History of Baking

very few people know the history of creating sweets and pastries. The first evidence of creating sweets and pastries dates back to pre-historic times. Initially, the sweets were created to soften the Gods anger and achieve their compassion. Later on, the sweets and desserts were created mostly for festivities and celebrations. It is hard to indicate the exact date of inventing the cakes and pastries, yet it is possible that the Egyptians may have actually learned the process of making sweets from the Babylonians. An ancient painting dated 1175 B.C. pictures the ceremony of making bread and cakes in the palace of the king Rameses III. It is also known that sweets made of sugar were merchandized in Egypt in 700 B.C. We prepare and decorate specialty cakes for different occasions, such as: weddings, baptizing, engagements, anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, etc. The Christmas cakes were created back in XVIII century A.D. The Christmas cakes were initially created like Twelfth Night cake. Two slices of cake were baked separately; in one slice they hid a kidney bean, in the other one a split pea. Men ate the cake with the kidney bean, and the man who found the bean became the king of the festivity. Women ate the cake with the split pea, and the woman who found the split pea, became the queen of the festivity. The tradition of making the wedding cakes dates back to old Roman historic period. The little fruit cakes were sacrificed to Roman Gods, made of honey, fruit and nuts. The Romans decorated the head of the bride with wedding cakes in order to attract the compassion and blessing of Gods. This tradition was introduced in England by Julius Caesar in 54 B.C. Initially, only the rich families could afford this tradition, the poor families were throwing wheat grain or corn for future prosperity of the family. The first decorated cakes were created in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. However, the cakes were not actually decorated, they looked like buns covered with almond frosting (later called marzipan frosting). In 1660 A.D. when King Charles II returned to throne, he invited few professional bakers, who later suggested to cover the buns with frosting made of sugar power and decorated these buns with various berries and other items. In XVIII A.D. in Italy it became very popular to make little decorative figurines out of sugar. Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, the famous Italian sculptor-architect of the 17th century, on different occasions used to make his masterpieces out of sugar. Nowadays, the cakes are decorated with flowers, figurines, bids, etc.