Pic from Twice25. This simple recipe mimics the flavor of a German chocolate cake, but it's famously simple to make from scratch, and resembles a giant sheet brownie. As always, cakes are a window into our soul and a way to better understand ourselves.". Cue the 1917 Applesauce Cake. INSIDER took a look at the historic timeline of cake popularity, from the 1950s to the 2000s. "GIs were given scholarships to study commercial baking, leading to a boom in bakeries. This version of rum cake uses Jell-O in its mixture for extra moistness. The press kits included local recipes, like one for for Hummingbird cake. When cowboys moved out West, they didn't bring hens with them. Martha Stewart teaches you how to make this impressively pink cake at home. Check out this recipe for red velvet cake here. "Today's cakes are both sugary and grand, as well as savory and full of freshly roasted beets or local rhubarb. The cake was supposedly invented at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, and its popularity can be traced back to a food-dye magnate looking to sell more dye, but it got international recognition thanks to its role in the 1989 movie, "Steel Magnolias.". Byrn makes for an expert guide, deftly folding history, literary trivia, Americana and origin stories for more than 125 iconic cakes, while providing modernized recipes for each of them. Of course, rum cake had already been around since the 18th century in Jamaica and the Bahamas, where rum is plentiful. It was basically just a regular cake with rainbow sprinkles scattered throughout, but it was the cake to have for your birthday if you were a kid in the 1990s. Account active The press kits included local recipes, like one for for Hummingbird cake. "People were just trying to make do using mayo instead of eggs and oil," says Byrn. Get the recipe for Hummingbird Cake here. The post-WWII boom brought technical wizardry to the American kitchen, along with that indispensable convenience: the cake mix. From Colonial Gingerbread to Classic Layer, the Stories and Recipes Behind More Than 125 of Our Best-loved Cakes From Past to Present. During hard times, when the four fundamental ingredients that go into a cake – butter, eggs, sugar and flour – were not always available, what was available, and in spades, was that fifth killer ingredient: ingenuity. ", If the '60s were shaped by East Coast chic (Julia Child's The French Chef and Dione Lucas, who ushered in the era of the nearly flourless cake), the '70s were branded with the simple elegance of the California movement. This cake – made with whipped egg whites — has been the base for many a cake recipe in the 1970s. The cake mix took off in a big way," says Byrn. INSIDER has created a dessert timeline documenting the sweetest cake trends over the years, from pineapple upside down cake in the early 1950s, to the Pinterest-friendly cake pops of the 2000s. Then and Now Cakes can now be created to look like and thing. Jam cakes existed in Europe. Boston cream pie, the baked Alaska, New York cheesecake and the Smith Island cake. New York-style cheesecake — invented by the same guy who created the Reuben sandwich — is a famously unadorned, tangy cheesecake. The plum torte became famous thanks to a recipe published in "The New York Times" in 1983. The award-winning French pâtissier shares her top tips, secrets and recipe for the richest, creamiest and altogether most delicious chocolate mousse around. "Applesauce has been, and still is, a substitute for fat and eggs, keeping a cake moist and flavorful. They would use local berries to make jam and use it in spice cakes for the holidays. Master making this striking and historical layer cake and you'll be perfectly armed for every festive occasion ahead. His version was known as the Chocolate Valrhona Cake, and remixes of his popular chocolate cake have been in circulation since the 1990s. Red velvet cake is known to many as chocolate cake with red food dye (although, if you're using an authentic recipe, that's not true. If you like cake and want to know more about it's diverse history across America this is for you. The cream cheese frosting set carrot cake apart from other sweets at the time. Mississippi mud cake (or pie)'s chocolate crust, gooey sauce, and creamy filling would be well-known anywhere today, but the chocolatey cake was first invented somewhere in the South around 1985, and was named because it looked like the "cracked, dry" mud banks of the Mississippi river. For some reason, Jell-O mold cakes — filled with fruit, cake pieces, and sometimes seafood — were all the rage in cookbooks and advertisements in this era. With no source of fresh eggs, they made do by cooking down raisins into a thick syrup that magically moistens and leavens the cake without eggs and with very little fat. Mitch Mandel Keenly attuned to cake's deep regional roots, Byrn takes the reader on a coast-to-coast trail of crumbs, from "the dark, moist gingerbread of New England, to the elegant, English-style pound cake of Virginia, to the hardscrabble apple stack cake of Appalachia, to the slow-drawl, Deep South caramel, to Hawaii's Chantilly Cake and Alaska's rhubarb, to the more modern California cakes of almond or orange," she writes. Nina Martyris is a literary journalist based in Knoxville, Tenn. We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020, A History Of Election Cake And Why Bakers Want To #MakeAmericaCakeAgain, Slavery, Famine And The Politics Of Pie: What Civil War Recipes Reveal. As you may have guessed, the "Sock it to Me" cake gets its sassy name from Aretha Franklin's song "Respect," released five years before in 1967. The original version uses natural cocoa powder, which gives the cake a reddish tint). Looking for smart ways to get more from life? Learn how to make the pineapple upside down cake here. Hummingbird cake has been known under many names — doctor bird cake, banana pineapple cake. Despite its dubious appeal, Byrn bravely made one. Tweet. There's a whole range of cakes across the U.S. that have specific geographical routes and this infographic from Cakes Country sets out to explore the story of just some of these famous American cakes. The layered cake, a classic American invention, is the perfect metaphor for a nation built on waves of immigration, with each new group adding flavors and techniques to the cake-baking enterprise. In 1966, Ella Helfrich of Texas submitted her recipe for the aptly named Tunnel of Fudge cake. American Cake takes the reader on a flour-dusted, chronological journey from the era of colonial gingerbread to today's over-frosted towers. "Even the American favorite known as Blackberry Jam Cake is a German cake, brought by settlers to Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and other places in the South," says Byrn. It was a huge hit in the 80s. Carrie Bradshaw and her girlfriends were always hanging around the swankiest New York City spots, including Magnolia Bakery. Cakes in some form have been around since ancient times, and today’s familiar round cakes with frosting can be traced back to the 17th century, made possible by advances in food technology such as: better ovens, metal cake molds and pans, and the refinement of sugar. Apparently, using carrots in cake batter made the sweet treat itself seem more healthy.