White cake

{{Infobox food

| image = Fair Culinary Competition (2881682604).jpg

| type = Cake

| course = Dessert

| year = Late 19th century

| main_ingredient = White sugar, white flour, egg whites, baking powder or baking soda

| caption = White cake with white frosting

}}

White cake is a type of cake that is made without egg yolks. White cakes were also once known as silver cakes.

White cakes can be butter cakes or sponge cakes. They became widely available in the later part of the 19th century, and became associated with weddings and christenings.

Ingredients and techniques

The key difference between a white cake and others is the absence of egg yolks or other ingredients that would change the color of the cake. (Egg yolks give yellow cake its color.{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Annie |date=21 April 2023 |title=What's The Difference Between Yellow, White, and Vanilla Cake? |url=https://www.simplyrecipes.com/what-s-the-difference-between-vanilla-white-and-yellow-cake-7481069 |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Simply Recipes |language=en}}) This decision affects the cake structurally. Because of the lack of egg yolks, the cake has less fat to impede its rise. White cakes tend also to be slightly less tender than cakes made with whole eggs.{{Cite web |last=Prakash |first=Sheela |date=10 December 2022 |title=What's the Difference Between White, Yellow, and Vanilla Cake? |url=https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-white-yellow-and-vanilla-cake-230663 |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Kitchn |language=en}}

White cake typically calls for cake flour rather than all-purpose flour to create a lighter batter with a finer crumb. White cakes are often vanilla-flavored. Sometimes artificial clear vanilla extract is used to preserve the white color.

White cake can be made by the creaming or reverse creaming mixing methods; the latter can be used to make tiered cakes with a tighter crumb that will stand up to stacking.{{cite web |title=Cake mixing methods |url=https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/04/28/cake-mixing-methods |website=King Arthur Flour}}{{cite web |title=Tender White Cake |url=https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/tender-white-cake-recipe |website=King Arthur Flour}}{{Cite web |date=2016-03-22 |title=White Cake {{!}} Baking Processes {{!}} BAKERpedia |url=https://bakerpedia.com/processes/white-cake/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=American Baking Society |language=en-US}}

Uses

White cake is a typical choice for tiered wedding cakes because of the appearance and texture of the cake. In general, white baked goods, which used white flour and white sugar, were a traditional symbol of wealth dating to the Victorian era when such ingredients were reliably available, though still expensive.{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Carol |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-931339-6 |editor-last=Goldstein |editor-first=Darra |location=Oxford; New York |chapter=Wedding cake}} The idea that white symbolizes purity at a white wedding was invented by the Victorians.{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=John J. |date=2022-09-12 |title=The Victorian-Era Symbolism Behind White-Frosted Wedding Cakes |url=https://www.tastingtable.com/999375/the-victorian-era-symbolism-behind-white-frosted-wedding-cakes/ |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Tasting Table |language=en-US}}

White cake is used as a component for desserts like icebox cake, and some variations on charlotte russe and trifle.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R1bCBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA353 |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=April 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199313617}}{{cite book |last=Whitehead |first=Jessup |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WVBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA12-IA4 |title=The American Pastry Cook |date=1891}}{{cite web |title=Patriotic Berry Trifle |url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/patriotic-berry-trifle-recipe-1973225 |website=Food Network}} It is also used as the base for brightly colored cakes, such as a rainbow-colored cake, as the food coloring will produce clearer, brighter colors on white cake batter than if the cake has its own color.{{Cite web |title=How To Make the Ultimate Rainbow Surprise Cake |url=https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-the-ultimate-rainbow-surprise-cake-242554 |access-date=2024-04-28 |website=Kitchn |language=en |quote=The Best Cake for Rainbow Cake Is White Vanilla Cake: Snow-white cake batter takes readily to a rainbow of hues — no fighting yellow cake’s buttery color.}}

File:White Round Steamed Cake.jpg|Plain Indonesian steamed white cake

File:Andronico's Iced White Cake (31129007297).jpg|White layer cake with white frosting and colored sprinkles

File:Slice of lane cake.jpg|Lane cake, a white cake with raisin and nut filling

File:White cake (no egg yolks) (30490346232).jpg|White layer cake with frosting

File:Ice Cream swiss roll.jpg|Swiss roll, made from white sponge cake

File:Rainbow Slice (44341236502).jpg|alt=Slice of rainbow-colored layer cake|Rainbow-colored cakes are usually made from white cake with added food coloring.

File:Silver and gold ribbon cake.png|alt=Three-layer cake with white cake in the middle|Silver and gold ribbon cake, with yellow and white cake layers

History

File:Winter Wedding Cake.jpg and gumpaste decorations lies a chocolate devil's food cake, which means it is not a white cake in the modern meaning of the term.]]

White cake is a relatively new invention, as it depends on having refined white sugar and white flour, in addition to omitting the egg yolks.{{Cite book |last1=Woloson |first1=Wendy A. |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973496-2 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Andrew F. |edition=2nd |location=New York, NY |chapter=Weddings: Wedding Cake}} From the 17th century, a "white cake" meant a fruitcake (or other non-white cake) coated with white icing, made from egg whites and expensive double-refined granulated white sugar, rather than a cake that was itself white. Any type of cake coated in white icing, such as the fruitcake served at the 1840 wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was expensive and considered a status symbol.

In the early 19th century, a lady cake made of light-colored almond flour, and a tough white sponge cake that was a precursor to the modern and lighter angel food cake, were the only cakes that looked white when cut.{{Cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Stephen |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-931339-6 |editor-last=Goldstein |editor-first=Darra |location=Oxford New York |chapter=Celebration cakes}}{{Cite book |last1=Parham |first1=Sally |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973496-2 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Andrew F. |edition=2nd |location=New York, NY |chapter=Cake}}

Modern white cakes appeared late in the 19th century, when white sugar, white flour, and reliable chemical leaveners such as baking powder became widely available. By the early 20th century, a tall, elaborately decorated white cake, called the bride cake, was established as the primary cake to celebrate weddings, with a dark-colored groom's cake disappearing or taking second place.

The first cake mix for white cake was introduced in the US around 1930.{{Cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Laura |title=The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-931339-6 |editor-last=Goldstein |editor-first=Darra |location=Oxford; New York |chapter=Cake mix}}

By the end of the 20th century, chocolate cake had become more popular than any other cake flavor.

Versions

File:Angel food cake with strawberries (4738859336).jpg, a type of white sponge cake]]

Angel food cake, a sponge cake made using only egg whites{{cite web |title=How to Make Angel Food Cake |publisher=General Mills |url=https://www.tablespoon.com/posts/how-to-make-angel-food-cake}}
Lady Baltimore cake, a dish in Southern cuisine{{Cite web |last=Castle |first=Sheri |date=7 August 2022 |title=The History Behind the Legendary Lady Baltimore Cake |url=https://www.southernliving.com/food/desserts/cakes/layer-cakes/lady-baltimore-cake-history |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=Southern Living |language=en}}
Mary Todd Lincoln's white almond cake was a celebrated cake during the period surrounding Abraham Lincoln's presidency{{Cite web |title=Mary Todd Lincoln |url=https://home.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/liho/printVersion.html#whiteCakeRecipe |website=National Park Service}}{{Cite book |last=McCreary |first=Donna D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNoKAAAACAAJ&q=Lincoln's+table |title=Lincoln's Table: Victorian Recipes from Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois to the White House |date=2000 |publisher=Guild Press of Indiana |isbn=978-1-57860-089-2 |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2007-02-07 |title=For a taste of history, try Mrs. Lincoln's cake recipe |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/for-a-taste-of-history-try-mrs-lincolns-cake-recip |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=History News Network |language=en}}
White velvet cake, a yolkless cake from the 1860s that is a version of Red velvet cake{{Cite web |last=Loo |first=Stephanie |date=8 February 2024 |title=White velvet cake is as soft and silky as its name suggests |url=https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2024/02/08/white-velvet-cake |access-date=2024-04-14 |website=King Arthur Baking |language=en}}

White cake

Ingredients and techniques

Uses

History

Versions

See also

References

Further reading