Cakes are an occasional indulgence; most are a work of art if you look closely at their many ingredients, thin layers, sticking agent and frosting. Depending on where they are from they can be baked, cooked or steamed and no matter where it’s from, they are usually made to commemorate something be it a nature festival or a personal even. So, here are some of them beginning with “Q” and “R” that range from having the basic cake recipe to some tricky ones.
A sweet little cake with a bread-like texture can be found lurking in most Salvadoran bakeries. In certain villages, they whip up this sugary cake-bread hybrid every Sunday morning, using a mix of flour, queso fresco or parmesan, sugar, baking powder, milk or sour cream, eggs, and butter. Sometimes the top gets a sprinkling of sesame seeds before baking and once cool, it's sliced into wedges and served up.
Red velvet cake falls in the category of desserts, for which it’s hard to pinpoint and say where they might've come from. But it is a modern invention with an interesting taste, that feels a bit pasty, that does not appeal to everyone. It's commonly baked during Valentine's Day and Christmas and uses cream cheese frosting and sometimes a French-style roux icing. The cake uses buttermilk and vinegar because of which it gets its distinctive taste. It used to be made with beets during World War II and the Great Depression in the US.
This cake hails from the Croatian island of Rab, where it graced the presence of Pope Alexander III way back in 1177. It’s a spiral cake or torta packed with almonds, lemon zest, orange zest, and that famed Maraschino liqueur. These days, the locals roll it out for major shindigs like baptisms and weddings, while tourists can snag various forms as edible souvenirs.
Indulgence begins with this Serbian multi-layered masterpiece of a chocolate walnut cake. Walnut sponge cake layers embrace a luscious creamy chocolate filling. The sponge contains egg whites, sugar, and walnuts, while the filling blends chocolate, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. The whole shebang gets a velvety coat of that chocolate filling, plus a crunchy crown of chopped walnuts if you're lucky. A festive staple believed to have emerged post-WWII.
In Hungary, they construct a crepe cake called rakott palacsinta by layering delicate pancakes with tasty fillings. The pancakes are made with milk, flour, and eggs. As for the fillings, those often contain fruit jam, ground walnuts, poppy seeds, and cottage cheese. Once assembled, the cake gets topped with beaten egg whites and baked until it takes on a golden brown hue. Some folks even drizzle melted chocolate over the top layer.
The French sure know desserts and their royal (or trianon or royal au chocolat) is no exception. It starts with a dacquoise base - that's a crispy almond meringue layer. On top goes a crunchy praline cream made with melted chocolate, thin crispy crepe dentelle biscuits, and praline paste. Then they smother it all in a thick layer of chocolate mousse. A dusting of cocoa or a chocolate glaze makes the final flourish. Not much is known about this regal dessert's origins, but French pastry shops have it in round or rectangular forms.
Another cake from Hungary, Rigó Jancsi is said to have been created around the turn of the 20th century, named after the famous Hungarian Gypsy violinist János Rigó and the enamorous scandal that involved him and the wife of a Belgian prince. The story goes thus, Rigó was performing with his orchestra at a swanky Paris restaurant where he caught the eye of Clara Ward, the daughter of an American millionaire and wife of a Belgian prince. This rich chocolate sponge cake is dubbed "Gypsy John" after Rigó's sobriquet, which skyrocketed in popularity amidst the drama of their romance that made headlines as Clara left her husband and children behind to be with Rigó. It didn’t stop there, in 1896, Clara and Rigó visited the Croatian city of Rijeka, where locals fell in love with the indulgent cake.
This one's from Argentina is a layered cake that also goes by the name alfajor rogel, because it resembles the local beloved alfajor cookies. The cake has eight layers with a topping of Italian meringue. Between the thin layers of the cake is a local sweet sticky caramel sauce called dulche de leche.