A layer cake (US English) or sandwich cake (UK English) is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and ente ...

or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for layer cakes;

butter cake A butter cake is a cake in which one of the main ingredients is butter. Butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda. It is considered one of the quintessent ...

s and

sponge cake Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated ...

s are common choices. Frequently, the cake is covered with icing, but sometimes, the sides are left undecorated, so that the filling and the number of layers are visible. Popular flavor combinations include the

German chocolate cake German chocolate cake, originally German's chocolate cake, is a layered chocolate cake filled and topped with a coconut-pecan frosting. Originating in the United States, it owes its name to an English-American chocolate maker named Samuel Germa ...

red velvet cake Red velvet cake is traditionally a red, red-brown, crimson, or scarlet-colored layer cake, layered with ermine icing. Traditional recipes do not use food coloring, with the red color due to non- Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa. Common ingred ...

Black Forest cake Black Forest gâteau or Black Forest cake (American English) is a chocolate sponge cake with a rich cherry filling based on the German dessert (), literally "Black Forest Cherry-torte". Typically, Black Forest gateau consists of several layer ...

, and

carrot cake Carrot cake (also known as passion cake) is cake that contains carrots mixed into the batter. Most modern carrot cake recipes have a white cream cheese frosting. Sometimes nuts such as walnuts or pecans are added into the cake batter, as wel ...

with

cream cheese Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Stabilizers such as carob bean gum and carrageenan are often added in industrial production. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration de ...

icing. Many

wedding cakes A wedding cake is the traditional cake served at wedding receptions following dinner. In some parts of England, the wedding cake is served at a wedding breakfast; the 'wedding breakfast' does not mean the meal will be held in the morning, but ...

are decorated layer cakes. In the mid-19th century, modern cakes were first described in English. Maria Parloa's ''Appledore Cook Book'', published in Boston in 1872, contained one of the first layer cake recipes. Another early recipe for layer cake was published in ''Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book'', published in London in 1894.

Older forms

Dobos cake (Gerbeaud Confectionery Budapest Hungary)

An older form of layer cake is common in southern and eastern Europe. The cake batter is baked in a frying pan in thin layers, about a half-inch thick in the finished stack. These layers are then covered with a thin layer of cream and/or jam and stacked 7 or 8 layers high. This stack, which is the same height as the typical Western layer cake, is then frosted so that the structure is not visible. At first glance, these cakes look much like a German konditorei style cake such as the Black Forest cake. An example for a European layer cake invented in 1735 is the

Frankfurter Kranz The Frankfurter Kranz (or Frankfurt Crown Cake) is a cake specialty of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Preparation starts with the baking of a firm sponge cake in a ring shaped baking tin. The cake is then sliced horizontally to divide it into tw ...

(Frankfurt Crown Cake) which consists of two or three layers of sponge cake filled with jam and buttercream frosted with more buttercream. The French term ''gâteau'' when used for a cake in France and the UK means a layer cake. although the term is also used for some types of pastry-based desserts like the Gâteau Basque.

Comparison

Layer cakes typically serve multiple people, so they are larger than

cupcake A cupcake (also British English: fairy cake; Hiberno-English: bun) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as frui ...

petits fours A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, ''petit four'' (), meaning "small oven". History and etymology In 18th and 19th century France, gas ...

, or other individual pastries. A common layer cake size, which is baked in nine-inch round cake pans, typically serves about 16 people. Unlike the Vietnamese

Bánh da lợn ''Bánh da lợn'' or ''bánh chín tầng mây'' or ''bánh da heo''The "d" in "da" is pronounced like a "z" in northern Vietnamese pronunciation and like a "y" in southern Vietnamese pronunciation. () is a Vietnamese steamed layer cake made fro ...

or Swiss rolls, layer cake is assembled from several separate pieces of cake. A

sheet cake A sheet cake or slab cake is a cake baked in a large, flat, rectangular cake pan. Sheet cakes are usually 2 inches deep, although they are sometimes 3 inches deep. These single-layer cakes are frequently frosted, with decorations and ornamental ...

can become a layer cake if it is cut into pieces and reassembled with frosting or other filling to form layers.

References

{{Cakes

Older forms

Comparison

See also

References