# Does Cake meet the "Pizza rule"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878 "2014-03-16T23:30:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [March 19, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/61 "2014-03-19T15:36:44Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Flip that for me - way more bad pizza than bad cakes. Chicago restaurants, for whatever reason, have this thing where they think a thing makes the thing a thing, rather than a _process_ making the thing. Like barbecued chicken is not barbecued, but fried chicken with barbecue sauce poured over it. Because someone, somewhere, asked “Do you have barbecued chicken?” “Wuzzat?” “Chicken, but it’s made with barbecue sauce.” \ “There ya go buddy!” “Umm, thanks…” “Mama, change the menu, we gotta new special!” > > So any pizza that you can think of that is slightly different than crust, tomato sauce, cheese, toppings - picture it going thru the same process. Bad pizza. My last one was, coincidentally, a barbecue chicken pizza from Jet’s Pizza on Ashland. Yep, they just squirted bbq sauce on top, those culinary pragmatists - in fact, they drowned it. There was a much barbecue sauce on top as tomato sauce underneath; it was a puddle. In all fairness, they made me another pie, but they were really puzzled about what my problem was. But that is, more or less, what “barbecue chicken pizza” is around the US. Look for some national brand versions of it in your freezer section. It’s pizza with chicken with a barbecue sauce base or barbecue sauce drizzled over it. I would never expect it to be topped with actual barbecued chicken. Look, it’s a peeve of mine, too, referring to barbecue as anything covered or flavored with barbecue sauce, but that’s hardly a Chicago thing. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/62 "2014-03-19T15:45:47Z")
I know “barbecue chicken pizza” to be pizza with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce, topped with cheese and chicken. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/63 "2014-03-19T15:58:46Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I know “barbecue chicken pizza” to be pizza with barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce, topped with cheese and chicken. Yeah, and that’s how it typically is around here, too. It usually is not made with a tomato sauce underneath as well , but it’s almost never made with honest-to-goodness barbecued chicken, which seems to be the thrust of **epbrown01** ’s complaint to me. If Jet’s does use a regular pizza sauce base, that’s a little unusual, but it seems to me better than using a pure barbecue sauce base which is just too cloying for me. I don’t order any barbecue pizza for this reason. (Also, Jet’s is a Detroit-style pizza, with the original restaurant being from Sterling Heights, Michigan. I actually had no idea there was one here in Chicago. I’ll have to check it out, as I enjoy the style.) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/64 "2014-03-19T16:16:27Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Cake? No thank you. > > My stance has always been that I don’t necessarily _dislike_ cake, but rather 99% of all cake sucks. Dry, hyper-sweet, dense as a brick, covered in a half inch of frosting, I just don’t understand why people think that shit is good. That crap out of the Betty Crocker box is the worst. Store bought sheet cakes aren’t much better. Made from scratch from Grandma’s recipe? No thank you; apparently nobody’s grandmother knew shit about baking. And don’t even get me started on German chocolate (“I’d like some chocolate cake, but could someone vomit on it first?”). > > OTOH I’ve had bad pizza, but 99% of pizza I’ve ever had has been at least non-offensively edible. Slight hijack, but there may be a cake for the cake-haters out there: “Insanity Rose” Levy Beranbaum’s [lemon poppyseed pound cake](http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Poppy-Seed-Pound-Cake-105981). Zero frosting, not too sweet, drizzled with a very tart syrup made from sugar and lemon juice. It might still be too sweet for folks, but it’s pretty ridiculously different from Betty Crocker, and it’s not dry, and the lemony sourness is mighty fine. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/65 "2014-03-19T16:21:53Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > **BigT** , you can go to the grocery store and buy a sugar-free cake. There’s always a big heap of it on the shelf since on any given day, there’s exactly ONE person in the world who buys one. Because Aunt Minnie’s coming to visit, and we all know she’s got the diabeetus! > > In contrast, I have never seen a pizzeria that sells a “no salt” pizza. Because that would be horrible, and the universe will not tolerate such a thing. Okay, but the no-sugar cake has a sugar substitute, while nothing ever seems to be made with a salt substitute (although it does exist.) So the comparison is not perfect. I was mostly agreeing with what you said in your previous post, BTW. People will even mostly go ahead and eat that sugar free cake in the right setting, even while complaining about how horrible it is. People may say there is bad cake, but they still mostly go ahead and eat it. Of course, this board has foodies on it, and they are bit more critical than most. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/66 "2014-03-19T17:26:23Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, and that’s how it typically is around here, too. It usually is not made with a tomato sauce underneath as well , but it’s almost never made with honest-to-goodness barbecued chicken, which seems to be the thrust of **epbrown01** ’s complaint to me. Nah, my gripe was using both sauces, rather than replacing the tomato sauce with barbecue (which should be cut with tomato sauce, otherwise it’s too sweet, unless they’ve taken the trouble to use a good bbq sauce that isn’t syrup, tomato sauce and cumin). Barbecued chicken would be nice, but I’ve never seen that. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/67 "2014-03-19T17:38:40Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Nah, my gripe was using both sauces, rather than replacing the tomato sauce with barbecue (which should be cut with tomato sauce, otherwise it’s too sweet, unless they’ve taken the trouble to use a good bbq sauce that isn’t syrup, tomato sauce and cumin). > > Barbecued chicken would be nice, but I’ve never seen that. Well, you can probably blame that on the franchise recipe, which is not local. (And it’s not at all usual, from what I’ve seen, in Chicago.) Still, it sounds better to me than the usual method. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/68 "2014-03-19T17:39:57Z")
I’ve had bad pizza, and I’ve had bad cake. I’ve had inedible pizza, but I’ve never had inedible cake. I guess it could be out there, though. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/69 "2014-03-19T23:03:07Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > I’ve had bad pizza, and I’ve had bad cake. > > I’ve had inedible pizza, but I’ve never had inedible cake. I guess it could be out there, though. I came in to say something similar. I’ve had bad pizza and bad cake, but the worst cake I’ve ever had was still better than the worst pizza I’ve ever had. When I really, really want cake, I can finish a piece of over-sweet, bland cake with oily icing. Only the threat of starvation will make me finish a piece of flabby/bready crust topped with congealed, oily cheese and red sauce with salt as its only detectable flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/70 "2014-03-19T23:29:19Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > I’ve had inedible pizza, but I’ve never had inedible cake. I guess it could be out there, though. Whereas I’ve never made inedible pizza, but I’ve made inedible cake. I think that’s because homemade cake can go horribly wrong more easily than homemade pizza can. Store-made pizza can go horribly wrong more easily than store-made cake can. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/71 "2014-03-20T20:45:02Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Whereas I’ve never made inedible pizza, but I’ve made inedible cake. > > I think that’s because homemade cake can go horribly wrong more easily than homemade pizza can. Store-made pizza can go horribly wrong more easily than store-made cake can. I agree with this. I think that this may be part of the disparity of the thread, with each of us looking at it from a different perspective. I just don’t think of pizza as a homemade item (even though I more often have to make my own than I used to, due to dietary restrictions), so I assumed we were talking about store-bought stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/72 "2014-03-21T17:29:27Z")
I dunno — I’m not putting any restrictions on it. I’m just thinking of all the pizzas I’ve eaten and all the cakes I’ve eaten, regardless of where they came from. ---
**Author:** ![Uther\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Uther\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uther_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/73 "2014-03-23T00:09:39Z")
There are many ways to screw up pizza. Sour-ish tomato sauce, non-melting cheese, tasteless, rubbery cheese … but the biggest problem seems to be the dough. I have had oversalted dough, unsalted dough, once the baker had heard of adding a bit of sugar to the yeast and the result was sweet as a cookie. While some people like it, I consider a pizza based on a bottom so thick it resembles an full inch layer of pita bread as being rather bad. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878/74 "2014-03-23T00:41:32Z")
> [@Uther\_Penguin](#): > > but the biggest problem seems to be the dough. We have a winner! (At least for me.) That’s what ruins the majority of pizzas for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-cake-meet-the-pizza-rule/683878.md?page=3)