The delicious cakes that melt in the mouth
instantly and sweeten everything are the perfect icing for the
Christmas celebrations. Most cakes use refined flour, shortening in
different forms, sweeteners, eggs, milk, leavening agents and
different flavors in multitude of combinations to produce an
enchanting aroma and a lovely taste. The fanciful forms that a cake
takes and the creative ways of icing and decorating the cake does
not take any less creativity, skill and artistic ability than making
the cake. Especially the dark fruitcakes are most favored ones at
Christmas and some of the recipes are centuries old. Cakes can be
simple and bread-like or can have rich taste with elaborate spreads.
They need not be complicated and you can also master making them by
trying out these recipes.
The key to perfection is the right amount of mixture and baking the
cake just right so that it fluffs out properly. Archeologists have
discovered some simple cakes dating back to the Neolithic period
that were more like cookie of today and were made from crushed
grains. The cakes of medieval England were not the cakes of today
but just the flour-based sweet foods. Greeks made a flat dish called
'Plakous' from nuts and honey that resembled cakes of today and a
flat heavy cake called 'Satura'. During the Roman period, 'Placenta'
similar to a cheesecake baked on a pastry base was offered to Gods.
Today, beaten eggs are the most favored raising agent and baking
ingredients are readily available including leavening agents such as
baking soda and baking powder. They have become quite affordable too
and have made cake making much easier than before.
