# American cake names **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989 "2019-04-03T18:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/61 "2019-04-05T19:19:41Z")
I know what you mean. For me that’s the taste of angelfood cake. (Have angelfood and devilsfood been mentioned here yet?) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/62 "2019-04-05T21:16:10Z")
Why is it food for only one angel, but multiple devils? (Mysteries of the english language.) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/63 "2019-04-06T00:23:10Z")
I learned just last week of something called a mug cake. It takes about 2 minutes to mix and one minute to “bake” in a microwave. It is a single portion and made in a coffee mug. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/64 "2019-04-06T01:03:26Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I learned just last week of something called a mug cake. It takes about 2 minutes to mix and one minute to “bake” in a microwave. It is a single portion and made in a coffee mug. It’s not a type of cake, it refers only to the cup it’s cooked in. Any cake can theoretically be mixed and cooked in a mug. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/65 "2019-04-06T01:06:00Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Maybe cherry flavoring is colorless? Vanilla (at least the real stuff) is brown and so might slightly soil your impeccably white white cake. Real vanilla is very expensive and is unlikely to be used in a cheap cake mix. The artificial stuff can indeed be clear. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/66 "2019-04-06T01:15:03Z")
Oh, just thought of another one: Dobash Cake. This is a Hawaiian speciality. It’s just a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but two characteristics define it: first and most importantly, the frosting is basically chocolate pudding made with cornstarch, rather than the usual frosting texture. Second, and I’m not sure this is completely required but it is seemingly traditional, the cake is more than two layers. The recipe I have tells you to bake two round layers, then slice them horizontally so that you have a four-layer cake. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/67 "2019-04-06T02:50:32Z")
Sounds like the same name as Dobos torte, a Hungarian confection that is made of many thin layers of sponge cake layered with very rich chocolate in between. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/68 "2019-04-06T04:56:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Sounds like the same name as Dobos torte, a Hungarian confection that is made of many thin layers of sponge cake layered with very rich chocolate in between. That is indeed where the name comes from! Or so I’ve read. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/69 "2019-04-06T05:25:17Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > That is indeed where the name comes from! Or so I’ve read. Yeah, [here’s an article I found](http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Oct/10/il/hawaii710100368.html) explaining the connection. It doesn’t sound quite definitive as a source, but it’s a start, and I could buy the explanation, even though the two cakes only have a passing similarity to each other. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/70 "2019-04-06T13:31:45Z")
Hungary is certainly not the origin you’d expect for a Hawaiian confection. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/71 "2019-04-06T16:29:31Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Not an American so can you tell me what yellow cake is? Google said uranium. It’s just a basic cake with a yellowish color, which it can get from butter or eggs. It’s usually combined with something to make it more interesting, such as a frosting or a fruit filling. [Here’s](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/24972/davids-yellow-cake/) a typical recipe. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/72 "2019-04-06T17:05:06Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I know what **salinqmind** is talking about. I’ve never quite been able to place the flavor, but Betty Crocker and/or Duncan Hines white cake mix definitely have a faint flavor to them. I always thought of it as a faint marzipan/almond flavor, but that flavor is often described as “cherry” as well (maraschino cherries are flavored with bitter almonds, for instance, and that “cherry” flavor in Dr. Pepper is most likely bitter almond, as well.) > > Anyhow, I looked through the ingredients of both, and they both list natural and artificial flavors at the end of their ingredients list. What those flavors are, though, are not mentioned, but there is a certain “white cake” flavor that I could see being described as faintly cherry or (in my case) marzipan. I think you’re right about the almond. Several of the white cakes (really white, not yellow-ish from egg yolks) in my afore-mentioned Delores Cassella book call for almond extract, at least as an optional ingredient. Angel food cake from a mix also benefits from the addition of a quarter teaspoon of almond extract. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/73 "2019-04-06T17:21:23Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I know what you mean. For me that’s the taste of angelfood cake. (Have angelfood and devilsfood been mentioned here yet?) Yes, I should have specified angelfood cake has a faint cherry/almond taste. They have to put ‘something’ into it, otherwise it would be even more tasteless than it already is. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/74 "2019-04-06T18:05:46Z")
There’s a type of cake in the south traditionally served at a pig pickin’; a feast in which a whole pig is slow cooked and eaten. It is unimaginatively called a [Pig Pickin’ Cake](https://www.thecountrycook.net/pig-pickin-cake/), and it is delicious. Of course, I haven’t tasted one in more than a decade. It is as unhealthy as they come. You might as well eat sugar from the bowl. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/75 "2019-04-06T18:57:37Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > There’s a type of cake in the south traditionally served at a pig pickin’; a feast in which a whole pig is slow cooked and eaten. It is unimaginatively called a [Pig Pickin’ Cake](https://www.thecountrycook.net/pig-pickin-cake/), and it is delicious. Of course, I haven’t tasted one in more than a decade. It is as unhealthy as they come. You might as well eat sugar from the bowl. I am absolutely making this cake first. I love oranges, I think they are way too over-looked in cooking and baking, and this sounds super easy to make. Besides, who wouldn’t want to make something called Pig Pickin? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989/76 "2019-04-06T20:13:52Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Think white cake dyed yellow. It’s a cake with lots of egg yolk in it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-cake-names/831989.md?page=3)