Sugar and Pastry Making

Bakers also made cakes from doughs or batters containing honey or other sweet ingredients, such as dried fruits. Many of these items had religious significance and were baked only for special occasions, such as the Twelfth Night cakes baked after Christmas. Such products nearly always had a dense texture, unlike the light confections we call cakes today. Nonsweetened pastry doughs were also made for such products as meat pies. In the 1400s, pastry chefs in France formed their own corporations and took pastry making away from bakers. From this point on, the profession of pastry making developed rapidly, and cooks developed many new kinds of pastry products.