 White cake with white frosting | |
| Type | Cake |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Invented | late 19th century |
| Main ingredients | White sugar, white flour, egg whites, baking powder or baking soda |
White cake is a type of cake that is made without egg yolks. White cakes were also once known as silver cakes. [1]
White cakes can be butter cakes or sponge cakes. [2] They became widely available in the later part of the 19th century, and became associated with weddings and christenings.
The key difference between a white cake and others is the absence of egg yolks or other ingredients that would change the color of the cake. (Egg yolks give yellow cake its color. [3] ) This decision affects the cake structurally. Because of the lack of egg yolks, the cake has less fat to impede its rise. [3] White cakes tend also to be slightly less tender than cakes made with whole eggs. [4]
White cake typically calls for cake flour rather than all-purpose flour to create a lighter batter with a finer crumb. [3] White cakes are often vanilla-flavored. Sometimes artificial clear vanilla extract is used to preserve the white color.
White cake can be made by the creaming or reverse creaming mixing methods; the latter can be used to make tiered cakes with a tighter crumb that will stand up to stacking. [5] [6] [7]
White cake is a typical choice for tiered wedding cakes because of the appearance and texture of the cake. [4] In general, white baked goods, which used white flour and white sugar, were a traditional symbol of wealth dating to the Victorian era when such ingredients were reliably available, though still expensive. [8] The idea that white symbolizes purity at a white wedding was invented by the Victorians. [9] [8]
White cake is used as a component for desserts like icebox cake, and some variations on charlotte russe and trifle. [10] [11] [12] It is also used as the base for brightly colored cakes, such as a rainbow-colored cake, as the food coloring will produce clearer, brighter colors on white cake batter than if the cake has its own color. [13]
White cake is a relatively new invention, as it depends on having refined white sugar and white flour, in addition to omitting the egg yolks. [14] From the 17th century, a "white cake" meant a fruitcake (or other non-white cake) coated with white icing, made from egg whites and expensive double-refined granulated white sugar, rather than a cake that was itself white. [8] Any type of cake coated in white icing, such as the fruitcake served at the 1840 wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was expensive and considered a status symbol. [8]
In the early 19th century, a lady cake made of light-colored almond flour, and a tough white sponge cake that was a precursor to the modern, lighter angel food cake, were the only cakes that looked white when cut. [15] [16]
Modern white cakes appeared late in the 19th century, when white sugar, white flour, and reliable chemical leaveners such as baking powder became widely available. [14] By the early 20th century, a tall, elaborately decorated white cake, called the bride cake, was established as the primary cake to celebrate weddings, with a dark-colored groom's cake disappearing or taking second place. [14]
The first cake mix for white cake was introduced in the US around 1930. [17]
By the end of the 20th century, chocolate cake had become more popular than any other cake flavor. [16]
Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories: bakers' confections and sugar confections. The occupation of confectioner encompasses the categories of cooking performed by both the French patissier and the confiseur.
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.
Angel food cake, or angel cake, is a type of sponge cake made with egg whites, flour, and sugar. A whipping agent, such as cream of tartar, is commonly added. It differs from other cakes because it uses no butter. Its aerated texture comes from whipped egg white. Angel food cake originated in the United States and first became popular in the late 19th century. It gained its unique reputation along with its name due to its light and fluffy texture and white color.
Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powdered sugar, lightly glazed, or with a coat of icing.
Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain any leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and some Scottish brands are exported around the world.
Devil's food cake is a moist, rich chocolate layer cake.
A layer cake or sandwich cake is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for layer cakes; butter cakes and sponge cakes are common choices. Frequently, the cake is covered with icing, but sometimes, the sides are left undecorated, so that the filling and the number of layers are visible.
Hot milk cake is a butter sponge cake from American cuisine. It can be made as a sheet cake or a layer cake, or baked in a tube pan. The hot milk and butter give the cake a distinctive fine-grained texture, similar to pound cake.
Spice cake is a type of cake that is traditionally flavored with a mixture of spices. The cake can be prepared in many varieties. Predominant flavorings include spices such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg.
A génoise, also known as Genoese cake or Genovese cake, is a French sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and associated with French cuisine. It was created by François Massialot in the late 17th century. Instead of using chemical leavening, air is suspended in the batter during mixing to provide volume.
Lane cake, also known as prize cake or Alabama Lane cake, is a bourbon-laced baked cake traditional in the American South. It was invented or popularized by Emma Rylander Lane (1856-1904), a native and long-time resident of Americus, Georgia, who developed the recipe while living in Clayton, Alabama, in the 1890s. She published the original recipe in Some Good Things to Eat (1898). Her original recipe included 8 egg whites, 1 cup butter, 1 cup sweet milk, 2 cups sifted sugar, 3 ¼ cups sifted flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 tablespoon vanilla and called for the layers to be baked in pie tins lined with ungreased brown paper rather than in cake pans. The filling called for 8 egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1 wine-glass of whiskey or brandy, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
A bombe glacée, or simply a bombe, is a French ice cream dessert frozen in a spherical mould so as to resemble a cannonball, hence the name ice cream bomb. Escoffier gives over sixty recipes for bombes in Le Guide culinaire. The dessert appeared on restaurant menus as early as 1882.
Angel cake is a type of layer cake that originated in the United Kingdom, and first became popular in the late 19th century.
Baicoli are Italian biscuits, originating in the city of Venice. They are made with sugar, butter, flour, yeast, eggs, and salt.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Brazo de Mercedes is a traditional Filipino meringue roll with a custard filling typically dusted with powdered sugar. It is a type of pianono.
Crème brûlée or crème brulée, also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar. It is normally served slightly chilled; the heat from the caramelizing process tends to warm the top of the custard, while leaving the center cool. The custard base is generally flavored with vanilla in French cuisine, but can have other flavorings. It is sometimes garnished with fruit.
Confetti cake is a type of cake that has rainbow colored sprinkles baked into the batter. It is called confetti cake because when baked, the rainbow sprinkles melt into dots of bright color that resemble confetti. Typically the batter is either white, golden, or yellow to allow for a better visual effect; but chocolate, devil’s food, and strawberry cake variations also exist. The cake generally consists of flour, butter, baking powder, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, milk, and rainbow colored sprinkles. The cake normally has a frosting made of butter, salt, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk.
Amygdalopita is an almond cake in Greek cuisine made with ground almonds, flour, butter, eggs and pastry cream. It is one of the most common glyka tapsiou - dessert dishes like pies and breads baked in baking pans. Other common desserts of this style are galaktoboureko, karydopita and kadaifi.
The Best Cake for Rainbow Cake Is White Vanilla Cake: Snow-white cake batter takes readily to a rainbow of hues — no fighting yellow cake's buttery color.