Layer Cakes, Pound Cakes, Which Cake?

While cake in general as a dessert has a fascinating history, if you dive a little deeper, each wonderful cake has a history of its own. For example, did you know that carrot cake was originally called a vegetable plum pudding? Or that special Election cakes were made for voting day in Colonial America?

Cakes come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and flavors. But what sort of cake might be right for your culinary needs? The answer will depend on the time, experience and ingredients that you love or have on hand. And of course, I am talking about homemade cakes here. 🙂 Going out to the grocery store and getting a cake mix and frosting might be the easiest thing to do, but doesn’t taste as good!

If you have never baked a cake before, I don’t recommend starting out with your grandmother’s faded recipe with unusual ingredients and odd measurements. A sheet or snack cake in a flavor that you love would probably be easiest.

Pound cakes are a lot of fun and pretty easy to make. They got their names from the easy old recipe of adding a pound of butter, pound of sugar, pound of flour and so on. They make really good breakfast “toast” too the next day 🙂

Layer cakes are impressive, but time consuming. If you want to try your hand at one, make sure you give yourself a day or so!

Of course, there are dozens of types of cakes out there! There are even cheesecakes or cupcakes or birthday cakes if that strikes your fancy! What is your favorite type of cake to make? How about your favorite to eat? 🙂