A layer cake (US English) or sandwich cake (UK English) is a

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by a filling such as frosting, jam, 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, Egg (food), eggs, flour, and leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda. It is considered one of the q ...

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 do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during ...

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 German chocolate cake,

red velvet cake Red velvet cake is a red-colored layer cake with cream cheese or ermine icing. The origin of the cake is unknown, although it is popular in the Southern United States and has been served as a dessert at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel s ...

, Black Forest cake, and carrot cake with

cream cheese Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Cream cheese is not naturally matured and is meant to be consumed fresh, so it differs from other soft cheeses such as Brie and Neuf ...

icing. Many wedding cakes 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

Whereas in modern layer cakes, layers are generally baked to a height of around and split horizontally, another method of preparing cake layers is used for cakes like Dobos torte and

Prinzregententorte Prinzregententorte () is a Bavarian torte consisting of at least six, usually seven, thin layers of sponge cake interlaid with chocolate buttercream. The exterior is covered in a dark chocolate glaze. Prinzregententorte is very popular in Bavari ...

: The cake batter is baked in seven or eight separate thin layers, about a half-inch thick each in the finished stack. These layers are then covered with a thin layer of cream and/or jam and stacked. 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 A is a business that typically offers a wide variety of Pastry, pastries and typically also serves as a café#In Europe, café. (plural) are found in many countries including but not limited to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmar ...

style cake such as the Black Forest cake. An example for a European layer cake invented in 1735 is the Frankfurter Kranz (Frankfurt Crown Cake) which consists of two or three layers of

filled with jam and buttercream frosting, and then frosted with more buttercream. The French term ''gâteau'' is used for a cake in France, and in the UK it means a layer cake. It 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 cupcakes, petits fours, or other individual pastries. A common layer cake size, which is baked in nine-inch round cake pans, typically serves about 16 people, but there is some variation. Some recipes suggest larger pieces with as few as 10 servings for a double-layer cake, and others expect 24 servings. Much smaller pieces, with as many as 32 servings for a nine-inch round layer cake, are common for

wedding cake 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 at ...

. Unlike the Vietnamese Bánh da lợn or

Swiss roll A Swiss roll, jelly roll (United States), roll cake, cream roll, roulade, Swiss log or swiss cake is a type of rolled sponge cake filled with whipped cream, jam, icing, or any type of filling. The origins of the term are unclear; in spite of ...

s, layer cake is assembled from several separate pieces of cake. A

sheet cake Sheet or Sheets may refer to: * Bed sheet A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, b ...

can become a layer cake if it is cut into pieces and reassembled with frosting or other filling to form layers. File:Pound layer cake.jpg, Both fruit jam and icing for filling File:Cake, Downpatrick, April 2010 (01).JPG, Layer cake without icing File:Red Velvet Cake Waldorf Astoria.jpg,

Red velvet cake Red velvet cake is a red-colored layer cake with cream cheese or ermine icing. The origin of the cake is unknown, although it is popular in the Southern United States and has been served as a dessert at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel s ...

with white icing File:Rainbowcake.jpg, Rainbow layer cake File:Apple Stack Cake.jpg, Apple preserves instead of icing File:0688 Lebkuchentorte Sanok 2013.JPG, Square piece of layer cake

Examples

Black Forest gateau Black Forest gateau, ( , ) or Black Forest cake, is a layer cake made out of cocoa powder, Sour Cherry, cherries, ''Kirsch'', and whipped cream, with dark chocolate as a decoration. The origins of the cake and its name are disputed. However, th ...

, a chocolate layer cake filled with whipped cream and cherries * Blackout cake, a chocolate layer cake named after the wartime blackouts *

Boston cream pie A Boston cream pie is a cake with a cream filling. The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were baked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably. In the late 19th century, this type of cake was variously called a "cre ...

, which, despite the name, is a yellow layer cake filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate frosting * Buckwheat gateau from northern Germany * Doberge cake, a New Orleans version of the Hungarian Dobos torte * German chocolate cake, an American cake usually baked as a layer cake * Hummingbird cake, an American spice cake often baked as a layer cake * Lane cake, from the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

* Medovik, honey-flavored cake with many layers * Sarawak layer cake from

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

* Lapis legit (Spekkoek) from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

* Stack cake from the United States * Washington pie, a jam-filled cake from the United States

References

{{Cakes

Older forms

Comparison

Examples

See also

References