Fact About Cakes

1. Cakes were a part of strange rituals million years ago. Have you heard of Celtic people? They celebrate a festival by name Beltane festival. During this festival, they lit bonfires atop a hill and will roll down round cakes from the hill. If the cake doesn’t break, they believe it will bring good fortune.

2. Cakes definitely play a major role during wedding, but how these wedding ceremonies were completed during ancient times? They either break a big bread loaf on top of the bride’s head or simply throw pieces of bread on her.

3. Stack cakes, what are they? What is a stack? According to dictionary.com, stack is a more or less orderly pile or heap. These cakes are definitely special, do you know why? When a couple invites their friends and relatives for their wedding, it was a custom to bring a layer of cake. Each layer is stacked with apple butter. The popularity of the couple is determined by the height of the cake layer.

4. Do you like cheesecakes? I love them…yummy, delicious; how old are these cheesecakes? It is believed that these cakes are present since the bygone era. During the first Olympic Games, athletes were given cheesecakes.

5. Whoopie pies, what are they? Cakes whose middle layer is covered with frosted cream are known as Whoopie pies. Why are they called as Whoopie pies? When farmers went out for work, Amish women wanted to give them a treat; therefore, they baked these pies and sent them in the lunchbox. These men were surprised to see a pie in their lunchbox and cried “Whoopie.” This is how these pies got this name. Interesting?

6. Have you heard of those big “babka” cakes? These were traditional cakes baked by Slavic people. What is so special about these babka cakes? The dough was laid down on an eiderdown prior to actually baking the cake in the oven. These were prepared by women folks and men are not supposed to come into the kitchen till the cake is baked. They also believed that to bake the cake, there must be no noise. They don’t even whisper while baking this cake.

7. During the 17th century, in England, people believed that keeping fruitcakes under the pillow of those who are unmarried will give them sweet dreams about their fiancée. Wow…isn’t this really a sweet dream!

8.The Oxford Dictionary of Superstitions cites examples of cakes being made for superstitious reasons. A ‘soul cake’, in various parts of England, is made on All Souls’ Day and kept for good luck, while a ‘burial cake’ was kept close to the head of a dead person, and one had to have a piece of the cake in one’s mouth when looking at the body.

9. The French word for cake – gateau – entered the English language in the 19th century and was often used to refer to a savoury dish that included meat. The OED has citations for ‘veal gateau’ and ‘fish gateau’.

10. Birthdays used to be celebrated quite differently, as the first birthday cake was originally a cake given as an offering on a person’s birthday. The first citation of ‘birthday cake’ in the OED, from 1785, reads ‘His birth-day cakes crowd on him in such store, The house abounds.’