1900's Cake

The 1900's was the start of a new century, but also the start of huge societal change. The gap between the poor and rich began to close, and a middle class started to emerge. You may be thinking, what does this have to do with cakes? But this is what influenced many trends in desserts in the past. Because of the middle class there was a rise in simple cakes, due to the fact that they could afford to make the cake but not decorate it extravagantly. I found MANY different styles of cakes when researching this decade; everything from small plain bunt cakes, to 6 tier cakes featuring elaborate details. This made it hard to determine what the actual trends of this decade were. Every picture I found showed a different style of cake, so I looked for the similarities in them. I did know that the flavour trends were caramel, banana, angel food, and chocolate cake. In terms of style I found that most of the cakes had flowers, and the buttercream itself didn't have much detail in it. So I took all of the pictures and information I found and tried to combine it all into one cake.

The cake I made was chocolate (recipe linked here: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/triple-chocolate-layer-cake/.) This cake was fluffy and moist, and I would definitely recommend it. For the buttercream I used my own variation of American buttercream (I had to use this buttercream as it colours much more easily than Swiss meringue buttercream). For the decoration on this cake I was inspired by a cake made by another baker's cake which was also 1900's inspired (linked here:https://cakesdecor.com/cakes/212074-fashion-through-the-decades-1900-1910-edwardian-era.). The gold leaves are made out of fondant, and I simply laid them on the cake layering them over each other. Then I topped the cake off with velvet flowers.

The only challenge I had when making this cake was with colouring the buttercream. I had to use large amounts of black and blue gel colouring, and had to microwave it several times until it reached the desired colour. This process took about 2 hours in total. So let's just say I will definitely be working on this technique!

Keep reading for more information on my project!

About My Project:

I chose to do my project on cakes through the decades because I have always had a great love for history, and a newfound love for baking. This project taught me many things about research, costumer service, calculating pricing, photography and editing, working with new materials and ingredients, and graphic design. My main goal for this project was to further my baking and cake decorating skills, while acquiring experience working with a variety of techniques. Not only did I accomplish this goal, but I also did it with great enjoyment. This project, while testing my abilities and challenging me constantly, was one of the best experiences of my life. My plan as of right now for the future is to start a business, building off of this project, sometime in the near future. I'm not 100% sure what this will entail as of right now, but stick around for the journey with me to find out!