How many centuries have passed, the fashion for desserts has changed, but festive cakes, in any culinary era, takes its place of honor among sweets. Despite the abundance of cupcakes and cake pops, no children’s birthday is complete without a huge, best cakes with candles. Cake shops will offer a piece of classic delicacy to choose from.
It is impossible to say for sure who invented or improved the first cake recipe. In different parts of the world, the cakes gradually acquired the taste and appearance of a confectionery familiar to us, acquiring decorations and acquiring festivity and pomposity.
Cake design
Some historians believe that such a work of art as cakes design could only appear in Italy, where culinary specialists are very meticulous about the details and prefer fine cuts of any dish. The very word “cake” in translation from Italian means “florid, intricate” – complex not only in taste, but also in appearance.
Others attribute cakes to the sweet Orient, with their variety of desserts and mixtures of flavors, textures and shapes. It was in the eastern countries, historians believe, that the first desserts appeared, not borrowed from bread, but desserts folded into a round shape from honey, milk and seeds.
The cakes as dessert became fashionable thanks to French coffee houses, where they began to serve it with hot drinks, like exquisite masterpieces, serving and decorating cakes in a different way. Not surprisingly, France is knowing as the most romantic country in the world – a lot of merit in this and cakes!
In different countries of the world, there are many national recipes for making cakes, traditions for decorating and serving them, and reasons for serving the cakes to the table. Many interesting stories and curiosities are associating with cakes, and some of them, for various reasons, have become the property of the Guinness Book of Records.
Hungary, Esterhazy
The almond and chocolate cakes were named after the Hungarian diplomat Pál Antal Esterházy, who served as Hungarian foreign minister during the 1848-1849 revolution. It is made from 5 protein-almond cakes, interconnected with butter cream and cognac. The top of the cakes were covered with a thick layer of white sugar icing, on which a distinctive mesh pattern is applied with liquid chocolate.
New Zealand, Pavlova Cake
Thesw cakes were made with meringue, whipped cream and fresh fruits, berries (preferably strawberries combined with passion fruit or raspberry pulp). The New Zealand cakes were named after the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured the country in 1926.
Germany, Black Forest
This cherry cake is also knowing as “Black Forest”, it appeared in Germany in the early 1930s. The cakes consist of kirschwasser-soaked chocolate layers filled with cherries. Garnished with Black Forest cherry and chocolate chips.
USA, Boston Cake
This cake is very light and perfect! It is believed that cream filling and airy pastries will not harm any figure. The taste and texture of Boston Cake is similar to the bird’s milk we know.
Austria, Linzer
This dessert is named after the Austrian city of Linz and are cakes made from crumbly nut dough, covered with jam and a net of dough. Seemingly simple, it does not leave any sweet tooth, its texture is so gentle.
Austria, Sacher
This world-famous chocolate cakes were inventing by confectioner Franz Sacher. The cake is a chocolate biscuit cake with several layers of apricot jam, completely covered with chocolate icing. Sacher is served with whipped cream.
Hungary, Dobos
This Hungarian cake consists of 6 layers of biscuit soaked in chocolate cream and caramel icing. Dobos was very fond of the Austro-Hungarian Empress Elisabeth. The cake is named after its author, Jozsef Dobos. In 1885, he came up with the Dobos dessert, a cake that did not spoil for 10 days.
Germany, Frankfurt wreath
Frankfurt wreath – a round cake with butter cream from several layers of shortcrust or biscuit dough. The cake is the symbol of the royal city of Frankfurt. Its shape symbolizes a round crown, praline sprinkling is gold, and red cherries are rubies that adorn the royal crown.
Ukraine, Kiev cake
The Kyiv cake recipe was developing in 1965 at the confectionery factory of Karl Marx. The cakes consist of two air-nut meringue cakes with layers of cream. The surface of the cakes were decorating with various creams, and the sides of the cakes are sprinkled with hazelnut crumbs.
Cake records
The tallest cake was made in the USA – 100 tiers, more than 30 meters high.
The record for the heaviest cake also belongs to America – the weight of the masterpiece was 50 tons. The bulk of the cakes were made from ice cream, the shape of the cakes resembled the image of the state of Alabama, where the record was set.
The longest cake was made in Peru – its length is 246 meters. The masterpiece was divided into 15,000 pieces and treated to all the children of Peru who celebrated their birthday.
The most expensive cake in the world appeared at the exhibition in Tokyo “Diamonds: a miracle of nature”. It was studded with diamonds in the amount of 233 pieces. The cakes itself were small, only 20 cm high. The cakes were valued at $1.56 million.
The oldest cake was 100 years old when it was discovering. The cognac-soaked dessert was found by a South African farmer. The cake was baked for the celebration of the golden wedding in 1902, but for some reason was forgotten in the attic.
