Bread vs Cake
One main different between bread and cake is the ingredients that we use to make bread and cake. Breads are food items that are made by cooking dough of flour and water, with or without the addition of leavening agents. In Europe, where bread is a staple food, the dough is mostly baked, but there are some cultures where it is directly fried or even steamed. Perhaps one of the oldest manmade food items, breads have been there since 30000 years. The brown, outer part of a fresh bread piece is called crust while the softer, inner part is referred to as crumb. Cake, on the other hand, is a type of bread that is sweet, and consumed as a dessert rather than a staple food. There are many differences between a bread and a cake that will be talked about in this article.
What is Bread?
In almost all cultures, bread has much more significance than just a food item as is evident from phrases like bread and butter, and bread winner or bread earner of a family. Roti, kapda, aur makan in India and peace, land, and bread in Russia are phrases enough to convey the importance of bread in different countries of the world. Wheat is the most common grain used to make breads by making dough of its flour with water and then adding a leavening agent. When yeast is added, it takes no time to rise and finally it is baked to make soft, delicious bread. While, white bread is the most popular, brown bread, wholemeal bread, roti, chapatti, naan, pita, and flatbread are some of the popular varieties of breads made in different cultures around the world.
What is Cake?
On the other hand, cakes are sweet deserts eaten on occasions such as festivals, birthdays, Christmas, new year, and so on though, there are many who have a sweet tooth and have their daily dose of cakes. The normal ingredients in a cake are flour, sugar, eggs, butter or oil. Depending on the cake you are making there can be a variety of ingredients. For example, for a butter cake, other than these main four ingredients you have to add baking powder, salt, fresh milk or yogurt and vanilla essence. Some people even decorate their cakes. For that you have to wait until cake is baked. Once baked, the surface can be covered with icing or frosting or use sprinkles to decorate. Especially, for birthday cakes, people write the name of the person having the birthday on it with the happy birthday wish using icing.
What is the difference between Bread and Cake?
• Type of food:
• Bread is a staple food.
• Cake is mostly consumed as a dessert.
• Shape and ingredients:
• Bread is made in many shapes, but the basic ingredients remain flour and water with addition of yeast or any other leavening agent.
• Cake contains, apart from flour and water, sugar, eggs, butter, cream, flavors, etc. Cakes are also made in different shapes.
• Decoration:
• You generally do not decorate bread.
• You, however, have multiple ways of decorating cake. You can put icing, frosting or you can use sprinkles to decorate cakes. Sometimes, as a decorating purpose, some cake makers even use different colors of coloring for different parts of the cake.
• Types:
• There are different types of bread such as wholemeal bread, white bread, brown bread, rye bread, etc.
• There are different types of cakes such as butter cake, chocolate cake, sponge cake, fruit cake, etc.
• Preparation:
• When preparing bread you usually put water to flour until it comes to the right level of mixing where you can shape the flour in the shape you want. There are different methods of making different types of bread. So, once you have shape the flour, you can bake the bread. Some cultures steam the bread without baking.
• When preparing cake too, depending on the recipe you are following, you may use different methods. Generally, you have to add all the ingredients that you are using according to the right order and finally you have to put that mixture on a pan. Then, you have to put that pan into the preheated oven and get your cake baked.
• Nutrition:
• A regular size piece of bread contain 69 calories.1
• Since there a many types of cakes, let’s take a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. One piece contains 235 calories. 2
Sources:
Images Courtesy:
- Bread and grains via Wikicommons (Public Domain)
- Choco rose cake by SimonJamesKent (CC BY-SA 3.0)
