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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

RoquetteQueen ,
@RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works avatar

And the texture of actual sweet breads is way different than the texture of banana bread. Breads are chewy, cakes are crumbly.

CanadaPlus ,

Yes, cake is bread. This is controversial because of the savoury vs. sweet distinction we have, but there’s no consistent way to include all the breads of the world without including Western cakes too.

N0body ,

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

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.

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.

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?”

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.

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

I think the clue is in the definition you posted:

a breadlike food.

As a german I would say that bread and cake are very similar, but distinct things, even though the border is very blurry. Take brioche, I think that’s more of a bread, but it’s very soft, moist and sweet, so it leans heavily towards cake.

I’d say in general bread is more savory or neutral, made to be eaten with something, and cake is sweet and supposed to be a food on it’s own.

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

dustyData ,

Wow, the dairy industry must’ve paid a lot to get that spot replacing water. Milk is atrocious for diet and filled with bad fats, with little added nutritional value. At least cheeses are condensed protein and fat. Not considering that most of the world is intolerant to it.

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"

Ziggurat ,

I always used yeast when doing a cake, so the dough rise.

SuiXi3D ,
@SuiXi3D@fedia.io avatar

As a former bakery owner: No, not at all. Cakes are made with loose batters, ideally with very little gluten. Breads are made with doughs, ideally with a bunch of gluten. Of course there are some formulas that might blur the lines a bit, but in general if you’re quite literally pouring the batter into a mold or pan of some sort rather than placing it inside, it’s a cake. Or a muffin. Or a cupcake.

Should also be noted that cakes are usually leavened chemically rather than with yeast. You don’t usually allow a cake batter to rise like you do with a bread dough.

Alaskaball ,
@Alaskaball@hexbear.net avatar

Cake is bread but bread isn’t Cake.

Unless you’re American

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

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).

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