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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?

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.

trolololol ,

Never heard of fried cake. In my native language that’s sure a word not interchangeable with what I would translate cake to

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).

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

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

intensely_human ,

I’ve never make a cake from dough. I’ve always make cake from batter.

CrabAndBroom ,

Maybe yeast is the thing?

In which case, cake isn’t bread.

And also bread isn’t bread, it’s just a really thick beer.

But it doesn’t have alcohol, so you’d need to add sugar.

Then beer is cake.

GrayBackgroundMusic ,

Yes. Flour, water, heat. That’s it. Tortillas are bread. Cake is bread. Crackers are bread.

Aggravationstation ,

No, but cheese is a kind of meat www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fc_2BxVurM

Ziggurat ,

US bread taste like bread, it’s soft and sugary.

I would turn it the other way breads are a sort of cake but more minimalist (water, flour, yeast, and a pinch of salt) and then there is some pimped bread which moves toward the cake, like when you add milk or even eggs

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.

card797 ,

These comments could be part of an episode of Qi.

lemmyknow ,

The Cube Rule of Food Identification

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