The Four Favorite Delicious Gourmet Cakes

Cakes are one of the favorite desserts of people of all ages. It is always present in various kinds of gatherings. Some cakes are traditionally eaten in special occasions such as at Christmas Eve. Others can be eaten with different toppings and are available in a variety of forms.

Some delicious gourmet cakes:

The Carrot Cake

Carrot is the main ingredient of a carrot cake and consists of large amounts of sugar like sugar beets. It was used during the medieval age as sweet ingredient in sweet cake. The carrot cake is a sweet gourmet cake prepared through the mixture of grated carrot and butter. The process of cooking results to soft carrot and the cake has dense and soft texture. The carrots themselves improve and add to the appearance, texture, and flavor of the cake.

You could add ingredients to your carrot cake to make it more personal, depending on your taste buds. You could sprinkle it with raisins, nuts, coconut or pineapple.

The serving of carrot cake may be either plain, with glazed or topped with white icing. It can also be served topped with cream cheese icing and chopped walnuts.

A carrot cake with cream cheese icing is listed as number five on the top five fad foods of the 1970s according to the American-based Food Network in 2005. And carrot cakes are available in different forms such as sheet cake, cupcake, and loaf form. They are popular in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

The Christmas cake

Christmas cake is actually a fruit cake popular in Ireland, Japan, Philippines, United Kingdom, and other countries under the commonwealth. People in these countries normally give out fruit cakes as presents during the holiday season.

Christmas cake has several types. There are spongy to heavy, crumbly-moist to sticky-wet, light to dark and spongy to heavy. Some are leavened or unleavened, square or oblong, round shape, fairy cakes, dusting with icing sugar and more.

The Scottish Christmas cake is called Whisky Dundee and is a most loved traditional Christmas cake. It is made with Scotch whisky and feels crumbly and light on the palate. It has candied peesl and light fruits such as sultanas, cherries, currents and raisins. This cake is loved by those who are not fond of moist and very rich textured cakes.

Another Christmas cake is the apple crème Christmas cake. It particularly consists of rich mix of finely sliced apples. It is usually mixed with raisins and other fruit. It also has cream cheese, heavy whipping cream, and eggs.

Christmas cake in certain occasion is even added with coins as touch pieces for good luck. The coins may be 3d piece, silver, or six pences wrapped in grease proof paper packages.

The Wacky Cake

It was believed that Beatrice Fe O'Hearn was the inventor of the wacky cake recipe. The recipe was passed down to generations among her family and friends. The cake has been a favorite delicacy in many rural areas of the United States since in the late 1930s.

The wacky cake has spongy texture and cocoa based. This cake is unique in a sense that it does not contain eggs and milk unlike the other common cake and pastries. It has active ingredients such as cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, sugar, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, and white vinegar. You can also add brewed coffee. And wacky cake may be served plain or with toppings like confectioner's sugar and icing.

A basic wacky cake recipe has cocoa, flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, vanilla, vegetable oil, vinegar and water.

The Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cakes are absolutely one of the all time favorites. There is a big selection of chocolate cakes, with varying ingredients. An important element in a chocolate cake is the intensity of chocolate, especially in devil's food cake.

In the United States, the most common type of chocolate cake is the butter cake. The European chocolate Génoise Cake has a spongy texture with minimal amounts of fat. Other types include the flowerless chocolate cake and red velvet cake.

And the common butter cake recipe has ingredients of cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, flour, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter or oil, and water. Other additional ingredients are fruit juices, sour cream, syrups and melted chocolate for devil's food cake.

Ingredients such as liqueurs, vanilla extracts, or liquid flavor i.e. coffee are used by many bakers to enhance and bring out different properties in the chocolate flavor. Also, numerous professional chefs and bakers have experimented unique flavors to chocolate cakes. Some examples of chocolate cakes with flavor combinations include Black Forest gateau, Bûche de Noël, and German Chocolate Cake.