June Dessert of the Month: Anything and Everything to Know About Cake

There are numerous types of cake, and at least one of them can be found at almost any social gathering. Anyone who wants to be a baker at any level practically needs to know a lot about cake, but let's face it, who has the time to become experienced by experimenting for hours on end? Right. So, to help with that, in this lengthy post I have included everything that I have discovered on anything relating to cake.

Building from the cake itself to the decorative finishing touches, these suggestions are the most basic and then some of the more advanced absolutely need-to-knows about cake. Enjoy exploring!

The Definition of "Cake"

According to Oxford dictionaries, cake can be defined as, "​An item of soft sweet food made from a mixture of flour, fat, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and sometimes iced or decorated."

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Basic Cake Vocabulary

• airbrushing: an edible spray paint used to decorate cakes
• buttercream: a common type of frosting that is made with lots of butter, and tastes creamy and incredibly sweet. Can be made both thick to cover cakes in frosting or thin (by diluting it with water) for small details
• cake topper figures: people or objects that are placed on top of a cake to add to its theme, usually made with  gumpaste
• drip cakes: cakes with frosting that looks like it's dripping off the side of the cake. The dripping illusion is often made with colored ganache
• fillings: the flavors that can be added between layers in a cake
• fondant: a smooth mixture of corn syrup, gelatin, and sugar that is often spread over cakes
• ganache:  whipped chocolate cream filling
• piping: used for more intricate designs, colored pipings are used to draw patterns or pictures on cake surfaces
• sugar flowers: flowers made of a hardened sugar syrup that are edible, and great cake toppers
• tiers: different levels and layers of a cake, often differently sized or themed
• whipped cream: can be a filling or a topping, refreshing flavor used to contrast stronger ones

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Themed Cake Ideas

Different Types of Cake

• angel food cake
• black forest cake
• bundt cake
• cake pops
• cake push pops
• charlotte/"lady finger" cake
• cheesecake
• coffee cake
• cookie cake
• devil's food cake
• ice cream cake
• marble cake
• ooey gooey butter cake
• pound cake
• sponge cake
• tiramisu

(to view more from around the world, visit here)

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10 Best Frosting-Cake Flavor Combinations

1. red velvet and cream cheese
2. maple and apple
3. coconut and dulce de leche
4. banana caramel
5. honey almond
6. lemon raspberry
7. chocolate cherry
8. pumpkin white chocolate
9. dark chocolate blueberry
10. honey vanilla

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Best Decorative Effects

• gold leaf: an edible, thin faux gold material is used to cover toppers or parts of the cake to make it look more elegant and expensive
• marble: different food colorings are mixed to make something look shiny, like it is made of marble
• ombre: when airbrushing or other techniques are used to create a slow color transformation
• ruffles: fondant can be manipulated so that a cake looks like it has real ruffles
• "topsy turvy": a many-layered cake whose tiers are tilted at such odd angles it looks like it may fall over