Cake

The great French chef of the early nineteenth century, Antonin Carême, proclaimed: “The fine arts are five in number—painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and architecture, whose main branch is confectionery”. It is still true to say that cakes have an architectural element, with the cake as the structure, the filling as the mortar, and the icing—the tiles and woodwork—embellishing the whole.

The basic ingredients for a cake—eggs, sugar, flour, and often some kind of fat—are few, but variations are achieved by changing flavors, texture and shape. Consider the many types of English sponge, rich French génoises, and the American layer cakes, all of which use these basic ingredients.