The Cake Story
The Cake Story
The term cake has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka". In ancient Rome, basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good.
Cakes were called “plakous” by the Greeks, from the word for “flat.” These cakes were usually combinations of nuts and honey. They also had a cake called “satura,” which was a flat heavy cake. During the Roman period, the name for cake (derived from the Greek term) became “placenta.”
According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word cake back to the 13th century. Medieval European bakers often made fruitcakes and gingerbread.
For the Ancient Greeks, putting candles on a cake was a special way to pay tribute to the Greek moon goddess, Artemis. They baked round cake to symbolize the moon. People may have believed that the smoke from the candles carried their wishes and prayers to gods who lived in the skies.
It is believed that the first actual birthday cake was made in Germany in the Middle Ages. The germans would celebrate children's birthdays with cake, calling the celebration Kinderfest. Cakes originally were a coarse, bread-like product, and later became a much sweeter version, called Geburtstagorten.
It was in November 1883 that Mambally Bapu made the first cake in India at Thalassery in his Royal Biscuit Factory founded in 1880. Since then we all indian love cakes. :)
