EIGHT FUN FACTS ABOUT BAKING

Happy Friday, At Home Bakers! In today’s blog post we’re sharing eight insightful and incredible facts about the brilliance of baking to kick off your weekend with a bit of icing and inspiration!

THE SCIENCE OF SWEETNESS

Sugar isn’t just for a little bit of sweetness – it binds the water in your bake to keep everything together!

FANTASTIC FLOUR

By absorbing water and forming gluten chains, it creates a sort of ‘web’ which traps air in your bake and helps it to rise.

MEAT FOR DESSERT?!

The word ‘pudding’ is so ancient, it was even mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey! But this wasn’t sweet cakes and delicious tarts as we know dessert today – in fact, it referred to grains and meat stuffed into animal organs!

THE ULTIMATE BUDGET-FRIENDLY BAKE

Baking started out as a huge luxury, so the ever-efficient ancient home bakers would create their own alternative sweet bakes from leftovers – just like how we use old bananas for banana loaf today!

WHAT CAME FIRST, THE COOKIE OR THE CHOCOLATE CHIP?

Did you know that the chocolate chip came after the chocolate chip cookie? After this classic cookie was invented from a spur-of-the-moment broken up chocolate bar and cookie dough mix, the chocolate chip became a product of its own and, for many, an essential baking ingredient!

WATER FIGHT

Mixing dry ingredients evenly is super important because they’re actually fighting to get a bit of water each as soon as it’s mixed in!

BUT IS IT A CAKE OR A BISCUIT?!

The cake and biscuit difference needed to be declared for tax purposes, so it’s official: when stale, if it goes hard it’s a cake and if it goes soft, it’s a biscuit.

Which leads us to our next fact…

THE ULTIMATE FOOD-FOCUSED DEBATE

Is Jaffa Cake a biscuit or a cake?! Well, according to a tribunal way back in ’91, Jaffa Cakes are, in fact, cakes – not biscuits.

What’s your favourite fun fact about the world of baking?


SOURCES

Six cool facts about the science behind baking

Vintage Baking: 25 Fascinating Facts

Top 10 facts about cakes

athomebaking.com

Photos by Tayla Linford on Unsplash

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