61-412: A gingerbread man is a biscuit or cookie made from gingerbread , usually in the shape of a stylized human being, although other shapes, especially seasonal themes (Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.) and characters are common too. Gingerbread dates from the 15th century and figurative biscuit-making was practised in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits
122-600: A snack food , and are, in general, made with wheat flour or oats, and sweetened with sugar or honey. Varieties may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts, ginger, or even be used to sandwich other fillings. The digestive biscuit and rich tea have a strong identity in British culture as the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea and are regularly eaten as such. Some tea drinkers dunk biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption. Chocolate digestives , rich tea, and Hobnobs were ranked
183-424: A dedicated section in most European supermarkets, often in the same aisle as sweet biscuits. The exception to savoury biscuits is the sweetmeal digestive known as the " Hovis biscuit ", which, although slightly sweet, is still classified as a cheese biscuit. Savoury biscuits sold in supermarkets are sometimes associated with a certain geographical area, such as Scottish oatcakes or Cornish wafer biscuits. In general,
244-491: A dense, treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix. With the combination of knowledge spreading from Al-Andalus , and then the Crusades and subsequent spread of the spice trade to Europe, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from
305-775: A few Hindus in Cachar caught an Englishman eating biscuits with tea, which caused an uproar. The information reached the Hindus of Sylhet and a small rebellion occurred. In response to this, companies started to advertise their bread as "machine-made" and "untouched by (Muslim) hand" to tell Hindus that the breads were "safe for consumption". This incident is mentioned in Bipin Chandra Pal 's autobiography and he mentions how culinary habits of Hindus gradually changed and biscuits and loaves eventually became increasingly popular. Most modern biscuits can trace their origins back to either
366-544: A fiancée for her betrothed. The cake has been described as "somewhere between a firm sponge – with a greater proportion of flour to fat and eggs than a Victoria sponge cake – and a shortbread base and was proof of the bride-to-be's baking skills". Traditionally it is a two-layer cake filled and topped with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream. Cakes are frequently described according to their physical form. Cakes may be small and intended for individual consumption. Larger cakes may be made to be sliced and served as part of
427-500: A leavening agent, while others use baking soda or baking powder. These cakes often have a crumb topping called streusel or a light glaze drizzle. Baked flourless cakes include clementine cakes , baked cheesecakes , and flourless chocolate cakes . Layer cakes are cakes made with layers of sponge or butter cake filled with cream, jam, or other filling to hold the layers together. One-egg cakes are made with one egg. They can be made with butter or vegetable shortening. One egg cake
488-518: A less sweet version, known as almond paste ), fondant icing (also known as sugar paste), and buttercream are used as covering icings and to create decorations. Floral sugarcraft or wired sugar flowers are an important part of cake decoration. Cakes for special occasions, such as wedding cakes, are traditionally rich fruit cakes or occasionally Madeira cakes , that are covered with marzipan and iced using royal icing or sugar-paste. They are finished with piped borders (made with royal icing) and adorned with
549-517: A liquid, and a leavening agent , such as baking soda or baking powder . Common additional ingredients include dried , candied , or fresh fruit, nuts , cocoa , and extracts such as vanilla, with numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients. Cakes can also be filled with fruit preserves , nuts, or dessert sauces (like custard , jelly , cooked fruit , whipped cream , or syrups ), iced with buttercream or other icings , and decorated with marzipan , piped borders, or candied fruit. Cake
610-441: A meal or social function. Common shapes include: Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured, soft, low-protein wheat. It is strongly bleached and compared to all-purpose flour, cake flour tends to result in cakes with a lighter, less dense texture. Therefore, it is frequently specified or preferred in cakes meant to be soft, light or bright white, such as angel food cake . However, if cake flour
671-641: A patent for a chocolate-coated biscuit . Along with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit due to the historic prominence of this form of food. Biscuits and loaves were introduced in Bengal during the British colonial period and became popular within the Sylheti Muslim community . However, the middle-class Hindus of Cachar and Sylhet were very suspicious of biscuits and breads as they believed they were baked by Muslims. On one occasion,
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#1732776073028732-797: A piped message, wired sugar flowers, hand-formed fondant flowers, marzipan fruit, piped flowers, or crystallized fruits or flowers such as grapes or violets . The shelf life of cakes packages for commercial sale depends on several factors. Cakes are intermediate moisture products prone to mold growth. Commercial cakes are frequently and commonly exposed to different mold varieties before they are packaged for sale, including Aspergillus flavus and various penicillins , and Aspergillus niger . Preservatives and oxygen absorbents are currently used to control and inhibit mold growth. The CDC has recommended not to eat raw cake batter because it can contain pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli . Cake batter uses raw flour which can contain live bacteria and present
793-489: A protein matrix (generally beaten eggs) to provide leavening , sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added. Egg-leavened sponge cakes are thought to be the oldest cakes made without yeast. Angel food cake is a white cake that uses only the whites of the eggs and is traditionally baked in a tube pan. The French Génoise is a sponge cake that includes clarified butter . Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called gateau ,
854-413: A rolled fondant icing . Commercial bakeries tend to use lard for the fat, and often whip the lard to introduce air bubbles. This makes the icing light and spreadable. Home bakers either use lard, butter, margarine , or some combination thereof. Sprinkles are small firm pieces of sugar and oils that are colored with food coloring . In the late 20th century, new cake decorating products became available to
915-565: A similar hard, baked product. The difference between the secondary Dutch word and that of Latin origin is that, whereas the koekje is a cake that rises during baking, the biscuit, which has no raising agent , in general does not (see gingerbread / ginger biscuit ), except for the expansion of heated air during baking. Another cognate Dutch form is beschuit , which is a circular and brittle grain product usually covered by savoury or sweet toppings and eaten at breakfast. When continental Europeans began to emigrate to colonial North America,
976-704: A skillet meal. The collection Sayings of the Desert Fathers mentions that Anthony the Great (who lived in the 4th century AD) ate biscuits and the text implies that it was a popular food among monks of the time and region. At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria 's reign
1037-591: A slow oven. This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages , in the Middle English word bisquite , to represent a hard, twice-baked product (see the German Zwieback ). It finally evolved into biscuit to follow the modern french spelling. The Dutch language from around 1703 had adopted the word koekje ('little cake') to have a similar meaning for
1098-541: A sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin", which was a mixed corn compound of barley , rye , and bean flour. As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were
1159-631: Is "any of various hard or crisp dry baked product" similar to the American English terms cracker or cookie , or "a small quick bread made from dough that has been rolled out and cut or dropped from a spoon". In a number of other European languages, terms derived from the Latin bis coctus refer instead to yet another baked product, similar to the sponge cake ; e.g. Spanish bizcocho , German Biskuit , Russian бисквит ( biskvit ), and Polish biszkopt . In modern Italian usage,
1220-439: 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 . The most common ingredients include flour, sugar, eggs, fat (such as butter , oil , or margarine ),
1281-419: Is called for, a substitute can be made by replacing a small percentage of all-purpose flour with cornstarch or removing two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour. Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour, notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired. A cake can fail to bake properly, which is called "falling". In a cake that "falls", parts may sink or flatten, because it
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#17327760730281342-692: Is now used less frequently, usually with imported brands of biscuits or in the Maritimes ; however, the Canadian Christie Biscuits referred to crackers. The British meaning is at the root of the name of the United States' most prominent maker of cookies and crackers, the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco . [REDACTED] Media related to Biscuits at Wikimedia Commons Cake Cake
1403-448: Is often complemented with frosting in a can. Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and mixing techniques. There are about hundreds of different types of cakes, but there are two broad categories, that culinary divide them into: shortened, and unshorted cakes. Unshortened cakes contain no fat while shortened cakes do. These types may be combined in baking. Although clear examples of
1464-472: Is often enhanced by covering it with icing , or frosting, and toppings such as sprinkles , which are also known as "jimmies" in certain parts of the United States and "hundreds and thousands" in the United Kingdom. The frosting is usually made from powdered (icing) sugar, sometimes a fat of some sort, milk or cream, and often flavorings such as a vanilla extract or cocoa powder . Some decorators use
1525-443: Is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, such as weddings, anniversaries , and birthdays. There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some are rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old. Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labor went into cake making (particularly the whisking of egg foams), baking equipment and directions have been simplified so that even
1586-411: Is sometimes colored. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs. Basic decorating tips include open star, closed star, basketweave, round, drop flower, leaf, multi, petal, and specialty tips. An embossing mat is used to create embossed effects. A cake turntable that cakes are spun upon may be used in cake decoration. Royal icing , marzipan (or
1647-478: The 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in Britain sparked the formation of businesses in various industries, and the British biscuit firms of McVitie's , Carr's , Huntley & Palmers , and Crawfords were all established by 1850. Chocolate and biscuits became products for
1708-503: The British, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans, Nigerians, Kenyans, and Irish use the British meaning of "biscuit" for the sweet biscuit. The terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably, depending on the region and the speaker, with biscuits usually referring to hard, sweet biscuits (such as digestives, Nice, Bourbon creams, etc.) and cookies for soft baked goods (i.e. chocolate chip cookies). In Canada, biscuit
1769-464: The French word for cake. Chiffon cakes are sponge cakes with vegetable oil, which adds moistness. Chocolate cakes are butter cakes, sponge cakes, or other cakes flavored with melted chocolate or cocoa powder . German chocolate cake is a variety of chocolate cake. Coffee cake is generally thought of as a cake to serve with coffee or tea at breakfast or a coffee break . Some types use yeast as
1830-756: The Roman period, the name for cake became "placenta", which was derived from the Greek term. A placenta was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case. The Greeks invented beer as a leavener , frying fritters in olive oil , and cheesecakes using goat's milk . In ancient Rome , the basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good. The Latin poet Ovid refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile, Tristia . Early cakes in England were also essentially bread:
1891-647: The UK's top three favourite dunking biscuits in 2009. In a non-dunking poll the Chocolate Hobnob was ranked first with custard creams coming third. Savoury biscuits or crackers (such as cream crackers , water biscuits , oatcakes , or crisp breads ) are usually plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal. Many savoury biscuits also contain additional ingredients for flavour or texture, such as poppy seeds , onion or onion seeds, cheese (such as cheese melts), and olives. Savoury biscuits also usually have
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1952-667: The US, is a flour-based baked and shaped food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened . They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar , chocolate , icing , jam , ginger , or cinnamon . They can also be savoury, similar to crackers . Types of biscuit include biscotti , sandwich biscuits , digestive biscuits , ginger biscuits , shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies , chocolate-coated marshmallow treats , Anzac biscuits , and speculaas . In most of North America, nearly all hard sweet biscuits are called " cookies " and savoury biscuits are called "crackers", while
2013-409: The US. This inspired psychologist Ernest Dichter to find a solution to the cake mix problem in the frosting . Since making the cake was so simple, housewives and other in-home cake makers could expend their creative energy on cake decorating inspired by, among other things, photographs in magazines of elaborately decorated cakes. Ever since boxed cake mix has become a staple of supermarkets, it
2074-430: The difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. Butter cakes are made from creamed butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. They rely on the combination of butter and sugar beaten for an extended time to incorporate air into the batter. A classic pound cake is made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Another type of butter cake that takes its name from
2135-511: The earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread , in French, pain d'épices , meaning "spice bread", brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Grégoire de Nicopolis . He left Nicopolis Pompeii, of Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy , France, near the town of Pithiviers . He stayed there for seven years and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally
2196-440: The hardest biscuit possible. Because it is so hard and dry, if properly stored and transported, navies' hardtack will survive rough handling and high temperature. Baked hard, it can be kept without spoiling for years as long as it is kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in brine , coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into
2257-517: The hardtack ship's biscuit or the creative art of the baker: Biscuits today can be savoury ( crackers ) or sweet. Most are small, at around 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter, and flat. Sandwich-style biscuits consist of two biscuits sandwiching a layer of "creme" or icing , such as the custard cream , or a layer of jam (as in the biscuits that are known as " Jammie Dodgers " in the United Kingdom). Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as
2318-510: The market with new products and eye-catching packaging. The decorative biscuit tin , invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British biscuits exported around the world. In 1900 Huntley & Palmers biscuits were sold in 172 countries, and their global reach was reflected in their advertising. Competition and innovation among British firms saw 49 patent applications for biscuit-making equipment, tins, dough-cutting machines and ornamental moulds between 1897 and 1900. In 1891, Cadbury filed
2379-589: The masses, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the consumers it created. By the mid-19th century, sweet biscuits were an affordable indulgence and business was booming. Manufacturers such as Huntley & Palmers in Reading, Carr's of Carlisle and McVitie's in Edinburgh transformed from small family-run businesses into state-of-the-art operations. British biscuit companies vied to dominate
2440-471: The most amateur of cooks may bake a cake. The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka". The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς ( plakous ), which was derived from the word for "flat", πλακόεις ( plakoeis ). It was baked using flour mixed with eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. They also had a cake called "satura", which was a flat, heavy cake. During
2501-578: The most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process. Sponge cakes , leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance , possibly in Spain . During the Great Depression , there was a surplus of molasses and
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2562-677: The most popular decoration is shirt buttons , which are traditionally represented by gum drops , icing, or raisins. According to the Guinness Book of Records , the world's largest gingerbread man was made by the staff of the IKEA Furuset store in Oslo, Norway, on 9 November 2009. The gingerbread man weighed 1435.2 pounds (651 kg). Biscuit A biscuit , in many English-speaking countries, including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa but not Canada or
2623-492: The need to provide easily made food to millions of economically depressed people in the United States. One company patented a cake-bread mix to deal with this economic situation and thereby established the first line of cake in a box. In doing so, cake, as it is known today, became a mass-produced good rather than a home- or bakery-made specialty. Later, during the post-war boom , other American companies (notably General Mills ) developed this idea further, marketing cake mix on
2684-471: The occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes , birthday cakes , cakes for first communion , Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes, and Passover plava (a type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal) are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. The cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony in some cultures. The Ancient Roman marriage ritual of confarreatio originated in
2745-478: The principle of convenience, especially to housewives. When sales dropped heavily in the 1950s, marketers discovered that baking cakes, once a task at which housewives could exercise skill and creativity, had become dispiriting. This was a period in American ideological history when women, retired from the war-time labor force, were confined to the domestic sphere while still exposed to the blossoming consumerism in
2806-635: The proportion of ingredients used is 1-2-3-4 cake : 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. According to Beth Tartan, this cake was one of the most common among the American pioneers who settled North Carolina. Baking powder is in many butter cakes, such as Victoria sponge . The ingredients are sometimes mixed without creaming the butter, using recipes for simple and quick cakes. Sponge cakes (or foam cakes) are made from whipped eggs, sugar, and flour. Traditional sponge cakes are leavened only with eggs. They rely primarily on trapped air in
2867-419: The public. These include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake. Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating , such as piping bags and various piping tips, syringes and embossing mats . To use a piping bag or syringe, a piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler. The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing which
2928-418: The sharing of a cake. Particular types of cake may be associated with particular festivals, such as stollen or chocolate log (at Christmas), babka and simnel cake (at Easter), or mooncake . There has been a long tradition of decorating an iced cake at Christmas time; other cakes associated with Christmas include chocolate log and mince pies . A Lancashire Courting Cake is a fruit-filled cake baked by
2989-459: The sheets sufficiently coherent to be placed in the oven in one piece and when baked they were easy to separate. The hexagonal shape rather than traditional circular biscuits meant a saving in material and was easier to pack. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor's diet until the introduction of canned foods . Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins
3050-516: The skills of biscuit-making through the craft guilds . As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely foodstuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to
3111-567: The term biscotto is used to refer to any type of hard twice-baked biscuit, and not only to the cantucci as in English-speaking countries; it is the same for the modern French term biscuit . The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, was initially solved by taking livestock along with a butcher/ cook . However, this took up additional space on what were either horse-powered treks or small ships, reducing
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#17327760730283172-606: The term biscuit is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a savoury version of a scone . The modern-day difference in the English language regarding the word biscuit is remarked on by British cookery writer Elizabeth David in English Bread and Yeast Cookery , in the chapter "Yeast Buns and Small Tea Cakes" and section "Soft Biscuits". She writes: It is interesting that these soft biscuits (such as scones) are common to Scotland and Guernsey , and that
3233-525: The term biscuit as applied to a soft product was retained in these places, and in America, whereas in England it has completely died out. The Old French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis ('twice') and coquere, coctus ('to cook', 'cooked'), and, hence, means 'twice-cooked'. This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in
3294-525: The time of travel before additional food was required. This resulted in early armies' adopting the style of hunter- foraging . The introduction of the baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellum . Roman cookbook Apicius describes: "a thick paste of fine wheat flour
3355-412: The two words and their "same but different" meanings began to clash. The words cookie or cracker became the words of choice to mean a hard, baked product. Further confusion has been added by the adoption of the word biscuit for a small leavened bread popular in the United States. According to the American English dictionary Merriam-Webster , a cookie is a "small flat or slightly raised cake". A biscuit
3416-505: Was an economical recipe when using two eggs for each cake was too costly. Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. For example, banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake. Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast bread. Such cakes are often very traditional in form and include such pastries as babka and stollen . Cakes may be classified according to
3477-569: Was at the court of Elizabeth I of England . She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests which brought the human shape of the gingerbread cookies. Most gingerbread men share a roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers. Many gingerbread men have a face, though whether the features are indentations within the face itself or other candies stuck on with icing or chocolate varies from recipe to recipe. Other decorations are common; hair, shirt cuffs, and shoes are sometimes applied, but by far
3538-409: Was baked at a temperature that is too low or too hot, when it has been underbaked and when placed in an oven that is too hot at the beginning of the baking process. The use of excessive amounts of sugar, flour, fat or leavening can also cause a cake to fall. A cake can also fall when subjected to cool air that enters an oven when the oven door is opened during the cooking process. A finished cake
3599-453: Was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper." Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion . Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health. Hard biscuits soften as they age. To solve this problem, early bakers attempted to create
3660-554: Was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport , Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. When machinery was introduced into the process the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about 2 yards (1.8 m) long and 1 yard (0.9 m) wide which were stamped in one stroke into about sixty hexagonal-shaped biscuits. This left
3721-506: Was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847. Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers' oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor. By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Persian empire had learnt from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of
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