The history of baking begins with bread, because it forms the basis for other types of baking including cakes and cookies. Over the years as more people became skilled at baking and leavening techniques, and a greater variety of ingredients became available, these baked goods began to assert their individuality and gradually earned names of their own. These days when we try to define ‘baking’ in a general sense, we mean anything that has a flour base and is cooked in an oven. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the history of cakes and cookies, more commonly known as biscuits.
All about cakes. During the medieval period the distinction between bread and cake was a hazy one, however, both words passed confidently from Anglo-Saxon into English. Size may have been one important factor, as ‘cake’ was translated into Latin as ‘pastillus’, which means a little cake or pie.
By the 17th century, the haze was lifted and Europe was familiar with most of the key ingredients for modern cake-making, in particular, chocolate, sugar, vanilla and treacle. These new developments were not restricted to ingredients either, cake hoops and tins also began to emerge around this time.
But it was the technology of the 19th century that brought about the greatest breakthrough.The chemical raising agent, bicarbonate of soda, made a grand entrance in the early 1800’s, and was closely followed by baking powder (a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and a mild acid). This powder replaced yeast (creating further distinctions between the two forms of baking) but still maintained excellent leavening power. A ready supply of white flour, granulated sugar and cheap shortening made the whole cake-baking experience much simpler (and therefore more popular). Another important development at this time was ovens with reliable temperature control. Imagine that!
Cast your eye over any classic movie set in the early to mid 20th century, and you’ll quickly see that good cake-baking skills were something that any housewife was proud to possess. Serving a generous slice of homemade cake not only suggested warmth and hospitality, it also displayed an air of abundance and comfort in the household. Of course, attitudes have changed significantly since then – not only do we have less time to spend in the kitchen, but we have become more health-conscious and this, sadly, restricts our intake of these delicious homemade treats. Unlike bread, cakes tend to be viewed as more of a sweet treat than a staple.
About biscuits, or as most people call them these days, cookies. The word ‘biscuit’ comes from the Latin words ‘panis biscotus’ (which means ‘bread twice cooked’) because up until the 18th century the dough was first baked in a hot oven, then transferred to a cooler oven to dry out (much like modern-day biscotti). Since then, however, cooks all over the world have taken the basic recipe and run with it, giving us a staggering array of shapes, flavours and textures to choose from, and making a modern definition of the term a lot more difficult.
Luckily there are two subcategories that most people are familiar with. The ‘cracker’ is a thin, unsweetened, dry biscuit whose name probably comes from the cracking sound it makes when it’s broken. The earliest biscuits would have been like these, in that they were unsweetened, hard rounds. Taking a sweeter turn, the word ‘cookie’ comes from the Dutch ‘kockje’, meaning a little cake, and these tend to be richer, softer and quite chewy in texture. The most famous variety would have to be chocolate chip cookies. These were created by Mrs Ruth Wakefield in the 1930’s, and they became known as Toll House cookies after the inn she ran with her husband. Feeling a little experimental one day, she cut a bar of chocolate into bits and added them to her cookie dough. Surprisingly, the chocolate held its shape and didn’t melt into the dough, the rest is history!
