0:00:06 > 0:00:09Now, I'm no cake snob.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13I'm just as happy to buy cake from a shop, as I am to eat one that
0:00:13 > 0:00:15I've made at home.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19Now, whether it's the Battenberg from the local supermarket,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22an arctic roll from the freezer or a lovely wonky sponge
0:00:22 > 0:00:27made by Auntie Marjorie, I'm drawn to them on a gut level.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32They're a reminder of good times, of happy times, sharing.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Mmmm, just look at that,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37light as a feather and trembling with naughtiness.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Of course, the trouble with me is I never could say no.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Cake has a universal appeal to every man, woman
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and definitely every child.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52For centuries, it has come to define the meaning of our most
0:00:52 > 0:00:54important celebrations.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59Whatever their size, shape or colour, cake has the ability to
0:00:59 > 0:01:01transport us back in time.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08But there's one thing that has really nagged at me over the years.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11We all use the word "cake" without a
0:01:11 > 0:01:14second thought, but what actually makes a cake?
0:01:14 > 0:01:19Buns, pastries, turnovers, eclairs, breads and tarts.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23These days, it appears anything goes.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28I want to understand what makes a cake...well, a cake.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33I'll be exploring the mystical ways in which a cake was placed
0:01:33 > 0:01:37centre stage in some of our most ancient civilisations.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41You need three young women who gather together in perfect
0:01:41 > 0:01:43silence to bake a cake.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45- Oh my goodness.- Oh, I'm the queen.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47And that makes me the king.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Yes, so which one of us is wearing the dress?
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Finding out how they've kept a nation going
0:01:53 > 0:01:55during its darkest hours.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58During the war it's a survival mechanism
0:01:58 > 0:02:00and keeping the home fires burning.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04It's hope... This is hope in cake form.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08Rejoicing in those mass produced treats that millions of us
0:02:08 > 0:02:11enjoy every day...
0:02:11 > 0:02:14and coming face to face with some shocking creations
0:02:14 > 0:02:17that firmly take cake into the 21st century.
0:02:17 > 0:02:19- Road kill cake?- Yeah!
0:02:19 > 0:02:22It's gross, it's gross. Ahh, no, no, no, no...
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Do you want to eat a cigarette butt?
0:02:24 > 0:02:26HE GROANS
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Hello, my hobby is baking cakes,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38the kind mother used to bake.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Course, I add a few modern, efficient methods of my own
0:02:42 > 0:02:47and now that you're all here, I'd like to show you how I do it.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54As a nation, we spend over half a billion pounds a year
0:02:54 > 0:02:55on home baking!
0:02:56 > 0:03:00It seems we have this unquenchable appetite for anything naughty...
0:03:00 > 0:03:02but nice.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05So, when exactly is a cake a cake?
0:03:05 > 0:03:09The question that can lead to people getting quite hot under the collar.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12I mean, does it have to be round? Must there be a raising agent?
0:03:12 > 0:03:14Will it go stale if left too long?
0:03:14 > 0:03:16And as with an Eccles cake or
0:03:16 > 0:03:19a teacake, if it has the word in its name,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21does it necessarily qualify it?
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Before we go into the finer detail, I've been invited to a select
0:03:27 > 0:03:32and secret gathering of people who love cake nearly as much as I do.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38- Hello.- Hello, Nigel, welcome to the Clandestine Cake Club.
0:03:38 > 0:03:39Thank you very much.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45It's nice to be able to surprise people with cake
0:03:45 > 0:03:47'and it's something that you've created as well'
0:03:47 > 0:03:50and then seeing everybody get stuck in and enjoy eating it.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52When I bake, it always just takes me
0:03:52 > 0:03:55'back to those sort of earlier days with my mum.'
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I think bakers as a group are actually naturally quite
0:03:58 > 0:04:00generous people.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03I think it's about making other people and myself happy.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05That's my lavender, lemon and blackberry bun.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08- Lavender, lemon and blackberry. - A bit of a mouthful.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10You haven't a cake, really...
0:04:10 > 0:04:15With over 13,000 club members worldwide, I'm curious to know
0:04:15 > 0:04:18why they chose the word "clandestine".
0:04:18 > 0:04:22I love the idea of getting people together over tea and cake.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25We would book a place and only a few days before would you know
0:04:25 > 0:04:30exactly where the event is, so the Clandestine Cake Club was created.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33- I've heard of things like that but I'm not sure it was cake.- Ah!
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Perhaps I shouldn't say it, but there is something a little...
0:04:40 > 0:04:43eccentric about a club
0:04:43 > 0:04:45where people bring cakes. I mean...
0:04:45 > 0:04:49It's the only place in the world where it's socially acceptable to
0:04:49 > 0:04:52sit down and eat cake all afternoon and nobody will bat an eyelid.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56People share love of movies and sports teams and whatever,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58why can't people share love of cake?
0:04:58 > 0:05:01At the end of the day the people who do find us
0:05:01 > 0:05:05a tad eccentric still eat our cake if we give them a slice.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08"Yes, you're mad, but can I have second slice?" Yes.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Heavens, I adore Mary Berry and I'd go out with Sue Perkins
0:05:14 > 0:05:20in a heartbeat but we have put a lot of pressure on home baking.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23This idea that things should be perfect and one of the great joys
0:05:23 > 0:05:29of coming here is realising that a cake doesn't have to be perfect.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31You haven't got to worry about the edges being straight,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34you haven't got to worry about whether it's risen properly.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37You certainly don't have to worry about a soggy bottom.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41This is cake to be enjoyed. It's made with love,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44it's made for sharing. This is just the most wonderful,
0:05:44 > 0:05:49wonderful thing, that this exists...a club for cake.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Cake is now so much a part of our daily lives, it feels that
0:05:57 > 0:06:00it's been around since the dawn of time.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10Whilst the word itself can be traced back
0:06:10 > 0:06:13to the 11th century Nordic word "kaka",
0:06:13 > 0:06:17the first actual evidence goes back to prehistoric times.
0:06:17 > 0:06:22Cake historian Nicola Humble has invited me for afternoon tea,
0:06:22 > 0:06:27Neolithic style, in order to sample some of man's earliest cakes.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Nicola, tell me about the first cakes.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I mean, what shape were they, what sort of size?
0:06:34 > 0:06:38The first cakes that archaeologists tend to refer
0:06:38 > 0:06:40to as cakes are Neolithic.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Clearly, Neolithic man didn't necessarily call them cakes,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45but they call them cakes because they are round
0:06:45 > 0:06:48and they're flat and they're basically grey and moistened,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51crushed and compacted together in some way.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55And then cooked possibly on stones by the side of a fire in the ashes.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59So, what they're like, essentially, you take grains like this, crush
0:06:59 > 0:07:02them with the corn, stick them together somehow,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05they're rather like some of these foods.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07- Rice cakes, for instance. - Good old rice cakes.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10A rice cake is a cake for exactly the same reason,
0:07:10 > 0:07:12because it's compacted together.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16We think of a cake of soap or mud caked on your boots,
0:07:16 > 0:07:17it's the same usage.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20So, it seems to me, that's the earliest understanding
0:07:20 > 0:07:21of what a cake means, is things
0:07:21 > 0:07:24squished together into a sort of patty-like form.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27So, Nicola, tell me about the bowl of muesli.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32Porridges of oats or wheat, get things added into them
0:07:32 > 0:07:34throughout the Middle Ages and onwards.
0:07:34 > 0:07:35So, dried fruits?
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Dried fruit, honey, it gets thicker and thicker and thicker over
0:07:39 > 0:07:42the centuries until it reaches the point where someone, probably
0:07:42 > 0:07:46several people, realised that they could put it in a cloth and boil it.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50And at some point someone, instead of boiling it, they bake it.
0:07:52 > 0:07:57In essence, these disparate crushed ingredients went from being boiled
0:07:57 > 0:07:59in puddings to being baked,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02moving us one step nearer to the modern cake.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06And we can find the roots of that in later cook books
0:08:06 > 0:08:12because many early fruit cakes are referred to as plum pudding cakes.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15Yes, you could, in theory, actually, you know,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18pat this into a little shape and bake it.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21- Yes, absolutely.- It would squish together.- Absolutely.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24And there you've got something that, for me,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27- is on the way to being a cake.- Yes.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32From these primitive examples of compacted ingredients,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36the notion of a cake as we know it today was still some way off.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43But one thing that has been consistent from the get-go is
0:08:43 > 0:08:46the way in which they've always been intimately associated with
0:08:46 > 0:08:48rituals and celebrations.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53I've been invited to an ancient grotto...
0:08:53 > 0:08:56Hello, welcome.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59..to meet Ronald Hutton, professor in British folklore and pagan ritual
0:08:59 > 0:09:02at the University of Bristol.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06So, tell me, why does cake lend itself so perfectly to the ritual?
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Cake is simply the most exciting form of bread
0:09:09 > 0:09:13and for thousands of years since the New Stone Age,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16when farming was discovered, down to the modern period and we got
0:09:16 > 0:09:19things like potatoes, bread was the staple diet of Europeans.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And cake is simply the most interesting thing
0:09:22 > 0:09:24you can do with a bread mix.
0:09:24 > 0:09:25SINGING
0:09:28 > 0:09:32So, tell us about Anglo Saxons and their relationship with cake.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34The pagan Anglo Saxons built
0:09:34 > 0:09:37one of their great annual religious festivals around cake.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41We know this because Bede, the first great historian of the English,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45an Anglo Saxon monk, said that they called February "Solmonath",
0:09:45 > 0:09:48cake month, because then they baked cakes
0:09:48 > 0:09:50and offered them to their gods.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Now, I've been hearing about something called "dumb cake",
0:09:53 > 0:09:54what is this?
0:09:54 > 0:09:57It's a ritual for young women,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01when marriage was absolutely crucial for the future of most young women.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And so you need three young women who gather together in perfect
0:10:05 > 0:10:07silence to bake a cake.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12If they've done everything correctly and without any of them speaking
0:10:12 > 0:10:15a word, then they'll dream of their future husband
0:10:15 > 0:10:18and know exactly who he's going to be.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20How exciting!
0:10:20 > 0:10:21It happens in October,
0:10:21 > 0:10:25on the eve of Saint Faith, which is the fifth of October.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Here's the rhyme that goes with the baking.
0:10:28 > 0:10:29I'll do it in a West Country accent,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32cos it's from the West Country and I'll try and be innocent.
0:10:33 > 0:10:39"Good saint faith be kind tonight and bring to me my heart's delight.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44"Let me my future husband view and be my vision chaste and true."
0:10:47 > 0:10:50- Isn't that beautiful!- Yes.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55So, where does the Twelfth-Night cake fit into all this?
0:10:55 > 0:11:00It comes out of late medieval France where they had the idea,
0:11:00 > 0:11:02which I must admit is rather a good one,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06of picking somebody to rule over the festivities that end
0:11:06 > 0:11:10the 12 days of Christmas on Twelfth Night by choosing them by lot.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13But the exciting way they do it, instead of just drawing things
0:11:13 > 0:11:18out of a jar or flipping a coin, is to bake a cake with a bean in it.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22And the guy who gets the bean becomes the king for the night
0:11:22 > 0:11:24and everybody has to obey him.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26And there's also a pea baked in the cake
0:11:26 > 0:11:30and the lady who gets the pea becomes the queen for the night.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Obvious question, what happens if the guy gets the pea?
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Well, there are a number of solutions possible to this,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37one being for him to put on a dress,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40another being for him simply to choose
0:11:40 > 0:11:42the lady who is the queen, which is the gallant way of doing it.
0:11:46 > 0:11:47Ah, ha-ha-ha!
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Oh, my goodness!
0:11:49 > 0:11:53- Oh, I'm the queen. That was good, wasn't it, first time?- Yes.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58- Oh, look there he is.- Yes.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00- Look at that!- And that makes me the king.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Yes, so which one of us is wearing the dress?
0:12:03 > 0:12:05- It's your choice.- Dress.
0:12:08 > 0:12:09Piece of cake for you.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12Thank you. This shoot has actually turned out to be fun.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19This is the fruit cake that gave birth to all fruit cakes.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Wonderful!
0:12:31 > 0:12:35But hang on, we've leapt centuries from ancient Britain to what
0:12:35 > 0:12:39is essentially a Christmas cake without icing.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41Up until the Elizabethan era,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45breads and early cakes were made using yeast
0:12:45 > 0:12:49or something called ale barm...it's a yeasty by-product of cider.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53It wasn't until the early 17th century, with the discovery of
0:12:53 > 0:12:55using whipped egg whites as
0:12:55 > 0:12:58a raising agent, that anything resembling the tall sponge cake
0:12:58 > 0:13:02we know today started to emerge from the manor houses of the rich.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06What would the King make of this new type of cake...
0:13:06 > 0:13:08this daring cook's experiment.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11The cook had gambled...and won!
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Here was history in the cake making.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20The ability to whisk eggs brought about a revolution in cake making,
0:13:20 > 0:13:25and by 1615, with the publication of what is widely regarded as
0:13:25 > 0:13:28the first sponge recipe by Gervase Markham,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30the modern cake was born.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35What is rather surprising, however, is just how long it took us to
0:13:35 > 0:13:37find the right tool for egg whisking.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44I'm heading to Audley End House, in Essex, to meet an expert in
0:13:44 > 0:13:46the history of kitchen technology.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53Bee, how important is the evolution of kitchen technology to
0:13:53 > 0:13:54the evolution of the cake?
0:13:54 > 0:13:56It was hugely important.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58If you think of the basic ingredients of what
0:13:58 > 0:14:01we would think of as being just a kind of all-purpose sponge cake...
0:14:01 > 0:14:04sugar, butter, eggs, flour.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Those have been around for a really long time,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09those were easily accessible to the medieval cook.
0:14:09 > 0:14:10What wasn't available to them
0:14:10 > 0:14:13was any of the things that you would have needed actually to make a cake.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17Ranging from an oven with regulated heat,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20a whisk for beating the eggs.
0:14:20 > 0:14:21Even more basic than that,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24ready-ground flour and ready-ground sugar.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27I mean, I view ready-ground sugar as being a far greater
0:14:27 > 0:14:30labour-saving device than ready-sliced bread,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32which you hear people say, "The greatest thing sliced bread".
0:14:32 > 0:14:35I think it's the greatest thing since ready-ground sugar,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38which only came into people's lives in the late 19th century.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Before that you'd had these vast cones of solid sugar ranging in size
0:14:42 > 0:14:46from five pounds up to 40 pounds, which you'd have to hack away at
0:14:46 > 0:14:51yourself and then pound in a series of pestles and sieve through sieves.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53Well, who has time to do that?
0:14:53 > 0:14:56The result being that if you wanted a cake the odds were that
0:14:56 > 0:14:59you would be very rich to be able to make it.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02You'd have to have an array of servants who could
0:15:02 > 0:15:03beat your eggs for you.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06I mean, I came across this 14th century recipe for pancakes even.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09I think of pancakes as being pretty quick.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12"You've got to beat the batter long enough to weary one person or two."
0:15:12 > 0:15:15You've just got these people lined up,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18OK, this person's tired out, we'll get the other person in.
0:15:18 > 0:15:19Human egg beaters!
0:15:19 > 0:15:22How did we start that and where did this come from?
0:15:22 > 0:15:24The most basic was just a stick.
0:15:26 > 0:15:28Oh, for heaven's sake!
0:15:28 > 0:15:30It would take a while, wouldn't it?
0:15:30 > 0:15:32You would be stuck there for quite some time, I think.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35And then there's the fork, which arrived in Britain from Italy
0:15:35 > 0:15:38and people were very suspicious of at first
0:15:38 > 0:15:40and it's mainly viewed now as an eating utensil.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43But then the other option people had is just twigs.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45It's a great sound.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47You know that you're getting air into there,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49you can feel it going in.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51You can see it changing, the structure is already changing.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53- I'm loving this!- Yeah.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Another thing that's lovely about the twig whisks is that
0:15:56 > 0:15:59people would sometimes use them to flavour the eggs at the same time.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02So, they might use stripped down peach twigs to impart
0:16:02 > 0:16:03a flavour of bitter almonds.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Oh, like an early way of adding essence to something?
0:16:06 > 0:16:10- Hmmm. There you are, look. - I'm there!- You're not far off.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12So where did we go then?
0:16:12 > 0:16:16Well, then we got to this, the first visual record of this is in 1570.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19They're great, aren't they?
0:16:20 > 0:16:24As with all technological innovation there are boom years.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Between 1850 and 1920,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29692 individual patents were
0:16:29 > 0:16:32registered in America for a multitude of
0:16:32 > 0:16:35various whisks, many of which caught on here in the UK.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39One such tool was this.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42This was called the Dover.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44I think a lot of us
0:16:44 > 0:16:47have Proustian memories of making cake with Mum using one of these.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49- Yeah, this is Mum's, I can see her now, doing this!- Yes...
0:16:49 > 0:16:52- but it took a long time.- "Mum, can I have a go, can I have a go?"- Yes!
0:16:52 > 0:16:55And that wonderful thing when she'd let you have a taste of the mixture.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59Whisk them up until they're really stiff and fluffy.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Remember, two tablespoons full of caster sugar to every whisked
0:17:03 > 0:17:07egg white and you whisk it up so stiffly that it shouldn't fall out.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11It was a very pleasant surprise to discover this again.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14It was like finding an old childhood friend.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19This whisk, or one rather like it, was what got me
0:17:19 > 0:17:21first interested in cooking.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Mum would be making butterfly cakes
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and all the time I'd be saying, "Mum, can I have a go?
0:17:26 > 0:17:28"Can I have a go, please?!"
0:17:28 > 0:17:30I used to love using it.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34I liked the sound it would make and if you were really clever it
0:17:34 > 0:17:36used to make lots of mess as well, if you took it out of the bowl
0:17:36 > 0:17:40and still carried on whisking and covered everything in cake mixture.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44And little bits of mixture would get trapped inside
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and you could get them out with your finger and eat them.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51During the 17th century, with sugar increasingly available to bakers,
0:17:51 > 0:17:56us common folk could now sample baked treats on the streets.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00They still weren't what you or I might recognise as cake.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04They weren't much more than sweetened breads, but as with
0:18:04 > 0:18:07all things indulgent and slightly naughty, puritanical Britain
0:18:07 > 0:18:10considered these early treats heretical,
0:18:10 > 0:18:11a threat to common decency.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Master Brewster, be warned, the King of England knows of your sins!
0:18:18 > 0:18:22So, the first, sort of, British cake that I would recognise...?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25- This, really.- The bun.- The bun.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28During Elizabeth's reign, puritans
0:18:28 > 0:18:31introduced a series of laws
0:18:31 > 0:18:37forbidding the sale of fruited and spiced bread or buns,
0:18:37 > 0:18:40except on religious occasions.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43And so you were allowed to serve, you know,
0:18:43 > 0:18:48these evil buns at Christmas, at funerals and on Good Friday.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Now, some food historians believe that before this date it was
0:18:52 > 0:18:55usual to cut a cross in all baked goods,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58in order, it is said, to let the devil out.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01And so the cross for Good Friday then survived,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04sort of, partly in response to that tradition, but partly cos it's
0:19:04 > 0:19:07the only day it's really appropriate to use the cross, as a symbol.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11Are you seriously suggesting that buns were banned?
0:19:11 > 0:19:12Yes, absolutely!
0:19:12 > 0:19:14Certain sorts of buns.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18- Yes, frivolous buns...sexy buns. - Frivolous buns, sexy buns?
0:19:18 > 0:19:20Yes, it's pleasure!
0:19:20 > 0:19:23You know, like, circuses and recreational sex and plays.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26They were all things that were frowned upon and legislated against.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29That's why we know, why historians know, about these
0:19:29 > 0:19:32various measures because there were very specific laws, often
0:19:32 > 0:19:35local laws, forbidding the sale of goods like this.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38I mean, it's just bread with fruit in it.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Yes, but the fruit is expensive, it's luxurious,
0:19:41 > 0:19:42as are the spices, as is the sugar.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44They're all unnecessary.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46- And this was supposed to ignite our passions, was it?- Yes.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50Rather have a bun.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53There's a naughty habit, haha!
0:19:53 > 0:19:55You see, naughty...habit, no?
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Well, please yourselves.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Fresh cream cakes - naughty...
0:19:59 > 0:20:02# But nice! #
0:20:06 > 0:20:09The idea of cake as a guilty pleasure has been around for
0:20:09 > 0:20:13centuries, which makes me wonder, could guilt be a defining
0:20:13 > 0:20:15feature of what makes a cake?
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Are we all simply hard-wired from birth to over indulge in
0:20:19 > 0:20:21sweet things?
0:20:21 > 0:20:24I'm hoping a session with a bio-psychologist will help me find
0:20:24 > 0:20:28out if my desire to eat as much cake as possible isn't in fact my fault.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35Marion, is there any real science behind indulgence?
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Well, I suppose the science of indulgence involves the
0:20:38 > 0:20:41science of pleasure and trying to
0:20:41 > 0:20:43look at what people find pleasurable.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48And everybody's history is different and everyone's culture dictates what
0:20:48 > 0:20:52is pleasurable, what is meant to be eaten under certain circumstances.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57So, indulgence to me suggests eating perhaps too much and I think that
0:20:57 > 0:21:01in our culture at the moment we're very worried about over indulgence.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05And, certainly, it's a fine line, isn't it, between having a treat,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09having an indulgence and having too much of a good thing.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11Marion, what, for you, are some of
0:21:11 > 0:21:14the defining features of the human appetite?
0:21:14 > 0:21:18The human appetite arises because we need to eat.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21So, there's a homeostatic need to eat but, of course,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24we also eat for pleasure.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27So, we have homeostatic and hedonic features of appetite.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36What are some of the earliest triggers for eating in youngsters?
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Infants are prepared to have milk upon birth.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44So, we share this ability to be
0:21:44 > 0:21:47adapted to milk with other mammals
0:21:47 > 0:21:52and because milk is slightly sweet we have an innate liking for sweet.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56So, we don't have to learn about sweetness, we couple sweetness,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00therefore, with pleasure and with fondness of our mother's memory.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03So, there's a kind of way in which we're connecting back to
0:22:03 > 0:22:06human milk when we're thinking about sweetness.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Whereas other tastes have to be aware and you might indulge
0:22:09 > 0:22:11because you don't feel so good
0:22:11 > 0:22:15and actually bringing sweetness to the fore brings back good memories,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19happy memories, even from the time of birth.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23Baking cakes and eating cakes, which are very sweet, will evoke
0:22:23 > 0:22:27memories that are very positive and sharing and baking
0:22:27 > 0:22:29and all the fun that you can have in the kitchen.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32There's a novel cooking contest,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34where the boys do all the work.
0:22:34 > 0:22:3875 couples took part in the contest, all baking the same cake.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Careful now, Edward, don't you spill any of that yolk.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Whereas most people learn to cook alongside their mums
0:22:45 > 0:22:49in the kitchen, my introduction was at school.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52You know, I was never really very good at science at school,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55it just wasn't my subject, along with maths.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00But I did like the idea of domestic science and so much so
0:23:00 > 0:23:02that I asked the headmaster if I could do it.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07"Can I do cookery?" And they let me.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10Slow-cooking can be done in an electrical crock pot,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13but only one dish can be done per crock pot.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17We made scones, we made jam, we made stew,
0:23:17 > 0:23:21we even made our own Christmas cake and I loved the domestic bit.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26I'd go home on the school bus with all the things I'd made.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30The jam, the big flask of stew, the Christmas cake...
0:23:30 > 0:23:32and if the boys made fun of me
0:23:32 > 0:23:36they stopped as soon as I opened my cake tin and got out the scones.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39I didn't get the science bit.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44I missed out what it was that made that cake rise, why it worked?
0:23:44 > 0:23:47I think it's about time I found out.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49Now for our ingredients.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Flour, right here, in the sugar can.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Now, we'll need eggs...
0:23:55 > 0:23:56HE HUMS
0:23:56 > 0:23:58..strictly fresh.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05I'm going back to school for a lesson with the physicist
0:24:05 > 0:24:07Peter Barham, who has a major obsession
0:24:07 > 0:24:09with the science of baking.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Peter, I'm one of those cooks that doesn't really measure things.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18I tend to throw things in and cook, I suppose, by instinct.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22The only time I really measure things is when I'm baking.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Now, you've written a book on the science of cooking.
0:24:25 > 0:24:26Why not just cook?
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Why not just bake?
0:24:28 > 0:24:31First of all, if you're going to make a cake that's going to blow up,
0:24:31 > 0:24:32you've got to make something to blow up.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Think of a rubber balloon, so you've got to make something
0:24:35 > 0:24:37like a rubber balloon, that you can inject gas into,
0:24:37 > 0:24:40so it blows up. That's what you're making.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43So, to make that you've got to have sheets, which are somehow rubbery,
0:24:43 > 0:24:44and then you've got to make sure
0:24:44 > 0:24:46those sheets are almost solid afterwards.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48When you cool it back down, you don't
0:24:48 > 0:24:50want the cake just to fall back down to nothing.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52Eggs, basically, provide the protein,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54which cross-links when it's being cooked.
0:24:54 > 0:24:55The starch gives it strength,
0:24:55 > 0:24:57so if you want to support a filling or a top,
0:24:57 > 0:25:00you've got to have some structure, some strength in it.
0:25:00 > 0:25:01The starch is mainly doing that.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03It's a scaffolding for the rest of it.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06The fat adds a bit of flavour and texture
0:25:06 > 0:25:09and it reduces the rate at which your cake will go stale.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11So I'm going to put a little bit of baking powder in here.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14This is a key part of how much you put in, though, because that's
0:25:14 > 0:25:17going to have a really big effect on how fast the cake is going to rise.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20So this is probably the single most important ingredient to
0:25:20 > 0:25:21measure accurately.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23Now, I'm going to sieve this.
0:25:25 > 0:25:26Yeah, it does look nice, doesn't it?
0:25:26 > 0:25:29You get the snow coming in like that, yeah.
0:25:29 > 0:25:30I enjoy sieving flour.
0:25:30 > 0:25:31Yes, why do you sieve it?
0:25:31 > 0:25:33I feel that it makes the mixture lighter
0:25:33 > 0:25:36because it's taking the air with it as it goes down, is that rubbish?
0:25:36 > 0:25:39When I was a kid I remember my mum going to the grocers
0:25:39 > 0:25:41and getting flour and the grocer would go into a big sack with
0:25:41 > 0:25:44a cup and put it into a brown paper bag and give it to her...
0:25:44 > 0:25:47along with anything else that was in the big sack.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50- Yeah, sure.- So you sieve it to get those other things, weevils,
0:25:50 > 0:25:52mouse droppings, or whatever they may be, out of the flour.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55So, that's the real reason why you were sieving flour, to remove
0:25:55 > 0:25:57extraneous matter that might have got in there.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00- So, this is a pointless exercise for me?- Pretty much, yeah.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02Sometimes I don't want a fresh egg.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06If I'm making meringue, I find that slightly older ones give me
0:26:06 > 0:26:08- a better meringue. - OK...they're thinner.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11A fresh egg is quite a different beast from an older egg.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14When people originally wrote the recipes, the eggs would almost
0:26:14 > 0:26:16certainly have come from the chickens in the garden.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Very thick, viscous eggs which have quite a different behaviour.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22OK, the longer you leave this, of course,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24because it's acting, the baking powder's going off.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27Now, you're losing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere,
0:26:27 > 0:26:29the less it's going to rise in the end.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31So, science is happening already.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36My stepmother used to make the most wonderful, light Victoria sponges.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40I use butter but she used to make them with soft margarine
0:26:40 > 0:26:44and they used to rise much, much better than mine do.
0:26:44 > 0:26:45Why was that?
0:26:45 > 0:26:48With butter you get the flavour of butter, that's obvious,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51but the water content, because butter is quite hard
0:26:51 > 0:26:55when it's in the fridge, is actually lower than you'd get in most
0:26:55 > 0:26:57margarines that spread quite easily from the tub.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01So, you've got more liquid fat and you've got more water in there.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04So, that water turns to...steam?
0:27:04 > 0:27:06- Turns to steam.- Makes it rise.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08So, I'm going to pop these in the oven.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15My little sponges...they look good.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17- Yup...you notice they've domed in the top.- Yes.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19What sometimes happens is they will collapse
0:27:19 > 0:27:21- and leave a dent in the middle. - Oh, been there.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Right, fine, if you want to stop that happening,
0:27:23 > 0:27:26after you've taken it out of the oven just drop it and what happens is
0:27:26 > 0:27:29the reason it will collapse in the middle is that you've got
0:27:29 > 0:27:32the bare bubbles of air expanded and as they collapse back down again
0:27:32 > 0:27:36because the air, the gas, reduces in volume, it dips in the middle.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39And the reason it's the middle is because the outside, out here,
0:27:39 > 0:27:41has been hotter than the inside so it's cooked more, it's stiffer.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43The middle is softer.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46So, if you drop it you break the walls of all those bubbles
0:27:46 > 0:27:47and air can just come back in.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49You want me to drop my cake?
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Yeah, drop your cake, yeah.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54Now, that one should collapse less than this one...you haven't dropped.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04And do you know what?
0:28:04 > 0:28:08If you look closely, Peter's science know-how really has improved
0:28:08 > 0:28:12the top half of my Victoria sandwich.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15The bottom bit down there, you can see it's collapsed a bit down there.
0:28:15 > 0:28:17- You can see where the cake has collapsed...- Yes!
0:28:17 > 0:28:20..gone all soggy and that's the one we didn't drop,
0:28:20 > 0:28:21the one we did drop hasn't done that.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23Drop your cake!
0:28:33 > 0:28:35There's a four-course meal cooking at
0:28:35 > 0:28:38the Gas Research and Training Centre in Fulham, London.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Combustion tests, for which gas samples are collected and
0:28:41 > 0:28:44chemically analysed, complete a check-up which ensures that what's
0:28:44 > 0:28:45cooking really cooks.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Of course, one of the most significant moments in baking
0:28:50 > 0:28:53any sweet treat, where the magic happens, or perhaps where it
0:28:53 > 0:28:57goes wrong, is popping your cake mix into the oven.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01From the earliest stone ovens of the Greeks through to
0:29:01 > 0:29:04the controllable gas oven at the turn of the 20th century...
0:29:04 > 0:29:06the fate of
0:29:06 > 0:29:11the cake was inextricably entwined with the evolution of the oven.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Only once we could control our heat, would cakes become ever more
0:29:16 > 0:29:18experimental and adventurous.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22The tiny flame will keep your meal hot
0:29:22 > 0:29:26and perfectly succulent for much longer than normal.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28What, no cinders and wife beating?!
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Ta...not with this!
0:29:30 > 0:29:35I can't think of a more welcoming smell on earth than a house
0:29:35 > 0:29:38with a baking cake in the oven.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41You open the door and that
0:29:41 > 0:29:44buttery, sugary, rich smell
0:29:44 > 0:29:48of something just pottering away and it'll be ready soon.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55An English tea party is always a pleasant occasion,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59especially when the company's so superbly well-mannered.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04A key reason cake became an important part of the British
0:30:04 > 0:30:08mindset was to do with its relationship with tea.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13I wonder whether the definition is as much about its social role
0:30:13 > 0:30:15as how it's made.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20During the late Victorian era and well into the 20th century,
0:30:20 > 0:30:23the tea shop became a familiar feature
0:30:23 > 0:30:25on virtually every high street.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Lyons were the market leaders.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31Whilst their first tea shop opened in 1894,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35by the 1930s there were hundreds of them.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37And we're not talking about twee little tea shops
0:30:37 > 0:30:40like the retro ones springing up everywhere today.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43No, tea shops back in the '20s, '30s and '40s
0:30:43 > 0:30:47were vast department store-sized venues
0:30:47 > 0:30:49serving hundreds of customers a day.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55I'm going to have tea and cake with someone who believes the historical
0:30:55 > 0:30:59image of the quaint tea room needs a good kick up the backside.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03So, Annie, the rise of the tea room.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06- Did this come directly from afternoon tea?- Not really.
0:31:06 > 0:31:07Afternoon tea is important.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10It's a good excuse for why people would visit tea rooms,
0:31:10 > 0:31:12but they're much, much more than that.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15They're places of sociability, of female sociability.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18So you had the male coffee shop in the 17th and 18th century
0:31:18 > 0:31:20and the tea rooms is really the female equivalent of it
0:31:20 > 0:31:22in the 19th century.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24And, of course, that means women are discussing the topics
0:31:24 > 0:31:27important to them, female suffrage, the vote.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31It's very easy for us to see them as very cosy, very nice, quite twee
0:31:31 > 0:31:36places, but actually the tea rooms is quite a subversive type of thing.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43Then the really big boom period for tea rooms is the 1920s to 1930s,
0:31:43 > 0:31:46the inter-war period, when women are going out to work,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49where there's an awful lot of social change afoot. They've won the vote.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52And these now are forums for all sorts of sociability
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and the tea rooms then has evolved from being quite
0:31:54 > 0:31:57so subversive to being somewhere that actually it's still
0:31:57 > 0:32:00about women, but the main thing is that it's there for you just to
0:32:00 > 0:32:04have something comforting, nice and above all else, utterly feminine.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06So all of these cakes,
0:32:06 > 0:32:10- they're really rather delicate and they're quite small.- Yes.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13You'd get big cakes served in things like servants' halls,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15so lower down the social scale where... It is, let's face it,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19more of an effort to make individual cakes and they do look nicer,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21but they are all small, they are all very individual.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25They're not like the modern cupcake which is not a small cake at all.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29It's a huge, horrible leviathan of horrible oily mess
0:32:29 > 0:32:32with butter cream goo everywhere masquerading as a small cake,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35whereas actually most cupcakes would feed four quite happily.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38But if you look at things like the classic Victoria sandwich,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41- one of those isn't going to kill you.- No.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43It's very delicate, it's very, very good with tea.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45It's quite bland and yet, at the same time,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48it's got the flavours that will complement delicate teas.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51- It's not strong.- I'm taking one.
0:32:51 > 0:32:52Yeah, absolutely.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54Whichever the social level that you're looking at,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57the cake and the tea are very much together.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59So something like the seed cake, which is this one,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02you might well find a basic seed cake using lard instead of butter,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05using caraway seeds, using fairly cheap ingredients,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07in a fairly basic tea rooms.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09This one has got butter in instead of lard.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12It's got a bit of brandy in. It's a slightly higher grade of seed cake.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15So you might find it in quite a posh tea rooms,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17but you'll also find it at the bottom.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20These ones are chocolate cakes, but in true Victorian fashion,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23they've got to be tarted up a little bit.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25You've got queen cakes here.
0:33:25 > 0:33:29These ones were very, very popular really from the 18th century onwards
0:33:29 > 0:33:31and they're a basic sponge but with rose water in and currant
0:33:31 > 0:33:34and they're nearly always made in little heart-shaped
0:33:34 > 0:33:35or other shaped moulds as well.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38You've got jubilee teacake. This is one of my favourites.
0:33:38 > 0:33:39I've never heard of a jubilee teacake.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42This one is a flourless cake and it's got a tea glaze on it
0:33:42 > 0:33:45so it really brings out the tea flavours.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47And, of course, that one is a very refined cake
0:33:47 > 0:33:49that you have to eat with a cake fork.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53- This is delicious.- I quite like the mixture of the pistachio nuts
0:33:53 > 0:33:55and the coconut with it.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57So it wasn't just individual tea shops?
0:33:57 > 0:34:00I remember two specifically -
0:34:00 > 0:34:03the ABC and Lyons Tea Rooms.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06And they really became a sort of phenomenon in and of themselves,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09especially Lyons, who had both the normal ones
0:34:09 > 0:34:11and also the corner houses, the slightly posher ones.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14And they were, both of them, they were huge empires of tea rooms
0:34:14 > 0:34:18and they really are completely an establishment.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21'But the outbreak of World War II changed everything
0:34:21 > 0:34:23'in the cake tins of the nation.'
0:34:31 > 0:34:34- ARCHIVE NEWSREEL:- Another instalment of cuts and restrictions has been
0:34:34 > 0:34:37announced and will shortly come into force.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40'No, I haven't been taken prisoner of war.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44'Annie wants to test my taste buds with some austerity cakes.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47'She's baked these with rationed ingredients that would have
0:34:47 > 0:34:49'been used during World War II.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52'My task? To guess the unlikely ingredients.'
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Right, so this is the first cake.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00And this feels rather like a fruit cake.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07It tastes like the fruit cake you get on trains.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09I call it railway cake.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13That's a fruit cake.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15- Austerity fruit cake. - This one is a dripping cake.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18So it is a fruit cake and it's effectively a rich fruit cake.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22- So was lard rationed? - Yes, all fats were rationed.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26This one.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33Now this isn't the nicest cake I've ever eaten.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35I'm not even sure it is cake.
0:35:35 > 0:35:36It really isn't very nice.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38I don't like it, I'll tell you that.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41It's a potato cake and it's cooked on a griddle
0:35:41 > 0:35:43so that's one of the reasons it's so flat,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46but it's mashed, effectively mashed potato with sugar and fruit.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52We've got one more to try.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55They're not very light, these, are they? Let's be honest.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02I don't want to eat another piece.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Right, we have nothing more to taste so you can take your blindfold off
0:36:08 > 0:36:12- and see the beauties that you've just not actually scoffed.- Right.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Oh, well, they look pretty good.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16- They do look like cakes.- They do.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19If you put that in front of me I'd be happy with that. Look at that?
0:36:19 > 0:36:22That one I think came out the best, undoubtedly, but then that's
0:36:22 > 0:36:25a very early recipe and as rationing got progressively deeper,
0:36:25 > 0:36:27and as the food supplies ran out, of course,
0:36:27 > 0:36:29more and more expedients were necessary.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31- You cannot waste it. - No, you really, really can't.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33You're not going to waste something that big.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35You're going to recycle it into a pudding.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37You're going to cover it with a bit of jam.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42'With rationing, innovation in the kitchen reached an all-time high.
0:36:42 > 0:36:47'Carrots, parsnips and powdered eggs became staple ingredients.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51'The dark colour of gravy browning made cakes look richer and in
0:36:51 > 0:36:56'some cases paraffin fuel was used as a fat replacement.'
0:36:56 > 0:37:00In what ways did wartime food writers and cooks innovate?
0:37:00 > 0:37:02They really just had to eke things out in a way
0:37:02 > 0:37:03they hadn't done before.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07The innovation is in substitutions, eggless, fatless walnut cake.
0:37:07 > 0:37:09You know, flour, walnuts, milk, sugar, baking...
0:37:09 > 0:37:11A lot of use of baking powder in these
0:37:11 > 0:37:14because you've got to make things rise somehow and there are no eggs.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16And actually that's another thing, fuel is rationed,
0:37:16 > 0:37:19and everything, everything has to be calculated to the nth degree.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28There's a strong emotional attachment that we have to cakes.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32- Does it come from here?- I think in a lot of ways it does, yes.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36Obviously we've eaten cake for a very long time, it's 400 years,
0:37:36 > 0:37:40if not before, but I think during the war it's a survival mechanism.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43That aspect of cake-making really does come forth in the war
0:37:43 > 0:37:44in a way that it hasn't before.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47They're about feeding children, feeding your neighbours.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50You're doing it for the good of the nation. It's not a selfish thing.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53It's about surviving and keeping the home fires burning.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56It takes on a significance that it didn't have before.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59It's hope. This is hope in cake form.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Like the baking innovations of wartime rationing, the vast range
0:38:14 > 0:38:18of regionally baked treats on offer in Britain proves true the idea
0:38:18 > 0:38:22that necessity is indeed the mother of invention.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27Over the years we've created countless tasty treats
0:38:27 > 0:38:29with weird and wonderful names.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33Rutland plum shuttles.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35A Bolsover cake.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37Suffolk forces cake.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39A Selkirk bannock.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Yorkshire parkin.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44A Norfolk vinegar cake.
0:38:44 > 0:38:45Singing hinnies.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Chorley cakes.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Cumberland courting cake.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54And a Dorset cider cake.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00I've been sent to Coventry to meet a specialist in regional cakes.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06Whilst the city may have lost much of its architectural heritage
0:39:06 > 0:39:11in World War II, this, the Coventry God cake,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14is a tradition the Blitz couldn't wipe from the map.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21This has been around in history for about 500 years.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23It pre-dates the Reformation
0:39:23 > 0:39:27and we're sitting here in a Holy Trinity Church because this triangle
0:39:27 > 0:39:32represents the Holy Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35So why does it smell of Christmas?
0:39:35 > 0:39:39Because it contains what we now think of as Christmas mince.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42A rich, fruity alcoholic mixture
0:39:42 > 0:39:47and it was traditionally given by godparents to godchildren
0:39:47 > 0:39:50as a blessing at New Year.
0:39:50 > 0:39:51Ah, I see.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54And one of the things that the children were supposed to do was
0:39:54 > 0:39:55bite off each corner in turn
0:39:55 > 0:39:59and say, "God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit."
0:39:59 > 0:40:00NIGEL SIGHS
0:40:00 > 0:40:02And then they were blessed, presumably for the rest of the year.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06I'm not sure about the name, cake.
0:40:06 > 0:40:07This to me is a pastry.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11Yes, you could call it a turnover, if you wanted to, in modern parlance,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14but I think probably what happened was that,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17back in the day, everybody had bread
0:40:17 > 0:40:19and then on high days and holidays
0:40:19 > 0:40:24they might have put spices in it or they might have put fruit in it.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27It was a real celebration to put fruit in a bread
0:40:27 > 0:40:30and that may be why they started calling it cake.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35I don't know, because cake means all sorts of different things in different places.
0:40:35 > 0:40:36I'm beginning to think
0:40:36 > 0:40:41that the moment we started to use bread in a celebratory way
0:40:41 > 0:40:43and started adding fruits,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46that's when the name cake seemed to creep in.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48It makes sense, doesn't it, to make that distinction?
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Bread is an everyday thing, cake is a celebration.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56Why is that Britain has so many regional cakes?
0:40:56 > 0:40:59One of the reasons things emerged where they did
0:40:59 > 0:41:03is the nature of the soil, the nature of the farming that went on.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08For example, in Wiltshire and in other pig raising country,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10you have this wonderful thing called lardy cake.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12Oh, lardy cake.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16- Lardy cake.- Yes, please.- And it's because people raised pigs and when,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18in the autumn you killed the pig, salted it away
0:41:18 > 0:41:21so you had meat during the winter, you had lard
0:41:21 > 0:41:24and so you have a lardy cake in pig country
0:41:24 > 0:41:27and then you have this wonderful thing called the Yorkshire curd tart
0:41:27 > 0:41:30up in North Yorkshire, in dairy country,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34where the curds are a by-product of the dairy industry and making cheese.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36The curds are left over from your cheese making,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38do something with them.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40- Recipes used to be very practical, didn't they?- Yes.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44There really is a sense of why things became the way they are.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47The reason we have oatcakes in the North of England and in Scotland
0:41:47 > 0:41:52is because the weather was too bad for a more delicate crop like wheat.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55So you grow oats and what goes into the flour is oats,
0:41:55 > 0:41:57therefore that's what goes into biscuits and cakes.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01How about this? The Cornish heavy cake.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05CAROLINE LAUGHS It's name does it no favours, because it's not a heavy cake,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09it's a "hevva" cake, from the Cornish.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12It goes back to the days of pilchard fishing, of all things,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16in Cornwall, where somebody used to stand on the cliff top,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20he was called a huer and when he saw fish, he raised a hue and cry.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23And he would call out "Hevva"
0:42:23 > 0:42:29when he saw the dark shadow of a school of pilchards under the water.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31And that was the indication to the fishermen
0:42:31 > 0:42:33that they should go over and drop their nets
0:42:33 > 0:42:35in this particular place,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37but because it was loud enough
0:42:37 > 0:42:39for the women folk back in the village to hear,
0:42:39 > 0:42:41they knew that their men folk
0:42:41 > 0:42:43would be back for supper sometime quite soon.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48So they threw together this really quite quick and easy cake,
0:42:48 > 0:42:53which as you see is a not very risen, fruity thing
0:42:53 > 0:42:57and it's scored on the top in the pattern of a fishing net.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02So, we've got a lot of things that we call bread,
0:43:02 > 0:43:06thinking of tea breads and this, the lovely bara brith.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10It's good, isn't it?
0:43:11 > 0:43:13Mmm. It is.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15I sometimes think
0:43:15 > 0:43:17when people are having a really important meeting,
0:43:17 > 0:43:21something really crucial, maybe even something international,
0:43:21 > 0:43:23I think we should bring out some cake.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26You can't be fighting when you're eating a lardy cake.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28In fact, with a lardy cake,
0:43:28 > 0:43:30you can hardly be talking, it's so chewy,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33but you certainly can't be creating an international incident.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35NIGEL LAUGHS
0:43:35 > 0:43:37'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41'she had so many kids she didn't know what to do,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44'so she went to the shop for Mcvities bar cakes.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47'She knew there were a dozen things she could make.'
0:43:47 > 0:43:48For hundreds of years,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51baked treats in all their glorious diversity
0:43:51 > 0:43:54have been baked in homes across the country.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59But by the late 19th century, with increased mechanisation,
0:43:59 > 0:44:00things started to change.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04A Scottish marmalade manufacturer
0:44:04 > 0:44:08created Britain's first mass-produced Dundee cake.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13Other bakeries followed suit and in 1927 the world of factory-made cakes
0:44:13 > 0:44:16was set alight when the first Jaffa Cake
0:44:16 > 0:44:17rolled off the production line.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21And no, it's not a biscuit.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24It's been legally defined as a cake.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26And I don't wish to discuss it any further.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29By the 1960s,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32helped by the scientific developments in ingredients
0:44:32 > 0:44:35and preservatives, factory-made cakes flooded the market.
0:44:37 > 0:44:43The UK's major baking firms, McVities, Mr Kipling, Lyons, Hovis
0:44:43 > 0:44:45and McDougall, started to produce
0:44:45 > 0:44:48all manner of slices, bars and loaves.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53Whilst McVities diversified into fruit cake, mini rolls, and
0:44:53 > 0:44:59Jamaican ginger cake, Mr Kipling, founded in 1967, gave us a plethora
0:44:59 > 0:45:04of tarts, pies and, most famously, the Battenberg and French fancies.
0:45:05 > 0:45:11Even Cadbury's muscled in, giving us the chocolate Mini Roll in 1962,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14a product that is now Britain's number one cake snack.
0:45:15 > 0:45:20Since then, almost every single supermarket has crowded in,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23producing their own tailored versions of such classics
0:45:23 > 0:45:28as Madeira, Genoa, lemon drizzle, cherry sponge and coffee and walnut.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Amazingly, just this cake, loaf and slice section of the market
0:45:34 > 0:45:39has mushroomed from being weird, wonderful and new in the 1970s,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44into a business that is now worth a whopping £1.6 billion a year.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48You see, I'm sorry, but for me, the shop-bought Battenberg
0:45:48 > 0:45:52has just as much magic about it as the original
0:45:52 > 0:45:57created in 1884 to celebrate Prince Louis of Battenberg's marriage
0:45:57 > 0:45:59to Queen Victoria's granddaughter.
0:46:01 > 0:46:07Now, I love a home-made cake or something from an artisan bakery,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10but they're not the cakes I grew up with.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13So they haven't got that lovely ingredient of nostalgia.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16I don't smell them and go back to when I was seven or eight or nine.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21This was the stuff that I grew up with.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25So, I've got little fondant fancies,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28the little chocolate covered Swiss rolls,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30and, best of all, the Battenberg.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33This is the cake I really loved.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37It's so cute, it's so pretty and it looks quite complicated to make.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44Two colours held together with jam and then wrapped in almond paste.
0:46:44 > 0:46:46Makes me happy just to look at it.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51"Friday," wrote Mr Kipling, "a fancy dress party for my nephew
0:46:51 > 0:46:54"for which I created something rather fancy,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57"my exceedingly delicious French fancies..."
0:46:58 > 0:47:01These cakes have got something very, very special,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04because when I smell them,
0:47:04 > 0:47:07it's like smelling my childhood, but the good bits of it.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10What's missing here are the garish colours.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13The food police have taken all the fun out of these.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17They're not as bright, they're not as jewel-like,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19although they're probably a little bit better for you.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Can't say a lot for them. The sponge is very bland.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31It's so sweet, but what comes with them
0:47:31 > 0:47:33is all those wonderful memories.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36It's a little feast of nostalgia.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40# Just like a man
0:47:40 > 0:47:42# You give him a break
0:47:42 > 0:47:45# And you wind up in the kitchen
0:47:45 > 0:47:47# Baking a cake... #
0:47:49 > 0:47:52The baking of cakes has always been very firmly established
0:47:52 > 0:47:54as a woman's job.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57The ultimate expression of being a good housewife
0:47:57 > 0:48:00was producing an endless supply of baked perfection.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06But this love affair with sugar and butter can come at a price.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09With the average bakery cupcake
0:48:09 > 0:48:14containing approximately 500 calories, it's safe to say that
0:48:14 > 0:48:18whilst these baubles of the cake world may look nice,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21not only are they bad for our teeth and waistline,
0:48:21 > 0:48:23they're probably bad for our life expectancy too.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32As an antidote, I'm hooking up with someone who,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36despite being named after a particularly sweet treat,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40is a self-confessed hater of all cakes and an outspoken feminist.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43Beautifully poured.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Would you like a piece of cake?
0:48:46 > 0:48:48Nigel, it's so kind of you.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52There are many reasons why I'm going to spurn your offer.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56One is that I'm too fat for cake, two, I don't actually like cake.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58- You don't like cake? - I don't have a sweet tooth,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01I have a sour tooth to go with my personality.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05When I was very young, I was greedy, like all children are,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09and I liked cake, and I liked cake a bit too much,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11and by the time I was nine, I was quite chubby
0:49:11 > 0:49:15and then as a teenager I was even more aware of my chubbiness.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18And then I went to drama school where it became an obsession
0:49:18 > 0:49:20and then of course, I became anorexic
0:49:20 > 0:49:22because everyone that goes to drama school does.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25I came through anorexia very well.
0:49:25 > 0:49:27I mean, look how well I've recovered.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30You wouldn't think, you know, anybody could recover this well,
0:49:30 > 0:49:33but the one latent thing, I still don't eat cake
0:49:33 > 0:49:35and I gave up cigarettes.
0:49:35 > 0:49:38And I think the same thing. There's something sort of, you know,
0:49:38 > 0:49:43ritualistic about, you know, lots of things, pouring a glass of wine.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47I think that my own greed can frighten me a bit as well
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and I think there's a little bit of me that thinks
0:49:50 > 0:49:52if I started eating cake, what if I didn't stop?
0:49:52 > 0:49:53Yes, well, yes. Been there.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54Yeah. Yeah.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59Alongside her general aversion to cakes,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02like tea shop expert Annie Grey,
0:50:02 > 0:50:06Jenny also harbours a particular grudge with one specific type.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10What I hate about the cupcake is that they're aimed at women,
0:50:10 > 0:50:14they're thrown at women like grenades, you know?
0:50:14 > 0:50:16Cupcake! Cupcake!
0:50:16 > 0:50:21And no self-respecting woman who knows anything about health
0:50:21 > 0:50:23would eat that.
0:50:23 > 0:50:24It's a bit yummy mummy, isn't it, as well?
0:50:24 > 0:50:31It's just... They're like stupid shoes, they serve no purpose.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34- Do you know what I mean? - I know absolutely what you mean.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37And this is the kind of thing that I can't stand.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41It's just women are kind of submerged in this rubbish of,
0:50:41 > 0:50:46you know, so, you get women who are sold this absolute rubbish
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and in the end, so they're sitting there
0:50:49 > 0:50:52in shoes in they can't walk in, eating this kind of thing
0:50:52 > 0:50:55which is neither use nor... Well, it's ornamental.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58But, I mean, it serves nothing, no purpose.
0:50:58 > 0:51:01It's not an honest cake, you know,
0:51:01 > 0:51:04like an Eccles cake or a proper... Do you know what I mean?
0:51:04 > 0:51:06- Yeah. I know totally what you mean. - Awful things.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16But someone somewhere must love cupcakes.
0:51:16 > 0:51:22In 2012 alone, as a nation, we bought over 110 million of them.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25That's nearly two for every man, woman and child.
0:51:25 > 0:51:30The annual cost? £23.5 million.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33But, I suppose the thing about the cupcake
0:51:33 > 0:51:35is you know where you are with it.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Yes, essentially there's not enough sponge at the bottom,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39and too much icing on the top,
0:51:39 > 0:51:42but for the majority of us, it's definitely a cake,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44albeit one that's small in stature.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52But there are some out there who want to challenge the idea that
0:51:52 > 0:51:56a cake, large or small, should look like a mountain of pink frilliness.
0:52:01 > 0:52:02And sweet silliness.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10I'm at the London Dungeon to meet someone
0:52:10 > 0:52:12who calls herself a cake curator.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17Apparently she's keen to radically redefine cake expectations.
0:52:20 > 0:52:23- Do you want to eat a cigarette butt?- Er...
0:52:23 > 0:52:26They're delicious. They're my favourite. Here you go.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28HE GROANS
0:52:28 > 0:52:30That's a real after party fag, isn't it?
0:52:30 > 0:52:32You can see you've got lipstick marks at the end.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34I love the fact you've actually even got the nicotine
0:52:34 > 0:52:36coming through the filter.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38Attention to detail.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43Ooh, they're yummy.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45So, the point that everything we do
0:52:45 > 0:52:47is it repels you when you look at it,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50but when you taste it, it tastes amazing.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Pretty cakes are boring, no-one wants pretty cakes.
0:52:53 > 0:52:54The world has got a lot of pretty cakes.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57You need cakes that provoke reaction.
0:52:58 > 0:52:59Yep!
0:53:01 > 0:53:03But there is a serious side.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07She genuinely believes that these strange creations
0:53:07 > 0:53:10are the perfect vehicle for generating topical debate.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14The added bonus being, of course, you can eat everything afterwards.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16You promise me that's a cake.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19Well, yeah. I'm going to make you eat it in a minute.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22So, one of the things that we do is we also use cake to educate people.
0:53:22 > 0:53:23Yup.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26So, we did a pop-up cake shop in a pathology museum...
0:53:26 > 0:53:27OK.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30..where our top sellers were STD cupcakes.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32Then we had, um...
0:53:32 > 0:53:35- Clap cakes?- Yes. They're amazing.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39- We had spines, we had cupcakes with ulcers on.- OK.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43We had cupcakes that showed how, when you get diabetic ulcers,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46you have maggots that you use to clean it out.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Yum, that's good.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57At biology at school, I kind of wandered off a little bit
0:53:57 > 0:53:59and lost track,
0:53:59 > 0:54:00I wouldn't with that.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03That's exactly why things like STD cupcakes
0:54:03 > 0:54:04are used to educate teenagers
0:54:04 > 0:54:07because they can be like, "Yeah," and ignore a poster,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10but if they're forced to eat a cupcake covered in genital warts
0:54:10 > 0:54:13then they'd have to pay a bit more attention.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15- Cupcake with genital warts.- Yeah.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18I'll have a cup of tea and cupcake with genital warts, thank you.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Throughout the country, she has a range of independent bakers
0:54:24 > 0:54:29all looking to destabilise the image of cake as a light, lovely,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32friendly thing to be had with a nice cup of tea.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40Eurgh! No, no, no, no.
0:54:40 > 0:54:41- Roadkill cake?- Yeah.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44It's gross, it's gross, it's gross.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51Using a range of edible ingredients, and some clever techniques,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54these bakers are solely interested in shocking us.
0:54:54 > 0:54:57They're like the Sex Pistols of the cake world.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04The important thing to us, it's anatomically correct and this is...
0:55:04 > 0:55:05Oh, this is correct.
0:55:05 > 0:55:07..what a badger would look like.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09It's like every badger I've ever seen.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11I can't do this.
0:55:11 > 0:55:12I so can't do this.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15I've never know such a fuss about cutting a cake.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17OK, I'm faffing. I'm cutting the head off a badger!
0:55:23 > 0:55:27That, I have to tell you, I can't do.
0:55:27 > 0:55:28I truly can't do that.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31That is how good your cake is.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33If you don't eat that you've got to promise to eat
0:55:33 > 0:55:35a slice of the next cake.
0:55:37 > 0:55:43There's one last unexpected surprise up Miss Cakehead's sleeve.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47She's had a special cake made and it seems her ability to shock
0:55:47 > 0:55:50isn't just about blood and gore... yet.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Isn't that fantastic?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04Are you sure I've got that many crow's feet?
0:56:04 > 0:56:06I like it.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08A little weird, but I do like it.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12To me, it's just a work of art.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15You can eat yourself, lick yourself, do what you want.
0:56:15 > 0:56:16Serve it up to people.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20Yeah. I mean, you'd want to share it.
0:56:20 > 0:56:21It's just who gets what bit?
0:56:23 > 0:56:26So, is this a little bit odd, slicing into your own head?
0:56:26 > 0:56:28It's not something I do every day.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Whoa.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa!
0:56:36 > 0:56:38Look at that, though.
0:56:38 > 0:56:39That is awesome!
0:56:39 > 0:56:41That's completely awesome.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51I'll never be able to slice into a cake again in quite the same way.
0:56:55 > 0:57:01A gourmet's delight and light as a feather.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12TABLE GROANS AND BUCKLES
0:57:14 > 0:57:17And so it would seem that the dividing lines
0:57:17 > 0:57:21between one person's bun and another's sweet bread
0:57:21 > 0:57:24or someone's turnover and the next person's cake
0:57:24 > 0:57:27is exceedingly fine and entirely subjective.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32No sooner do you begin to establish some firmish foundations
0:57:32 > 0:57:35before another interloper upsets the apple cart.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42In my exploration of all things cake, the sizes and shapes,
0:57:42 > 0:57:47the stories, histories and traditions and the flavours,
0:57:47 > 0:57:53it strikes me that no-one can quite decide on what makes a cake a cake.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00But, for me, what defines it is an invisible ingredient.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06It's the spirit in which a cake is made.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09The reason we do it.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14The moment that cake slice slides in and we share it.