Vintage Prune Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What makes a cake vintage? ›

What Are Vintage Cakes? Vintage cakes are vintage or “retro” because they've been around (and around and around) for centuries. They're known for their frilly, over-piped design and can be traced back to the French Rococo style of the 1700s – an age known for its ornate and gilded designs.

In the 1700s, there was no baking soda or baking powder. To get their cakes to rise, cooks of that time had to use a branch from a peach tree - "they were very specific about using a peach branch," Kornblum said - to whip either egg yolks for about 15 minutes or egg whites for a full hour.

Yet, despite these 'wacky' differences, the cake is a delicious dessert. Why does wacky cake work? An eggless cake batter relies on the gluten structure of the flour and the lift provided by vinegar and baking soda.

The world's oldest known cake, baked during the reign of Pepi II in Egypt between BCE 2251 and 2157. Alimentarium, Vevey, Switzerland. The Egyptians gave us the world's oldest known cake–and also the world's oldest Tupperware as it happens.

I find that it's best to use a medium consistency buttercream when piping vintage designs. If the buttercream is too soft, the piping will look wilted. If it's too stiff, the intricate designs will look jagged. The vanilla buttercream recipe I use is already medium-consistency, so you don't have to alter it.

The first cakes were very different from what we eat today. They were more bread-like and sweetened with honey. Nuts and dried fruits were often added. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills.

The earliest cakes were very different from the cakes we know today. They were more like bread and were sometimes even savory. The first mention of cake dates back to the 4th century BC when a Greek writer mentioned a cake made with honey and wheat flour.

Victorians and American colonists did use a much inferior (in taste and effect) alternative to baking soda known as pearl ash. Prior to learning the process of making it from Native Americans, however, yeast was the only leavening agent known in Europe!

Depression Cake, also known as Wacky Cake or War Cake (among other names), originated in the Great Depression. It is a cake made without milk, eggs, or butter. These were all ingredients that were hard to come by during the Great Depression and at wartime.

What is a goofy cake? ›

Rich chocolate cake coated in thick chocolate ganache. Delicious decadence in every mouthful.

Pinata' cake or 'Smash' is a heart-shaped cake with a hammer.

If you mix incorrect measurements of sugar, butter, and eggs, the cake will become rubbery.

Method 1: Add some acid.

One way to fix a bitter cake is to add a small amount of an acidic component, which is highly recommended especially when you toss in too much baking soda. If your cake recipe contains chocolate, you can add a ½ teaspoon of cocoa powder. Here are some other ingredients you can try: Lemon juice.

Fruitcakes are typically aged for weeks, even months, during which they're regularly bathed with liquor for added moisture and flavor. But for some “regular” cakes, you can wrap them tightly and let them sit for a few days, rather than a few months, before slicing.

Sometimes called "angel food rakes" or "angel food cutters," cake breakers resemble oversized combs. They're used to cut through delicate cakes without crushing the cake or leaving crumbs. Cake breakers were originally patented as "food breakers" in 1932 by Cale Schneider.

A spoiled cake that has gone bad will have an “off” odor, something a little sour or musky. If your cake has changed colors in any way, it may be on its way out the door. You can especially see this when your cheese cake frosting starts to get yellowed at the outer parts.

One person on Twitter summed up our thoughts on the trend by simply saying, "Vintage style fairy garden cakes are so so so so so so so so pretty!" In an interview with Elle Australia, a Sydney-based baker named Tash says people are drawn to this particular style of cake because they are "a combination of nostalgia, ...