughnut in 2003, following Louisiana, which adopted the beignet in 1986; Louisiana's beignets are square yeast-dough pillows dusted with powdered sugar.

Which immigrant community brought the yeast-risen ancestor of funnel cake to America?

The Pennsylvania Dutch brought the yeast-risen drechderkuche from the German Palatinate; around 1879 they developed the baking-powder version poured through a funnel into hot fat and gave it its modern name.

The oldest known strudel recipe, a handwritten manuscript from 1697, is held in which city's library?

The 1697 manuscript, a recipe for a milk-cream strudel, is kept in the Vienna City Library, the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus; the word strudel comes from Middle High German for 'whirlpool' or 'eddy'.

The Linzertorte, lattice-topped and nut-based, is often cited as the oldest cake named after what?

The Linzertorte is named after a place, the Austrian city of Linz; in 2005 a Veronese recipe dated 1653 was found in Admont Abbey, older than the 1696 Vienna recipe long thought the earliest.

József Dobos designed his caramel-topped Dobos torte in the 1880s chiefly to achieve what?

Its hardened caramel top kept it from drying out in an age before refrigeration; Franz Joseph tasted it in 1885.

Esterházy torte layers cognac- or vanilla-flavoured buttercream between sheets of what?

Layers of almond meringue, or dacquoise, alternate with the buttercream under a fondant top feathered with chocolate; it was named for Prince Paul III Anton Esterházy, and Hungarian bakers often use walnuts instead of almonds.

Kaiserschmarrn, the shredded Austrian pancake, is named after which emperor who loved it?

Emperor Franz Joseph I was reputedly so fond of the dish that it took his title, Kaiser; it is traditionally served with Zwetschgenröster, a plum compote, and Schmarren means 'mess' or 'nonsense'.

Pope Innocent VIII's 'Butter-Letter' allowed Saxon bakers to use butter instead of oil in which bread?

Stollen bakers in Saxony had to use oil under Advent fasting rules, leaving the Christmas loaf hard and tasteless; the papal Butter-Letter, obtained by Elector Ernst of Saxony, lifted the ban in return for a fee.

Lebkuchen was invented in the 13th century by monks in which region of Germany?

Franconian monks are credited with the spiced honey cakes in the 13th century; Nuremberg, in Franconia, recorded Lebkuchen bakers as early as 1395 and won EU protected status for Nürnberger Lebkuchen in 1996.

Gingerbread is said to have been brought to Europe in 992 AD by Gregory of Nicopolis, a monk of what nationality?

Gregory of Nicopolis was an Armenian monk who settled at Bondaroy near Pithiviers in France, where he taught gingerbread baking for seven years before his death in 999.

The chocolate chip cookie is generally credited to Ruth Graves Wakefield, a chef and hotelier in which state?

Wakefield ran the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, where she published the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie in 1938; earlier 'chocolate jumbles' of the 1870s used grated or melted chocolate rather than chips.

Oreo, introduced in 1912, was launched as an imitation of which earlier cream-filled chocolate cookie?

Hydrox, launched by Sunshine Biscuits in 1908, was the original; Oreo outsold it so thoroughly that many people came to assume Hydrox was the copy.

The first Oreo biscuits were produced in 1912 at a Nabisco factory in which New York City neighbourhood?

The block of Ninth Avenue by today's Chelsea Market was ceremonially named Oreo Way in 2002.

Fortune cookies most likely descend from cookies made in the US by immigrants from which country?

A similar Kyoto cookie, tsujiura senbei, is darker, contains sesame and miso, and tucks its fortune into the bend.

Makoto Hagiwara, said to be the first to serve fortune cookies in the US, ran a tea garden in which city?

Hagiwara ran the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and is said to have served the cookies there around 1914; Los Angeles bakers such as David Jung also claimed the honour.

Spanish turrón, the Christmas nougat, is traditionally made with which nuts?

Almonds, toasted and bound with honey, sugar and egg white, make turrón; Jijona turrón is soft and ground, Alicante turrón hard with whole almonds, both protected under Spanish PGI labels.

In France's Loire region, slowly baked meringues go by which nickname?

Pets, French for 'farts', is the Loire nickname for these light, airy meringues; the name appears in Lady Rachel Fane's 17th-century recipe manuscript from Knole in Kent.

Marshmallow is named after a wetland plant whose root was first used by the ancient Egyptians to treat what?

The marsh mallow root's soothing mucilage was an ancient Egyptian remedy for coughs and sore throats, mixed with honey; 19th-century French confectioners whipped the sap with sugar and egg whites into pâte de guimauve.

In 1956 Alex Doumak patented which process for making cylindrical marshmallows?

Doumak's extrusion process pipes the whipped mixture through tubes, then cuts the ropes into cylinders dusted with cornstarch; earlier mass production used the starch mogul system, with cavities pressed into trays of cornstarch.

Co-inventor of machine-spun cotton candy in 1897, William Morrison practised which profession?

Morrison was a Nashville dentist who built the machine with confectioner John C. Wharton; their Fairy Floss debuted at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, selling 68,655 boxes at 25 cents each.

The word sorbet comes via Turkish from sharbat, a drink word in which language?

Sorbet reached English via Italian sorbetto and Turkish şerbet from the Persian sharbat, a sweet drink, itself from an Arabic root meaning 'to drink'; Escoffier described sorbets as light, barely congealed ices served after the entrées.

The earliest certain evidence of an ice cream cone is an 1888 'Cornet with Cream' recipe by which English cook?

Agnes B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888) gave 'Cornet with Cream', cornets made with almonds and baked in the oven rather than pressed between irons; she also patented an ice-cream freezer.

Christian Kent Nelson's chocolate-coated ice cream bar, later the Eskimo Pie, was first sold under what name?

Nelson sold them as I-Scream Bars in Onawa, Iowa, in 1920 after a boy in his shop could not choose between ice cream and a chocolate bar; the Eskimo Pie name followed in 1921.

Which chocolate maker partnered with Christian Nelson in 1921 to mass-produce the Eskimo Pie?

Stover later sold his share and founded Russell Stover Candies; his wife Clara suggested the Eskimo Pie name.

The earliest known apple crumble recipe appeared in February 1917 in a farmers' magazine from which country?

Good Housekeeping had printed an 'apple crisp' with an identical topping in September 1915.

The first recorded cobbler recipe, a 'Peach Pot Pie or Cobler', appeared in an 1839 cookbook from which state?

Lettice Bryan's The Kentucky Housewife printed 'Peach Pot Pie or Cobler' in 1839; the name may come from cobeler, an archaic word for a wooden bowl.

Shoofly pie, the molasses crumb pie of the Pennsylvania Dutch, began in 1876 as a crustless cake celebrating what?

It began as a crustless 'Centennial Cake' baked for the US centennial of 1876 and was later baked in a pie crust; the name was probably borrowed from a popular brand of molasses rather than from flies.

The earliest known printed reference to Mississippi mud pie dates from which year?

It likely grew out of mud cake, a Southern favourite during World War II.

Sweet potato pie is traditionally served in the American South in place of which other holiday pie?

In the South, sweet potato pie takes the Thanksgiving slot that pumpkin pie holds elsewhere, sweet potatoes having been the cheaper, better-suited crop; American Heritage magazine once called it the nation's 'most underrated pie'.

Chess pie, with its simple flour-butter-sugar-egg filling, is classed as what kind of Southern pie?

Chess pie is a 'desperation pie', one made from pantry staples when fruit was scarce, like vinegar and buttermilk pies; food writer Michael Krondl traces it to the British 'transparent pudding'.

The name 'Lemon Meringue Pie' first appears in print in which year?

Earlier lemon custard pies with meringue were often just called 'lemon cream pie'.

The Bakewell pudding is said to have been created by accident at which Bakewell inn?

The cook at the White Horse Inn, on the site later occupied by the Rutland Arms, reportedly spread the almond mixture over the jam instead of mixing it into the pastry, around 1820.

Battenberg cake was reportedly named to honour the 1884 marriage of Prince Louis of Battenberg to which royal?

Prince Louis married Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in April 1884; food historian Ivan Day says the four-panel pattern was standardised by industrial bakers such as Lyons, not royal symbolism.

The earliest published rolled jelly-cake recipe (1852) appeared in a farm journal from which New York city?

The Northern Farmer, a journal published in Utica, printed a 'Jelly Cake' rolled up while warm in December 1852; the name Swiss roll first turned up in Britain in an 1856 Birmingham Journal advert.

Jaffa Cakes, introduced by McVitie and Price in the UK in 1927, are named after a variety of which fruit?

A 1991 VAT tribunal ruled they are cakes, not biscuits; McVitie's never trademarked the name.

Arnott's Tim Tam biscuit, launched in 1964, was named after the winner of which sporting event?

Ross Arnott attended the 1958 Kentucky Derby, won by the colt Tim Tam, and thought the name would sell; creator Ian Norris set out to better Britain's Penguin biscuit.

The no-bake Nanaimo bar, with its custard icing and chocolate top, is named after a city in which Canadian province?

Nanaimo is a harbour city on Vancouver Island, British Columbia; the earliest confirmed printed recipe under that name appeared in the Edith Adams' prize cookbook of 1953.

South African malva pudding gets its distinctive flavour from which jam?

Apricot jam goes into the sponge batter with vinegar, giving its tang; a hot cream sauce is poured over after baking, and one early name was telefoenpoeding because farmers' wives swapped the recipe by phone.

The Afrikaner community of Orania has a monument to which syrupy plaited fried pastry?

Orania unveiled a koeksister monument in 2003 to honour the plaited, syrup-soaked fritter Afrikaner women baked to raise funds for churches and schools; the Cape Malay koesister is a spiced, unplaited cousin.

Which Egyptian bread-and-milk dessert is named, by legend, after the wife of a Mamluk sultan?

Umm Ali, 'Ali's mother', was Sultan Aybak's first wife, who by legend had rival Shajar al-Durr killed in 1257 and served the dessert in celebration; it is pastry or bread baked in milk with nuts and raisins.

Ma'amoul, the filled semolina cookies of the Arab world, are traditionally shaped in wooden moulds called what?

Different moulds signal different fillings, such as dates, pistachios or walnuts, for Easter and Eid.

Faloodeh, the semi-frozen Iranian dessert of starch noodles in rose-water syrup, is most associated with which city?

Faloodeh Shirazi is the benchmark version across Iran: thin rice-starch noodles frozen in rose-water syrup and served with lime juice or sour-cherry syrup, a speciality of Shiraz.

Bingsu, Korea's shaved-ice dessert, is most commonly topped with what in its patbingsu form?

Pat means red bean: sweetened adzuki beans top the shaved ice, with condensed milk and rice cakes; the earliest Korean ice desserts date to the Joseon period, using ice from storehouses such as Gyeongju's Seokbinggo.

Taiyaki, the Japanese fish-shaped cake first sold in 1909, imitates which fish, a symbol of luck?

Tai, the red sea bream, is Japan's celebration fish; shopkeeper Seijiro Kobe of Naniwaya reshaped his slow-selling imagawayaki so ordinary people could 'taste' an expensive fish.

The Brazilian coconut-and-egg-yolk custard quindim takes its name from a word in which language?

Its yolk-heavy recipe reflects Portuguese sweets, probably combined with coconut by enslaved Africans in the 17th century.

Which actress, filming in Saint-Tropez in 1955, suggested the name tarte tropézienne?

Brigitte Bardot, in Saint-Tropez shooting And God Created Woman, suggested the name to Polish confectioner Alexandre Micka, who had created the cream-filled brioche in the 1950s and trademarked the name in 1973.

The knickerbocker glory sundae is thought to be named after a pink-and-cream hotel in which city?

The Knickerbocker Hotel on Broadway in New York, decorated in pink and cream, closed in 1920; a tall striped sundae created in its honour crossed to Britain, where it became a tea-room staple.

Ernest Velden, inventor of the Arctic roll, set up his factory in 1958 in which English seaside town?

Velden, a Czech-born lawyer, opened his Eastbourne factory in 1958; in the 1980s Birds Eye sold more than 40 kilometres of Arctic roll a month, and the dessert was relaunched in 2008 during the recession.

Banana pudding's switch from ladyfingers to vanilla wafers first appeared in a 1920 newspaper recipe from which state?

Nabisco later printed a recipe on the Nilla Wafers box in the 1940s, cementing the Southern dessert's classic form.

The first known ice cream sandwich recipe, published in London in 1894, used what in place of wafers?

New York street vendors were selling the treat by 1899, and in Singapore the wafer version is a type of 'potong' ice cream.

On which date is International Dulce de Leche Day celebrated, at Argentina's initiative since 1998?

11 October is World Dulce de Leche Day, promoted by Argentina's dairy industry; Argentina's 2003 bid to have the milk jam declared its cultural heritage was blocked by Uruguay, which insisted it belongs to the whole Río de la Plata.

In Mexico, dulce de leche made with goat's milk goes by which name?

Cajeta de Celaya is a famous version; in Chile the confection is called manjar, meaning 'delicacy'.

Austria's food codex requires a Sachertorte batter to contain at least what share of chocolate by weight?

Strawberry or raspberry versions exist in Vienna but legally cannot use the name; the cake is served with unsweetened whipped cream.

Why did an 1867 Paris chef call his meringue-and-ice-cream dessert a 'Norwegian omelette'?

He was exploiting Benjamin Thompson's discovery that egg whites conduct heat poorly; Delmonico's first called its version 'Alaska Florida'.

The first recipe for 'Anzac Biscuits' appeared in 1917 in which Sydney publication?

The War Chest Cookery Book, published in Sydney in 1917 to raise funds for soldiers, printed the first recipe titled 'Anzac Biscuits'; a 1916 Perth recipe for 'ANZAC ginger biscuits' came earlier but contained no oats.

Rugelach, the crescent-shaped filled pastry, originated in the Jewish communities of which country?

The legend linking it and the croissant to the 1683 siege of Vienna is an urban myth: the kipferl predates the early modern era.

What is the oldest and most traditional filling for hamantashen, the triangular pastries eaten at the Jewish festival of Purim?

Poppy seed paste, called mohn, is the oldest hamantash filling, with prune jam a close second; in Hebrew the pastries are 'Haman's ears'.

Chinese tangyuan are eaten at family gatherings partly because their name echoes which word?

Tangyuan sounds like tuányuán, 'reunion', so the round glutinous rice balls symbolise family togetherness at the Lantern Festival and the Dōngzhì winter-solstice festival.

Japan's shaved-ice dessert kakigōri is mentioned in which Heian-period classic?

Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book lists shaved ice with sweet syrup in a new metal bowl among 'elegant things'; ice saved from winter in icehouses was a summer luxury for Heian aristocrats.

The three colours of hanami dango, pink, white and green, are said to represent what?

Kibi dango, made from millet flour, is the treat Momotarō offers his animal companions in the folk tale.

Which ingredient gives a snickerdoodle its signature tang and texture, distinguishing it from a sugar cookie?

Cream of tartar, reacting with baking soda, gives the snickerdoodle its slight tang and chewy, crackled surface; the dough balls are rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking.

What was the original filling of the Twinkie when James Dewar invented it in 1930?

Dewar filled the first Twinkies with banana cream; wartime banana shortages forced a switch to vanilla cream, which stuck, and banana returned only as a limited edition in 2005 for the King Kong remake.

Which soft drink is traditionally paired with a MoonPie as the Southern 'working man's lunch'?

RC Cola and a MoonPie, both cheap and big, made the 'working man's lunch'; Big Bill Lister's 1951 song 'Gimme an RC Cola and a Moon Pie' celebrated the pairing.

Pop-Tarts were named as a pun on which 1960s movement?

The name was a pun on Pop Art, Andy Warhol's movement then at its height; Kellogg's rushed them out in 1964 after rival Post pre-announced its 'Country Squares' toaster pastry.

Post's toaster-pastry process, which spurred the creation of Pop-Tarts, was first developed for what?

Post adapted the foil-wrap process it used to keep Gaines-Burgers dog food moist, then announced Country Squares in 1964 before it was ready, letting Kellogg's beat it to market with Pop-Tarts.