National German Chocolate Cake Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

National German Chocolate Cake Day

Five Food Finds about Cake

Have you heard of Celtic people? They celebrate a festival by name Beltane festival. During this festival, they lit bonfires atop a hill and will roll down round cakes from the hill. If the cake doesn’t break, they believe it will bring good fortune.

Cakes definitely play a major role during wedding, but how these wedding ceremonies were completed during ancient times? They either break a big bread loaf on top of the bride’s head or simply throw pieces of bread on her.

Do you like cheesecakes? I love them…yummy, delicious; how old are these cheesecakes? It is believed that these cakes are present since the bygone era. During the first Olympic Games, athletes were given cheesecakes.

During the 17th century, in England, people believed that keeping fruitcakes under the pillow of those who are unmarried will give them sweet dreams about their fiancée. Wow…isn’t this really a sweet dream!

Long ago, a women ate “red velvet cake’ in a restaurant and she liked it very much. She asked for the recipe and the restaurant promptly sent the recipe to her. She got furious when she received the recipe that she asked for; do you know why? She was charged $100 for asking this recipe. You know what she did? She sent this recipe as chain mail to hundreds and thousands of people she knew as revenge. Ha ha ha…

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1742 Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin Stove. He purposely did not patent it, so that others could freely copy the design.

1793 The first American stove patent is granted to Robert Haeterick

1842 Carl Paul Gottfried Linde was born. A German engineer who invented mechanical refrigeration. He developed it so beer could be brewed year round. (Brewing requires low temperatures.)

1860 Mary Jane Rathbun was born. A marine zoologist and crustacean expert.

1901 New Zealand annexed the Cook Islands.

1910 Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born. Ocean explorer, marine biologist. Co-inventor of the aqualung.

1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt served hot dogs to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England during their 1939 visit to the United States. It was the first time they had tried this American gourmet treat.

1947 Sugar rationing ends in the U.S.

1996 The record Pacific halibut weighed 459 pounds and was caught in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Categories: Food Holidays, June Food Holidays

Tagged: facts, first olympic games, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, german chocolate cake, jacques yves cousteau, life, mechanical refrigeration, national german chocolate cake day, paul gottfried, red velvet cake, today's food history, todays food history

National Devil’s Food Cake Day

John-Bryan Hopkins

National Devil’s Food Cake Day

Five Food Finds about Devil’s Food Cake

Devil’s food cake is considered a counterpart to the white or yellow angel food cake.

Devil’s food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes, and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee.

Devil’s food cake was introduced in the United States in the early 20th century with the recipe in print as early as 1905.

A similar cake, the red velvet cake, is closely linked to a devil’s food cake, and in some turn of the century cookbooks the two names may have been interchangeable.

Devil’s food cake incorporates butter (or a substitute), egg whites, flour (while some chocolate cakes are flourless) and less egg than other chocolate cakes.

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1834 Catharine Furbish was born. An American botanist, she spent almost 40 years traveling and painting watercolors of the flora of the state of Maine.

1910 The Earth passed through the tail of Halley’s Comet and nothing happened. There had been dire predictions that everyone would die, and many hucksters sold ‘comet pills’ to counter the effects of the ‘comet gas.’

1962 Marilyn Monroe sings ‘Happy Birthday’ at a birthday salute to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

2006 Nicole Belinda Franzen Reese was chosen as the 59th ‘Alice in Dairyland’ by the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. She will be the spokesperson for the states agriculture industry.