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Sam Gaito
Ms. Bennett
British Literature
14 March 2012
The Occasional Cake
Every cake is customized to the special occasion for which it is made.When one pictures
a wedding cake what does the mind imagine? How about a birthday cake, a Christmas cake, or
even an anniversary cake? Cakes, as a rule, have a theme or idea behind the event. If one is
baking a birthday cake, the cake is generally playful and decorated with fun colors, shapes, and
designs. In contrast, a wedding cake is usually white with flowers to match the bride’s bouquet
or decorations that fit with the theme of the wedding. Wedding cakes are generally simple with a
beautiful elegance in the decorations. During the holidays,there are many cakes to be seen, each
cake tuned towards a specific holiday. A Christmas cake usually has dried fruit or nuts, and
Halloween cakes usually are flavored with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Each cake is
unique in many ways. Cakes are decorated to suit a person, holiday, occasion, or theme.
Before beginning the cake, one must be sure that he/she is 100% prepared.The first step
to creating a beautiful cake is as simple as taking the time to sit down and brainstorm for ideas.
One must begin by fully understanding the event for which the cake is being made.
Understanding includes knowing the people and the event without having to sit down and think
about the details of the event. Next there are five essential questions that must be answered
before the baking process can begin. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and answer each

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questionwith as much detail as possible. The first question is what is the budget for the cake?
The second question is when is the event? The third question is how many guests will be
attending the event? The fourth question is how formal is the event? The fifth question is what
flavor is wanted for each cake layer, and what flavor for the icing (they do not always have to
match)? The most important step prior to baking is making a checklist of all the materials,
ingredients, and equipment needed and ensuring that each piece is readily available and on hand.
(Wilson). Before stepping into the kitchen, confirm that every detail for the cake to be baked is
in place.
For every cake that is bake, there will be a different list of equipment that will be needed.
According to an article from Lifehacker, there are five essential tools that should be in every
kitchen. The first is three decent knives; one eight or ten inch blade knife, one paring knife, and a
cheap bread knife. The second is five good quality multiuse pots and pans. The third is a number
for a restaurant quality supply store or Asian market to be sure all ingredients are available if
needed. The fourth is an instant read thermometer. The fifth and final item is a small reliable
kitchen scale (Purdy). Another article from Organic Authority states that there are ten must-have
tools: an eight or ten inch knife; a ruler; several cutting boards for different ingredients to prevent
cross contamination; dental floss for making flawless cuts into sticky or gooey substances; zip
lock bags to use for storage or as a substitute for pastry bags; a good pair of kitchen scissors; a
fine mesh strainer or chinois; an offset spatula for perfect frosting on that special cake every time
(Klein). Each piece of equipment is important for different tasks in the kitchen.
Each and every wedding cake has its own particular features and qualities. One thing to
consider is that contrary to popular belief, the white wedding cake’s origins did not come from a
symbol of purity. The pure white wedding cake started as a symbol of status. This status symbol

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came about because when wedding cakes were first coming to popularity, sugar was very
expensive and difficult to obtain. Making the sugar to make the cake and the frosting were very
expensive because each bride wanted whiter and purer sugar for her cake than the last bride’s.
Therefore, the whiter the cake, the more expensive it was, thus turning the cake into a symbol of
decorations: fondant or gum paste flowers, royal icing piping, edible flowers, or real flowers to
match the bride’s bouquet.These decorations are usually put on a cake to match a theme. The
theme could be anything from a beach wedding with brightly colored flowers to a simple church
wedding with elegant white piping covering the cake. There is no set design for wedding cakes,
and each cake is designed to fit the bride’s and groom’s life.
The perfect holiday party is not complete without the perfect holiday cake. Cakes date
back to ancient times, though those cakes are different then what is thought of today. The first
cakes were more of a bread sweetened with honey and often supplemented with dried fruit or
nuts. According to historians, the Egyptians were the first to show advanced signs of baking with
improvements in baking technology. These past cakes have given the United States the holiday
cakes thought of today (Lynne). One cake traditionally thought of is called the King cake and is a
tradition of Mardi Gras. This cake is a braided cinnamon pastry covered in purple, green, and
gold fondant. Though traditionally cakes have no filling, some are filled with anything from
pineapple to cream cheese. The King cake traditionally has a bean of some type baked into it to
represent the Christ child. The person who finds the bean is said to bring the cake to the next
year’s celebration (Cornish).
Another cake is a birthday cake. The definition of the birthday cake is a pastry or dessert
served to a person on his or her birthday. The history of the birthday cake can be traced all the
way back to the ancient Greeks. The Greeks would make round or moon shaped cakes or bread

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flavored with honey. Other historians believe the tradition started in Germany during the Middle
Ages with sweetened bread dough in the shape of baby Jesus. This sweetened dough soon
emerged into celebration of a young child’s life with cakes of all shapes, sizes, and
colors("History of Birthday").Birthday cakes have become an important part of the annual
American traditions.
The Christmas cake is another prominent holiday cake. Buche de Noel is one of many
traditional cakes baked at Christmas. The name of this recipe literally translates to “Christmas
log,” referring to the traditional Yule log burned during the holidays. The ingredients in this cake
suggest that the cakes were filled with jam or cream and covered with buttercream icing. These
cakes then began to show up in European cook-books (Olver). As one can see, there is a history
behind every cake and its occasion.
When creating a cake for a special occasion, one must take into account more than just
the shape, size, and color. The most important part of a special occasion cake is making sure the
event is fully understood. Whether it is a baby shower, ananniversary, or a Bar Mitzvah, the cake
must be perfectly tuned to fit with the event. Another very important part of a special occasion
cake is the decorations and the colors. The decorations will usually match the theme or type of
event while the colors are used to elicit some type of emotion.Every color plays on the emotions
of the onlooker in one way or another whether you know it or not. Studies show that bright
colors are very stimulating while muted colors are very soothing. This study states that the
reason for this effect could be because over thousands of years humans have learned to respond
to that color’s role in nature. The four most common colors are red, blue, green, and yellow. Red
has been shown to make people feel agitated, jumpy, rushed, hungry, fearful, strong, and
passionate. Blue makes people feel content, clean, tranquil, spiritual, trusting, and depressed.

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Green makes people feel fresh, hopeful, lucky, and peaceful. Yellow gives off the feeling of
being cheerful, hopeful, excited, and focused (Morton).
One of the most important parts of making a cake aesthetically pleasing is choosing the
correct base for the decorations. The two most common ways to create a base for the decorations
of choice are royal or butter-cream icing with a layer of fondant or just a layer of royal or butter-
cream icing. When using fondant, a layer of icing must be applied to the cake as a “glue” to
ensure that the fondant sticks to the cake and stays put. Fondant is typically used in modern
cakes because if the more polished and professional look it gives the cake. Fondant is a
smooth, thick, paste-like, sugar based icing that can be colored and shaped. Fondant is not only
used for cake coverings but is also used for decorating the cake itself. Though most cakes today
are covered and decorated in fondant for aesthetics, some are still covered and/or decorated with
royal icing, cream cheese icing, and butter-cream icing. Covering a cake with icing rather than
fondant gives the cake a more rustic or classic feel instead of a smooth polished feel.No matter
what the cake is covered and decorated with, it will always look amazing.
For the majority of people, something as daunting as a five tier cake may be scary, but
with the right tools and a lot of creativity it can become a reality. Always remember to put the
event first. Know the amount of people attending and the theme of the event and the rest will fall
into place. The cake, no matter how big or small, will always be remembered. Keep in mind that
wedding cakes do not always have to be white, and the cake can be any flavor that can dreamt
up. When coming up with decorating ideas, be sure to let the mind explore to come up with new
and innovative decorating idea and techniques. As Marie Antoinette once said, “let them eat
cake”, do not let your cake intimidate you, conquer your fears, and get baking!

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Works Cited
Berwitt, Katie. “10 Popular Wedding Cake Traditions.”WE.N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.wetv.com/weddings/articles/10-popular-wedding-cake-traditions>.
Charsley, Simon. “Wedding Cake.”Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. New York: Charles
Scribner’s Sons, 2003. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Web. 9 Sept. 2011.
<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/
i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3403400606&v=2.1&u=cant48040&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w>.
Cornish, Audie. “A Taste of Mardi Gras: The Return of the King Cake.” NPR.N.p., 23 Feb.
2006. Web. 7 Sept. 2011. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/
story.php?storyId=5228675>.
Gee, Catherine. “The History of the Wedding Cake.”The Telegraph.N.p., 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 7
Sept. 2011. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8461212/The-history-of-the-
wedding-cake.html>.
“History of Birthday Cake.”Tokenz.N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2011. <http://www.tokenz.com/
history-of-birthday-cake.html>.
Klein, Laura. “Laura Klein’s Must Have Kitchen Tools.” Organic Authority.Ed. Laura Klein and
Andrea Manitsas.N.p., 2010. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <http://www.organicauthority.com/
organic-food-recipes/cooking-tips/laura-kleins-must-have-kitchen-tools.html>.
Morton, Jill. “Sight for Your Eyes: What Do Colors Mean?” Washington Post.N.p., n.d. Web. 15
Sept. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/pdf/colorsmean.pdf>.
Olver, Lynne. “About Cake.”Food Timeline.N.p., 3 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html>.
“Christmas Foods.”Food Timeline.N.p., 7 Mar. 2011. Web. 7 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.foodtimeline.org/christmasfood.html>.

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Purdy, Kevin. “Five Must-Have Tools for Any Kitchen.”Lifehacker.Ed. Adam Pash and Jason
Chen.N.p., 9 June 2009. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <http://lifehacker.com/5284428/five-
must+have-tools-for-any-kitchen>.
Stewart, Martha, and Wendy Kromer.“Finding Inspiration.”Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes.
New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007. 14. Print.
Thring, Oliver. “Wedding Food Traditions around the World.”Guardian.N.p., 29 Apr. 2011.
Web. 7 Sept. 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/29/royal-wedding-
dinner-william-kate-middleton>.
Wilson, Dede. “Dreaming and Planning Your Cake.” Wedding Cakes You Can Make. Hoboken:
Wiley, n.d. 2-19. Print.