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Is cake a sort of bread?

So according to Merriam Webster bread is: a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal

And cake is: A: a breadlike food made from a dough or batter that is usually fried or baked in small flat shapes and is often unleavened B: a sweet baked food made from a dough or thick batter usually containing flour and sugar and often shortening, eggs, and a raising agent (such as baking powder)

And yet some people don’t think that cake is bread.

What’s your opinion?

cerement ,
@cerement@slrpnk.net avatar

whole category of cakes are called “quick bread” (ex. banana bread) because they’re baked in a loaf pan (they get the name from the shape rather than the ingredients)

sylver_dragon ,

they get the name from the shape rather than the ingredients

I was under the understanding that the main difference was that quick breads used chemical leavening agents (e.g. baking powder) instead of yeast. Hence the “quick” in “quick bread”. Wikipedia (always a source of unblemished truth /s) seems to agree with my understanding.

Nefara ,

Yep, Irish soda bread is a quickbread made from a dough with baking soda as the rising agent, and it is absolutely a bread, not a cake.

polonius-rex ,

i'd argue banana bread is cake, and is not bread, even though it has "bread" in its name

if you were offered a slice of banana bread but they were out so you got a slice of sandwich loaf instead, i suspect you'd be more annoyed than if you got a slice of chocolate cake

MeowZedong ,
@MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml avatar

Cake is not bread.

According to Urban Dictionary, cake is: Another word meaning ass or butt.

Bread is: The shit you throw at ducks to get them to fuck off.

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

As a general rule, I would see in a majority of cases that in a bread, gluten development is encouraged to provide a chewy texture. In a cake, you want to avoid gluten development to have a light and fluffy texture.

Special bread flours have high gluten content and cake flours have lower gluten for that reason.

Now we of course do have many exceptions, such as banana bread is low gluten and very sweet, while many biscuit recipes call for cake flour, but no one would call a biscuit a cake. In both those cases, I don’t think you would like a banana bread or biscuit that has the strong gluten structure that a proper baguette has.

Cakes (especially something like donuts) can be yeast risen, and some breads like matzo or tortillas have no leavening, or breads can use chemical leavening like Irish soda bread.

RoquetteQueen ,
@RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works avatar

I wouldn’t consider banana bread a bread. It’s a cake and the bread part is just a name.

anon6789 ,
@anon6789@lemmy.world avatar

I personally agree with you on that. Anything much sweeter than raisin bread like muffins and cupcakes I count as cakes.

N0body ,

Cake is just uppity bread. Acting all fancy and getting dressed up for special occasions. You changed, bro.

wreckedcarzz ,
@wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world avatar

If it fits loosely under the food pyramid category and I can therefore eat a ton of it and say it’s just my daily bread, then yes.

But sugars are at the top and we all know the higher a thing is the more important it is. Can we double-dip on the chart? Also yes.

ltxrtquq ,

food pyramid

You’re really showing your age with this one. The food pyramid got replaced 13 years ago

wildbus8979 ,

Bread usually has yeast, a cake never does.

Binette OP ,

What about pancakes?

wildbus8979 ,

They aren’t a cake, and they don’t have yeast either

techwooded ,

Lots of cakes in Germany for example are traditionally made from yeasted doughs

polonius-rex ,

the first result for "cake with yeast"

oxjox ,
@oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

cake is: A: a breadlike food

Why are you questioning the definition you’ve provided?

Binette OP ,

If you google the question, you’ll get lots of people saying that cake isn’t bread, despite being similar.

Xoriff ,

I think it’s that people like certain levels of specificness. Like, bread, pizza, and broccoli are all foods, but if you said “I had a food for lunch” that’d sound weird.

It’s not necessarily that cake isn’t a type of bread or that the two aren’t closely related. It’s that we have a super-common and more specific word for it (cake) so it sounds awkward when you use a different word that might be technically accurate, but is a weird choice in practice.

Same for a lot of things. A hot dog and a sub are technically the same thing. But if a waiter dropped off your hot dog and said “here’s your pork sub”, you’d probably look at them funny.

oxjox ,
@oxjox@lemmy.ml avatar

You asked the question, “is a cake a sort of bread” and the dictionary is explicitly stating “cake is a breadlike food”.

Are you instead asking if “lots of people” is a more reliable source than the dictionary?

Binette OP ,

No but like something being bread like doesn’t mean that it is bread, just similar to bread.

Eylrid ,

Something can be breadlike without being bread, in a similar way to how whales are fishlike without being fish.

The dictionary doesn’t dictate how words should be used; it reports how people use them. Consulting a dictionary is a way to find out how “lots of people” use a word.

BugleFingers ,

My argument: Bread is leavened and whose basic mixture is flour or meal. (Usually baked, but so are most cakes so I’ll leave this as moot.)

If a cake can meet those requirements, Yes, it would be a bread.

Otherwise, it would be a breadlike food. In the cake definition it uses a “breadlike food” probably due to to the latter half of the statement “often unleavened”. This would lead me to presume that most cakes, while breadlike, do not meet the requirements. It’d be more reasonable to make a statement on the majority (breadlike) than minority (Bread).

cerement ,
@cerement@slrpnk.net avatar

Irish soda bread

ShittyBeatlesFCPres ,

Do bagels count as cake based on calorie count or bread based on texture/flavor or doughnuts based on shape?

NaibofTabr ,

Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. For example, banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake. Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast bread. Such cakes are often very traditional in form and include such pastries as babka and stollen.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cake#Comparison_with_bread

Hextubewontallowme , (edited )
@Hextubewontallowme@lemmy.ml avatar

Cake was bread historically

I think all other dough-based dishes derive from bread really, since I believe it’s the most basis dough recipe ye can make…

Nowadays, my definition of modern cake = bread + defined-sweetness + fluffiness and softness

My proof that cake was bread; look at pound cake, one of modern cake’s forerunners, and tell me no one thought and baked it, thinking “how about bread, but more deluxe?”

memfree ,
@memfree@lemmy.ml avatar

Whenever it comes down to definitions I like to go to expert definitions rather than common language. For food (are tomatoes a fruit?) I use FDA definitions, for which the definition of bread excludes what you’d mean by “cake”.

I don’t think the FDA defines cake, but it does specify how different types of cakes, brownies and such should be labeled (search for “cake” here).

experiencersinternational ,
@experiencersinternational@lemmy.world avatar

Not bread. Cake doesn’t use yeast (leavened basically means using yeast). Bread does.

Cake uses eggs, bread doesn’t.

Cake is expensive to buy or make. Bread isn’t as bad.

I think we clearly know it’s not bread. Back me up here someone. I’m the person being referred to in the OP btw.

MystikIncarnate ,

Egg bread exists.

What’s your argument about eggs now?

experiencersinternational ,
@experiencersinternational@lemmy.world avatar

what the actual hell is egg bread

I still believe myself to be in the right and the majority of people I’ve spoken to have agreed with my opinions.

It’s just not bread. It’s just not.

MystikIncarnate ,

www.allrecipes.com/…/a-number-one-egg-bread/

There’s also cake that uses yeast/leavening:

allrecipes.com/…/drozdzowka-polish-yeast-plum-cak…

So I’m pretty sure the ingredient angle is out, unless you want to go by proportion of sugar/flour/whatever, which is a much more involved discussion, but IMO, will also be a fruitless one…

I don’t think ingredients are the dividing line here between cakes/breads, IMO, it might be texture/consistency of the loaf, but even that’s a hard sell. There are some very dense breads and some very airy cakes.

I’m more leaning towards “cake” being a label we put on bread products when we deem it appropriate.

The fact that a lot of this was defined by medieval standards, where people did some pretty strange things, especially with naming, IMO, is the root of the problem. Today, as we create new things we have specific terms for them that defines that thing and limits on what the thing is and isn’t. A lot of scientific naming has been refined in the last century because of the bad/inaccurate naming of things, mainly because they were named and defined well before we had the technology to properly understand what we were looking at.

Culinary arts, which can be scientific, but the naming certainly isn’t, is not an exact science. If you take either of the above recipes and add an extra quarter cup of flour or something to either, it probably won’t ruin the product. It might make it taste different than intended, but probably not ruined.

In all the difference between cake and bread is blurry at best. At worst, cake is just a specific type of bread product, which is defined fairly loosely by how we feel about it.

As a related fact, muffins and cupcakes have been in a war for which one is better for you. Cupcakes can have fewer calories, but muffins seem to have better marketing, so people feel like they’re better/more healthy, than eating cupcakes.

I dunno, I’m just some guy.

experiencersinternational ,
@experiencersinternational@lemmy.world avatar

Tbh dictionaries being outdated was a thing that I was thinking about

polonius-rex ,

Cake doesn't use yeast (leavened basically means using yeast).

some cakes do use yeast, and something like baking powder is a leavening agent

Cake uses eggs, bread doesn't.

brioche

Cake is expensive to buy or make. Bread isn't as bad.

brioche

SweetCitrusBuzz ,
@SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org avatar

All words are made up, so if you would like to define cake as a bread then I see no problem with that personally.

I am unsure if others would agree with you, but they might given specific context.

Personally, I don’t care too much, all I know is that cake it delicious.

P.S. There are definitely cakes that are not at all bread like though, like ice cream cake or cheese cake etc.

eezeebee ,
@eezeebee@lemmy.ca avatar

Sort of, yeah. If you asked me to categorize foods as “bread-like” or not, I would definitely count cake. But I would probably not make a sandwich with cake.

BugleFingers ,

Oh would you not? Then what is the jelly or frosting fillings between the layer? Isn’t that A JELLY SANDWICH??

(I am being aloof for the purpose of humor)

eezeebee ,
@eezeebee@lemmy.ca avatar

It’s not every day that a comment makes me self-reflect and challenge my beliefs like this.

Thank you for opening my mind, Buglefingers. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.

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