# Definitions - cake and bread



## acamarks (Jan 11, 2008)

Hi, i am a complete newbie to cooking. I would like to know what the difference is between a cake and a bread?

regards,

acamarks


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

Welcome to Chef Talk, acamarks. 

I assume that when you say "bread", you mean quick breads like banana bread, zucchini bread, etc. I'm a home cook (rather than a professional baker), but I'll try to answer.

Quick breads are made with leavening such as baking powder rather than yeast. They are mixed together like muffins (dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, combine the two and stir as little as possible). They don't need time to rise; you can bake them immediately. They can be sweet (like banana bread) or savory (like cheddar and onion bread).

Cake is similarly made but is lighter in texture and may use pastry (cake) flour, which has less gluten in it. This means the batter will be more tender and light. To be honest, some "breads" are really more like cake! Similarly, there's a thread right now in the General Pastry and Baking forum about how the label "cupcake" and "muffin" is becoming blurred.

For the sake of clarity I'll add that yeast breads include flour of some kind, yeast and water- at a minimum. There's usually kneading involved right after mixing the ingredients. Then the dough is left to rise and (usually) double in bulk. After that it's shaped into the desired form (loaf, rolls, etc.) and let rise again. Finally, it's baked. Yeast breads, too, can be sweet or savory.

Now that I've answered that, I'll move this thread to the General Pastry and Baking forum.  I encourage you to return to the Welcome Forum and start a new thread to tell us a bit about yourself, what interests you and what you'd like to learn more about.

I hope I helped, and if I wasn't accurate, I hope someone more knowledgeable will chime in. 

Mezzaluna


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## tessa (Sep 9, 2007)

tend to have a higher fat/sugar ratio to breads,and generally are mixed in different ways to breads, often air is incorporated by whipping the fat/sugar together to make lots of air in to the mix where as breads are made with out whipping generally


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## risque cakes (Apr 20, 2007)

the fat comes from diff sources like butter, veg oil and eggs. Moisture comes from the liquids and sugars too.

I recommend that you do an Internet search and compare the recipes so you can also see the differences that have already been explained.


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