Know Your Cakes??

Did you know that .....

...if you were eating genoise, you'd be enjoying an Italian sponge cake named after the city of Genoa?

...the blueberry muffin is the official muffin of Minnesota?

...A Revolutionary War traitor named Benjamin Rumsford, invented the Baked Alaska after he fled the U.S. for England?

...If you ordered a Black Forest Cake, you'd get a chocolate layer cake filled with Kirsch-flavored whipped cream and sour Morello cherries, topped with chocolate curls?

More cake facts...

* The first recorded mention of cheesecake has it being served to athletes during the first Olympic Games, held in 776 B.C.E. The recipe consisted of “crushed cheese, wheat flour and one egg.” Recipes have evolved since then, but American cheesecake is different from Greek cheesecake, Italian cheesecake, German cheesecake, French cheesecake, etc. Different cultures use their own favorite fresh cheeses and flavorings, which have a very different impact on the personality of the cheesecake.

* Ponque is the Colombian version of the Pound Cake

* A torte is a cake made primarily with eggs, sugar, and ground nuts instead of flour. Variations may include bread crumbs as well as some flour.

* Rehruecken - A German cake that takes its name "rack of venison" from the way in which the almonds adorn the cake, standing vertically upright.

* A bundt cake is simply the name used for a dessert cake baked in a ring-shaped pan with decorated sides

* A gâteau (pronounced ga-toe) is a French cake, often specifically a sponge cake that may be made from almond flour instead of wheat flour. In general terms, any cake in France may be considered a gâteau, but some French cakes are more gâteaux than cakes you might see in other parts of the world. Yet if you order any kind of cake in France, you will be ordering a gâteau.

* Shortcake is a sweet biscuit (in the American sense: that is, a crumbly, baking soda- or baking powder-leavened bread, known in British English as a scone), and a dessert made with that biscuit.

* Fruitcake originated in ancient Egypt and was considered an essential food for the afterlife.

* Panforte is a traditional Italian dessert containing fruits and nuts, and resembling fruitcake or Lebkuchen

* Lamingtons are an Australian cake named after Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland.

* Panettone - A fruit-filled Italian sweet bread that is served particularly at Christmas.

* Clafoutis - A French dessert consisting of cherries suspended in a pancake-like batter.

* Flan - An elegant, rich, baked custard quite similar to crème caramel.

* Pavlova - A traditional meringue-based dessert in Australia/New Zealand named after the Russian ballet dancer Ánna Pávlova.

* Buccellato - A Sicilian circular cake given by godparents to the godchild and family on the christening day. The cake is supposed to be as large as possible to ensure good luck. Legend has it that the cake has even once reached the size of a Ferris wheel!

* Dacquoise - A cake made with layers of nut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream.

* Chiffon - A very light cake made with vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and flavorings

* Strudel - A traditional Viennese layered pastry.

* Charlotte - A type of molded dessert of French origin but is also seen in Eastern European kitchens.

* Crostata - An Italian tart.

* Babka - A spongy yeast cake that is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia.

* Baklava - A rich, sweet pastry made of layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and much of central and southwest Asia.