Cakes are the quintessential special sweets that are everywhere be it birthdays, anniversaries or local festivities. We take a tour, letter by letter, this time with the Bs, and find cakes from around the world representing each letter of the alphabet. Not all cake uses wheat and not all cakes use the same oven baking which is what makes them unique and fascinating.
There are different kinds of cakes in the world and there’s Baumkuchen, which is one of the spit cakes from Germany. It is traditionally made on a pit rotating over an open fire, one of the oldest methods to make bread as well. The first recipe for this pit cake dates back to 1426 in an Italian cookbook. Initially, the cake’s batter would be put on the stick in a clump but with time the batter would go in layers to create this “tree cake”.
This one is not to be confused with the Filipino Bibingka, which is a rice cake made with plenty of coconut. Bebinka on the other hand is Goa’s layered cake, which has Portuguese influences in its creation. It is made with flour, egg yolks, ghee, sugar, and a Konkan speciality – coconut milk. It takes a long time to create each layer of the cakes (baked in ovens layer by layer), which are stacked on top of each other. The batter sometimes uses caramel which is responsible for the dark browning of the Bebinka. You will find this cake a lot around the Christmas season in Goa, made by the locals and most local restaurants and food joints.
Also known as Revani in Greece, this Turkish-Greek dessert is made with semolina and plenty of sugar, so, if you really love your sweets, Basbousa is perfect for you. This semolina cake is flavoured with lemon zest, rose water, orange blossom water and/or vanilla, depending on the country. After the cake is made it is soaked in this flavour-infused sugar syrup and topped with nuts and coconut. This cake from the Ottoman period is a popular dessert during festivities in some of the Middle Eastern countries.
From Malaysia, Batik cake is a no-bake cake, also called Kek Batik and is said to have roots in 1900s Scotland and is linked to the period of British colonialism in the country. The cake gets its name from the textile work of Batik, which is popular in Malaysia. The texture of the cake comes from local tea biscuits that are used in the cake with plenty of chocolate fudge that holds them together. As a result, it often looks like one of the hedgehog cakes from Australia.
Cheesecake is the hot babe of the hour and it's so popular that different varieties are enjoying the limelight lately, Basque cheesecake is one of them. It has a caramelised top and a jiggly centre that is a hallmark of a classic cheesecake. It's from Basque, Spain where it is known as tarta de queso or gazta tarta; elsewhere in the world it also goes by burnt cheesecake. The usual cheesecake has a crust, but this one doesn't and is baked at a high temperature for the caramelised top.
Different regions of the world have their own version of the butter cake, and Boterkoek is the Dutch version of the butter cake. It's made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sometimes almond and lemon zest are also used for additional flavour. It's baked as usual and turns a beautiful golden hue owing to the egg wash on top.
This cake is recognised via its beautiful honeycomb texture and it's a Vietnamese sponge cake made with a yeasty batter and coconut. Often pandan leaves, a local plant, is used to dye this cake a delightful green. There are many varieties of this cake in and around Vietnam, but all are airy and have that trademark honeycomb texture that is a hallmark, which is why they are also called beehive cakes or honeycomb cakes.
The authentic black forest cake is made only in Germany and areas with the Kirschwasser liquor used to douse the chocolate sponges of the black forest cake. Plenty of whipped cream and local cherries go into the cake to create a boozy cake. Elsewhere in the world, the local liquor is too costly to put into the cake, so substitutions come in with different cherry liquors and also non-alcoholic versions of the cake.