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Cake in a Box
Welcome to Cakeinabox.co.uk - About Us Information
So you would like to know alittle bit more about us as a company? Great! This page is here to provide a brief history and overview of who we are and what we do.
We hope this will help resolve any queries you may have. Further related information can be
found on our Help and FAQ pages.
Company Introduction
Delicious Home Baked Recipes
Cake Designs
Birthday Cakes - A Brief History
Wedding Cakes - A Brief History
At Cake in a Box we offer delicious, unique and fun bespoke custom made cakes to suit every occasion.
Since 2005 The Cake in a Box team, which consists of highly qualified bakers
and talented creative decorators, have been designing and creating couture celebration
cakes for all occasions. Our reputation for quality and excellence is renowned
and existing customers return time after time.
By growing the business through focusing on local customers and using our passion
for detail to ensure every cake is perfect, The Cake in a Box confectionery teams skill and flair
meant the successful business soon grew and is now based in our Bakery Outlet supplying celebration
cakes for weddings, civil partnerships, corporate events, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings and
all other celebratory occasions imaginable.
Whatever the reason to celebrate we will design and bake a cake just for your
special occasion. Whether it is for your Fairy Tale Wedding, Baby's christening,
Dad's retirement, Granny's 90th birthday or corporate event, if you provide
the idea and we will create the perfect cake.
If you are just a little short of inspiration you've come to the right place.
Just browse through our Cake Gallery and see the wonderful couture designs
that other customers have asked for. There are literally hundreds of cakes to
view. And remember our speciality is creating custom designed cakes for your
special events, so if you don't see anything that exactly fits the bill please
contact us. We will be happy to discuss your requirements with you.
You will be most welcome at our outlet which has display cakes, computer
aided brochures and phototographs showing the huge variety of cakes available
for every celebration.
View our Food safety inspection report from the South Lanarkshire Council Environmental Health Office.
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Delicious Home Baked Recipes All Cake in a Box cakes are baked at our Bakery in the South Side of Glasgow
using traditional home baked recipes and the finest ingredients.
Our expert bakers produce the most sumptuous chocolate cakes, traditional rich
fruitcakes and delicious vanilla sponge cakes your tastebuds can imagine.
Vanilla Sponge
Our delicious Victoria vanilla sponge is always made fresh to ensure a soft, moist and light texture.
It is split and spread with a mouth watering butter-cream, whipped from pure butter and icing sugar.
No cake would be complete without a generous layer of quality raspberry jam.
Chocolate Cake
We have developed our chocolate cake to contain as much chocolate as we possibly can.
This ensures that it is always moist and rich in flavour. All of our chocolate cakes are
topped with chocolate sugar paste icing and split with layers of pure butter cream whipped
with chocolate and cocoa.
Rich Fruit Cake
Our fruitcake is made from a special recipe developed by our Master bakers. We use all natural
ingredients including real butter, dark sugar, flaked almonds, rum and quality sun dried fruits.
We slow bake the cakes in a lightly steamed oven to ensure a moist and delicious cake. We always
finish our cakes with marzipan and rolled sugar icing. Royal iced cakes can be made on request.
Always ensure that you use a sharp cake knife when cutting.
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At Cake in a Box, we have a dedicated and talented team who enjoy designing, baking and icing cakes. We love to train our team from scratch to meet our high standards and every cake is hand baked and decorated in our bakery outlet.
Our confectionery team use a variety of decorating techniques including sugar models, edible photos, breathtaking sugar flower arrangements and 3-D cake sculptures, to achieve the desired effect for any occasion - this is truly cake art!
We love seeing our customers' reaction when they lift the lid and they see their cake for the first time - As Their eyes light up we can see the satisfaction in that we have made their celebration day even more special!
Please feel free to browse through our Cake Gallery and see the wonderful couture designs
that other customers have asked for.
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Birthday Cakes - A Brief History History of the Birthday Cake
The Origins of Birthday Cakes dates back to ancient times but the variety of cake of that time was very different from what we have today.
The word Cake is said to have been coined as early as the 13th century and is said to have derived from kaka - an Old Norse word.
Definition of Birthday Cake
In Western culture the Birthday Cake is defined as a pastry or dessert served to
a person on his or her birthday. Birthday cakes are usually decorated with a persons name and carry a
message of congratulations. Candles equal to the number of years a person has been alive are also
placed on the cake. There is also a tradition to place one extra candle to bring good luck.
Birthday cakes traditionally have a sponge filling with the most popular flavour being vanilla.
Birthday Cake History
The history of the Birthday Cake can be traced back to the ancient Greeks who made round
or moon shaped honey cakes or bread and took it to the temple of Artemis - the Goddess of Moon. Some
scholars, however, believe that the tradition of the Birthday cake started in Germany in Middle Ages.
Sweetened bread dough was given the shape of baby Jesus in swaddling cloth and was used to commemorate
his birthday. This special birthday cake later re-emerged in Germany as a Kinderfest or the birthday
celebrations of a young child. Germans also baked another special kind of cake called
'Geburtstagorten' as it was baked in layers. This cake was sweeter that the coarse and bread like cake
that were usually made at that time.
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Why are Birthday Cakes Round?
In earlier times, Birthday cakes were mostly round in shape. Scholars associate
religious beliefs and technical compulsions for the same. Greeks offered round shape cake to the
Goddess of Moon - Artemis as it signified moon. They even placed candles on the cake to make the
cake glow like the moon.
Some scholars opine that cakes in the ancient world had association with the
annual cycles. Round shapes of cakes were preferred as these represented the cyclical nature of life.
Most specifically, the sun and the moon.
Technical reasons given for the roundness of the cake is that most cakes we know of advanced from
the bread. In ancient times breads and cakes were made by hand. Typically, these were fashioned into
round balls and baked on hearthstones or in low, shallow pans. Hence, these naturally relaxed into
round shapes. With the progress of times baking pans of various shapes were developed and today we
see cakes in imaginative shapes and sizes.
Tradition of Putting Candles on Birthday Cakes
Tradition of placing candles on Birthday cakes is attributed to early Greeks,
who used place lit candles on cakes to make them glow like the moon. Greeks used to take cakes to
the temple of Artemis-the Goddess of Moon. Some scholars say that candles were placed on the cakes
because people believe that the smoke of the candle carried their wishes and prayers to Gods who
lived in the skies. Others believe that the custom originated in Germany where people used to place
a large candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize - the light of life.
In present times, people place candles on Birthday cakes and a silent
wish is made before blowing out the candle. It is believed that blowing out all candles in one
breath means the wish will come true and the person with enjoy good luck in the coming year.
Some also smear out the name of the person before slicing of the cake to bring good luck.
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Traditions and Superstitious Beliefs Related to Birthday Cakes
In medieval times people of Britain would place symbolic objects like coins,
rings and thimbles in the batter of the cake. It was believed that those who found coin in the cake
would be wealthy while the unlucky finder of the thimble would never marry. Weddings were signified
for the person who found the slice of cake with the ring. Even today some people follow the tradition
and place small figures, fake coins and small candies inside the cake.
Technical Advancement in the Making of Birthday Cakes
In early years cakes were very similar to bread. They were sweetened
with honey and enhanced with nuts and dry fruits. According to food historians, ancient Egyptians
were the first to show evidence of advanced baking skills. Medieval European bakers used to make
fruitcakes and gingerbread that could last for months.
Around the middle of 17th century, Europeans
had made considerable advancement in the art of making cakes. They began to make what can be called
precursor to modern cakes that were round and had icing. This was mainly due to the development of
technology that made available reliable ovens, food moulds and refined sugar.
At that time cake hoops - which were round wooden or metal moulds for shaping cakes were placed on
flat pans to effect the shape.
Birthday Cakes Icings
The first icings that were used on cakes were usually a boiled composition of finest
available sugar, egg whites and flavours. The icing was poured onto the cake and then the cake
was placed back into the oven for a while. When the cake was taken out, the icing cooled quickly to
form a hard glossy ice-like covering. Mouled cakes and fancy ices reached their zenith in Victorian
times.
The art of baking cakes has kept on progressing and it was not until
the middle of the 19th century that the cake we know of today was developed. The tastes and appearances of
cakes were enhanced with extra-refined white flour and the use of baking powder instead of yeast.
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Wedding Cakes - A Brief History Traditions and Superstitious Beliefs Related to Wedding Cakes
The history of wedding cakes is a fascinating one, with a story that starts with
the celebration of nuptials as far back as ancient Roman times when a simple cake of wheat or barley
would have been broken over the bride's head in order to ensure her future fertility. Guests would
scramble to obtain a crumb for themselves, a custom that led to the sharing of the modern traditional
wedding cake. Eventually the cake evolved in both size and decoration until breaking it over the
bride's head became impractical, if not impossible.
Medieval England saw the introduction of mounds of small buns, a fashion that
has gone full circle with the re-introduction of the individual cup cake tower as a popular alternative
to the traditionally tiered wedding cake.
The bride and groom would traditionally try to kiss over the top of the tower
without knocking the cakes down. If successful, prosperity and health would await the lucky couple.
For convenience the small cakes were eventually frosted together with sugar.
Thanks to a visiting French chef during the mid-1600s, wedding cake design took
a distinct turn towards the style of cake we're familiar with today. The Frenchman's aversion to
cakes falling to the floor prompted him to design an alternative, the tiered and frosted cake, a
wedding cake design that quickly caught on and that has since held its popularity.
The history of wedding cakes started out on its last leg before reaching the
traditional wedding cakes we have today, mostly due to brides striving to outdo each other. The more
admiration a wedding cake design received, the greater the chance of a marriage steeped in good
fortune and peace.
Demands for larger, more elaborate wedding cakes appeared as the number of guests celebrating the
happy couple grew. Big receptions meant big wedding cakes that often took months to create.
Understandably, without the luxury of modern refrigeration, cakes made from dried fruit and fats
became popular because of their longevity in the larder. A thick sugar frosting helped prevent
moisture loss, ensuring the cake would be moist and tasty when finally served and devoured. Wedding
cake history had taken the final step along the road to the cake we know today.
Previous to the Victorian era, only the rich could afford the very finest sugars
needed to make pure white icing. This resulted in the white wedding cake design becoming a symbol of
wealth rather than purity, as is often believed.
The Second World War forced brides to be imaginative in order to have a beautiful wedding cake
using limited ingredients. As sugar was rationed and therefore scarce, cakes were generally reduced
in size and, so as to resemble a traditional wedding cake design, served inside a box decorated with
plaster of Paris.
Whenever we see a bride and groom cutting the wedding cake, we're witnessing
a very long tradition of the bride vowing to help her groom wherever possible, and when the proceed
to feed one another from that first slice they're committing to provide for one another for.
Now that you know the history, wedding cakes will never be quite the same again.
They are, after all, far more than 'just a cake'.
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