Loaf Cake recipes

The cake, kezako?

A cake is a baked goody which must be prepared with a sweet dough made from flour, eggs and butter which can garnished with ingredients such as almond, chocolate chip, cherries, blueberries or icing (fondant, chocolate frosting). Traditionally, the cake is baked in a round, square or rectangular mold but today we have cakes of all shapes such as the angel food cake or bundt cake.

Origins

Did you know that bread is the ancestor of cake? Its origin dates back to a few thousand years when we began to add fat and seasonings to bread dough. The eighteenth century saw the appearance of petit fours, these small delights which are oven baked after large pastries. Soft biscuits appeared in modern times when the use of butter and puff pastry technique became more important. In 1653, the pastry chef La Varenne codified the manufacture of biscuits by advising to froth the eggs mixture with sugar using the technique to whip them up until it forms a “ribbon”. The biscuits hence become mellow, it is certainly the beginning of the cakes as we know them today with their melting sponge cakes! Nowadays, several varieties of pastry are grouped under the cake generic name, which has endless variants: from the most classic to the most contemporary. Note that we often add a liquid (such as milk or water) and a leavening agent (baker’s yeast or baking powder) to the basic mixture (butter, sugar, flour and egg) so that the dough cake swells up to become foamy, mellow and light.

Recipe ideas

• The key recipes: these recipes are generally considered to be fail proof and are appreciated for their low price and yummy taste such as yogurt cake (easy to teach to children) or the pound cake, brownies, apple cakes and chocolate cake. Easy and fast, these failproof recipes please gourmets every time. They are served for tea or as a dessert with custard or ice cream.
• The homemade birthday cake is always sure to please. Making a homemade birthday cake is always a very nice proof of love and seeing the eyes of our loved ones sparkle in front of the candles of their first birthday cake is the prettiest reward we can receive. Our tip: a successful icing always makes a good impression.
• The cakes with a nostalgic flair: these cakes will wind back the clock and bring you back to your childhood memories and to the special moment when the cake just came out of the oven and scented the house with a sweet smell: chocolate fudge, carrot cake, apple cake, crumbles, moist chocolate cake, raspberry pie, cherry clafoutis, almond cake, sheet cake, gingerbread or cake rolled with grandma’s jam. The “nostalgia”cakes, such a whole world to transmit and (re) discover !
• The”Pastry Chef” cakes: Just hearing their sweet names is mouth watering – Black Forest, Opera, Alsatian Kouglof, Savoy Cake (with its light sponge cake), Tiramisu, rum baba, Savarin, Paris Brest, Red Velvet cake, cream cheese strawberry cake. Prepare your cake pans to discover our recipes. Dare to experience the finest pastries !
• The “trendies”: These cakes which are sure to hit the mark either for their incredible taste or aesthetics or both and which we are all looking forward to replicate in our kitchens: speculoos cheesecakes, muffins, French macaroons, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate layer cake… it’s up to you to see which one is most appealing to you.
• The most “daring”: All these incredible colorful and ultra-creative cakes which sometimes seems impossible to achieve, but yet think again, everything is possible if you have the right recipe whether for a rainbow cake, angel cake or gravity cake.

Now that you know it all (or almost!) about cakes, It’s up to you to put on your apron and bring your baking pans (loaf pan, silicone mold or cake mold) and your favorite utensils, you are sure to nail your next chocolate cake recipe or carrot cake recipe! Do not forget to flour and butter your molds for easy demolding … for a fabulous result!