Pizza cake is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
multiple-layer
pizza
Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...
baked in a pot or
cake pan
Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considered both cookware ...
. First invented by
Boston Pizza
Boston Pizza (BP), known as Boston's The Gourmet Pizza Restaurant and Sports Bar outside of Canada, is a Canadian multinational restaurant chain that owns and franchises locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
History
Boston Pizza ...
, recipes were posted online as early as April 2014, though they did not become
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
until the
Pillsbury Company
The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of cereal, grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Croc ...
posted an example in September 2014. Reviews have been mixed, with praise aimed at its taste and criticism leveled at its complexity and unhealthiness.
History
In April 2014, the Canadian-based chain Boston Pizza included the pizza cake as part of its Pizza Game Changers promotion, which featured numerous "outlandish" pizza-related products. The recipe quickly became the promotion's most popular, receiving 15,000 votes by 21 April – more than five times as much as its nearest competitor, the pizza
mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAES g ...
. It held this position until the promotion closed.
The company advertised the concoction as "great for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and even lonely nights watching infomercials".
Inspired by the Boston Pizza promotion, later in April a recipe for pizza cake was posted to the So Good Blog;
one
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
user who tried the recipe described it as "heavenly", though with a strong "food hangover".
In September 2014, a recipe for pizza cake by Shawn Syphus was posted by the
Pillsbury Company
The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of cereal, grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Croc ...
. It soon circulated widely on the internet, becoming
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
;
the company was sometimes mistakenly attributed with originating the recipe.
Preparation
The So Good Blog recipe calls for regular pizza dough, rolled into a layer thick, out of which six round pieces 6 1/3 inches (16 cm) in diameter are cut. These rounds are cooked in a preheated oven for 15 minutes, then allowed to cool. Meanwhile, baking powder is sprinkled into a pot, the sides of which are then lined with a thick layer of dough. When this is complete and the rounds are cooled, a round is placed at the bottom, then covered in pizza ingredients (including
sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French word t ...
,
pepperoni
Pepperoni is an American variety of spicy salami made from cured pork and beef seasoned with paprika or other chili pepper.
Prior to cooking, pepperoni is characteristically soft, slightly smoky, and bright red. Thinly sliced pepperoni is one ...
, and
cheese
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
); this step is repeated until the pot is filled. After excess dough is trimmed off and the edges are tucked in, the pizza cake is baked for 45 minutes.
The Pillsbury recipe which went viral in September 2014 had a similar, though smaller, recipe which called for less cooking time. The recipe recommended a pan with tall sides (square or round), and called for three layers of dough and a total of 28–33 minutes of cooking time (8 for the rounds and 20–25 for the finished pizza).
The ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' gave a total of 5,000 calories for a six-layer Boston Pizza pizza cake.
Reception
Peter Sagal
Peter Daniel Sagal (born January 31, 1965) is an American humorist, writer, and host of the National Public Radio game show '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' and the PBS special ''Constitution USA with Peter Sagal''.
__TOC__
Early life, fami ...
of
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
found the recipe was more complicated than it appeared, writing "It's not exactly (how much you like pizza) × (number of layers)", and that the pizza cake lost the crispiness of the crust. He concluded that the recipe was fun to make, and the "obscene amount of cheese" being eaten makes one forget issues with the crust. Rosanne Salvatore, writing for the online magazine ''
Bustle
A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...
'', considered the cake worth recommending despite the amount of work and expense required; she concluded "I created a miracle
he pizza cakewith my bare hands".
April Blake, writing in the ''
Cleveland Free Times
The ''Cleveland Free Times'' was an alternative weekly newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. Its first issue was published on September 30, 1992.
The ''Free Times'' and '' Cleveland Scene'', a competing weekly paper, were purchased by Times-Shamrock Co ...
'', had a more negative view of the recipe. She considered it difficult to prepare, lacking crispiness in the crust, and more unhealthy than a regular pizza.
See also
*
Pizza in Canada
Canada has many of its own pizza chains, both national and regional, and many distinctive regional variations and types of pizza resulting from influences of local Canadian cuisine. The "Canadian pizza" toppings typically include tomato sauce, mo ...
*
Chicago-style stuffed pizza
Chicago-style pizza is pizza prepared according to several different styles developed in Chicago, widely referred to simply as deep dish pizza due to its cooking style. The pan in which it is baked gives the pizza its characteristically high ed ...
*
Bacon cake
Bacon cake is a dish made with bacon, either savory or sweet, and generally baked in an oven, although it's sometimes cooked in a skillet on a range top.
Savory bacon cake
A savory bacon cake is like a potato cake, and can be made with potatoes o ...
References
{{reflist, 40em
Pizza styles
Savoury pies
Canadian cuisine
Pizza in the United States
Food and drink introduced in 2014