Editing Cake (section)

==History==
The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of [[Viking]] origin, from the [[Old Norse]] word "kaka".<ref>[http://www.devlaming.co.za/the-history-of-cakes The history of cakes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140829064810/http://www.devlaming.co.za/the-history-of-cakes |date=29 August 2014 }}. Devlaming.co.za. Retrieved 23 December 2011.</ref>

The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς (''plakous''), which was derived from the word for "flat", πλακόεις (''plakoeis''). It was baked using flour mixed with eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. They also had a cake called "satura", which was a flat, heavy cake. During the Roman period, the name for cake became "placenta", which was derived from the Greek term. A placenta was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case.<ref>{{cite web|title=whatscookingamerica.net|date=June 2016|url=https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CakeHistory.htm|access-date=16 December 2016|archive-date=6 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406061335/https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CakeHistory.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Greeks invented beer as a [[leavening agent|leavener]], [[frying]] [[fritter]]s in [[olive oil]], and [[cheesecake]]s using [[goat's milk]].<ref>Castella, Krystina (2010). ''A World of Cake: 150 Recipes for Sweet Traditions From Cultures Around the World'', pp. 3–4. {{ISBN|978-1-60342-576-6}}.</ref> In [[ancient Rome]], the basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good.<ref name="isbn0-19-280352-2">{{cite book |title=An A–Z of food and drink |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-19-280352-2 |location=Oxford [Oxfordshire] |author=Ayto, John |url=https://archive.org/details/azoffooddrink00ayto }}</ref> The [[Latin]] poet [[Ovid]] refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile, ''[[Tristia]]''.<ref>Ov. ''Tris''. IV. X:12.</ref>

Early 14th century cakes in England were also essentially bread: the most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process.<ref name="isbn0-19-280352-2" />

[[Sponge cake]]s, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during [[the Renaissance]], possibly in [[Spain]].<ref>Castella, Krystina (2010). ''A World of Cake: 150 Recipes for Sweet Traditions From Cultures Around the World'', pp. 6–7. {{ISBN|978-1-60342-576-6}}.</ref>

===Cake mixes===
{{main|Baking mix}}
[[File:Cake mix in plastic packet photo.JPG|thumb|[[Baking mix|Cake mix]] in plastic packets]]
During the [[Great Depression]], there was a surplus of [[molasses]] and the need to provide easily made food to millions of economically depressed people in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/pop-culture/article/cake-mix-history |title=A History of the Cake Mix, the Invention That Redefined 'Baking' |last=Park |first=Michael |website=bonappetit.com |publisher=Bon Appétit |date=2013 |access-date=25 May 2014 |archive-date=25 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025080936/https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/pop-culture/article/cake-mix-history |url-status=live }}</ref> One company patented a cake-bread mix to deal with this economic situation and thereby established the first line of cake in a box. In doing so, cake, as it is known today, became a [[mass production|mass-produced]] good rather than a home- or bakery-made specialty.

Later, during the [[post-war boom]], other American companies (notably [[General Mills]]) developed this idea further, marketing cake mix on the principle of convenience, especially to housewives. When sales dropped heavily in the 1950s, marketers discovered that baking cakes, once a task at which housewives could exercise skill and creativity, had become dispiriting. This was a period in American ideological history when women, retired from the war-time labor force, were confined to the [[Separate spheres|domestic sphere]] while still exposed to the blossoming consumerism in the US.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Catalano |first=Christina |year=2002 |title=Shaping the American Woman: Feminism and Advertising in the 1950s |url=http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=constructing |journal=Constructing the Past |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=45 |access-date=25 May 2014 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127021616/https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=constructing |url-status=live }}</ref> This inspired [[psychologist]] [[Ernest Dichter]] to find a solution to the cake mix problem in the [[icing (food)|frosting]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/cakemix.asp |title=Something Eggstra |website=Snopes.com |date=31 January 2008 |access-date=25 May 2014 |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205152008/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/something-eggstra/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Since making the cake was so simple, housewives and other in-home cake makers could expend their creative energy on [[cake decorating]] inspired by, among other things, photographs in magazines of elaborately decorated cakes.

Ever since boxed cake mix has become a staple of supermarkets, it is often complemented with frosting in a can.{{cn|date=April 2024}}