Sheet cake

[LFS]

Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake and b) what
exactly is it made of? The cake that Tina Fey is eating on SNL looks
much softer than a Rightpondian sponge cake.

--
Laura (emulate St George for email)

[JoeyDee]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 10:28:00 -0400, LFS wrote
(in article <evr07g...@mid.individual.net>):

> Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake and b) what
> exactly is it made of? The cake that Tina Fey is eating on SNL looks
> much softer than a Rightpondian sponge cake.

It's baked in a 'sheet pan' and is not a sponge cake as we know it here.

--
Joe W Dee
Remember: It is To Laugh
AmE; northeast US, Boston/New York

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 10:28:05 AM UTC-4, LFS wrote:

> Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake and b) what
> exactly is it made of? The cake that Tina Fey is eating on SNL looks
> much softer than a Rightpondian sponge cake.

It had the height of a layer cake, which was unusual for a sheet cake. It wasn't
dense enough to be a pound cake, which could attain the height but by being baked
in a trough-shaped rectangular pan. It wouldn't be usual to frost a pound cake.
Looked like ordinary yellow cake in color and texture.

You could bake any sort of cake batter on a big sheet, couldn't you?

Is this a crosspost extracted from a thread somewhere else that gave a link, or
are you assuming that every American watched SNL Weekend Update Summer Edition
the other day?

[Tony Cooper]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 15:28:00 +0100, LFS <lauraDRA...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake and b) what
>exactly is it made of? The cake that Tina Fey is eating on SNL looks
>much softer than a Rightpondian sponge cake.

I am not a pastry expert, and have never played one on "The Great
American Bake-Off", but my understanding is that a "sheet cake" is a
rectangular cake with each layer baked in a "sheet pan".

A sheet pan:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51S0f2fqr4L._SX355_.jpg

A cake pan:
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/images/products/main/32310/405813/6-x-2-round-aluminum-cake-pan-deep-dish-pizza-pan.jpg

Normally, sheet cakes are single-layer cakes but this is not a firm
rule. The cake Tina Fey used was a three-layer vanilla cake with
vanilla butter cream ordered from Le Delice Pastry Shop.

As a parent and grandparent, I've attended dozens of birthday parties
where sheet cakes were offered. A large, single-layer sheet cake is
the easiest to prepare to be divided up for a large number of
cake-eaters. They also offer a large surface for dribbled words of
personalized "Happy Birthday" greetings.

I don't think there's a standard of what they are made of. Preparer's
choice and favorite recipe.

While the articles about the Tina Fey cake call it a "sheet cake", I
would have called it a "layer cake", but it is a rectangular cake and
each layer may have been made on a sheet pan.

I also have a personal view of the term "sponge cake" that may not
agree with your view. A "sponge cake" is more of an open-cell cake
like an Angel Food Cake. Sheet cakes are more dense.

While there may be bakeries that offer them in the US, I've never
seen/eaten a Victoria Sponge Cake so I can't make any comparisons
there. I think I'd have to find a "Ye Olde English Tea Room" to try
one.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[Tony Cooper]

http://people.com/food/tina-fey-sheet-cake-snl-le-delice-pastry-shop/

[Peter T. Daniels]

Do you understand that that's not an answer to the question?

[Whiskers]

I think Tina Fey's cake looks a little dryer and crumblier in texture
than a British Women's Institute Victoria Sponge. But if cake is the
answer to life's problems, then bring on the cake!

Here's the video clip I first saw of the cake thing (one minute)
<https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/aug/18/tina-fey-snl-weekend-update-charlottesville-virginia-trump>
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/y846hk8g>

Later I found a longer version (seven minutes)
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/08/18/tina_fey_talks_charlottesville_eats_cake.html>
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9zjfct9>
--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[Peter T. Daniels]

Presumably they did a rehearsal before the performance (there's no indication
that this new half-hour program is broadcast live), which means that the
second cake had been sitting around for several hours at least, whether
refrigerated or not, which wouldn't improve its texture. And they may have
specified to cut down on the sugar so that Tina would be physically able to
cram down that much in so short a time, and they had to have a texture that
could be scooped out with the fingers in coherent enough globs that they
looked funny. Someone said there were three layers, but I didn't see any
horizontal fracturing of globs, or cream or jam peeking out of the globs.

> Here's the video clip I first saw of the cake thing (one minute)
> <https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/aug/18/tina-fey-snl-weekend-update-charlottesville-virginia-trump>
> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y846hk8g>
>
> Later I found a longer version (seven minutes)
> <http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/08/18/tina_fey_talks_charlottesville_eats_cake.html>
> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9zjfct9>

Still wondering how LFS came to post the uncontextualized query to AUE.

[Whiskers]

On 2017-08-19, Peter T. Daniels <gram...@verizon.net> wrote:
> On Saturday, August 19, 2017 at 2:15:15 PM UTC-4, Whiskers Catwheezel
> wrote:
>> On 2017-08-19, Tony Cooper <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 15:28:00 +0100, LFS
>> > <lauraDRA...@gmail.com> wrote:

[...]

>> I think Tina Fey's cake looks a little dryer and crumblier in texture
>> than a British Women's Institute Victoria Sponge. But if cake is the
>> answer to life's problems, then bring on the cake!
>
> Presumably they did a rehearsal before the performance (there's no
> indication that this new half-hour program is broadcast live), which
> means that the second cake had been sitting around for several hours
> at least, whether refrigerated or not, which wouldn't improve its
> texture. And they may have specified to cut down on the sugar so that
> Tina would be physically able to cram down that much in so short a
> time, and they had to have a texture that could be scooped out with
> the fingers in coherent enough globs that they looked funny. Someone
> said there were three layers, but I didn't see any horizontal
> fracturing of globs, or cream or jam peeking out of the globs.

Some of the substance could be a soft airy foam of the 'custard pie' or
'splurge' sort used in slapstick skits. I'm not convinced that it was
cake all the way through.

>> Here's the video clip I first saw of the cake thing (one minute)
>> <https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/aug/18/tina-fey-snl-weekend-update-charlottesville-virginia-trump>
>> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y846hk8g>
>>
>> Later I found a longer version (seven minutes)
>> <http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/08/18/tina_fey_talks_charlottesville_eats_cake.html>
>> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9zjfct9>
>
> Still wondering how LFS came to post the uncontextualized query to
> AUE.

Hoping to get an explanation of 'sheet cake', I imagine. To me, it's
just any recipe of cake that has been baked in a shallow wide container.

[Peter T. Daniels]

Same here -- I said that -- but she expected that everyone in AUE would know
what she was talking about!

It didn't look like a sheet cake -- not enough area, too much height. Plus the
claim that it had three layers.

[Tony Cooper]

Follow this link:
http://people.com/food/tina-fey-sheet-cake-snl-le-delice-pastry-shop/

There was just one cake ordered ("a rush order for a cake") and it was
ordered from Le Delice Pastry Shop. The baker didn't know what it was
for, so it would have been the cake he would normally sell to a
customer. It was ordered on Thursday, but I don't know what day the
Tina Fey show is taped.

The baker states that it was a three-layer cake. It's evidently a
type of cake and frosting/icing design they regularly sell because two
of them are shown at the bakery's Instagram account.

>Hoping to get an explanation of 'sheet cake', I imagine. To me, it's
>just any recipe of cake that has been baked in a shallow wide container.

Same to me. A sheet cake is baked on a sheet cake pan, and more than
one layer can be used, but the ingredients can be any cake recipe.
There's a video on that link that shows how to make a strawberries and
cream sheet cake.

[Whiskers]

Easily done.

> It didn't look like a sheet cake -- not enough area, too much height. Plus the
> claim that it had three layers.

It is possible to take slabs of sheet cake and place them one on top of
the other, with or without anything in between.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:41:28 +0100, Whiskers <catwh...@operamail.com>
wrote:

Indeed, but that construction is a layer cake.

This, about the same show, distinguishes between "layer cake" and "sheet
cake":
http://people.com/food/tina-fey-sheet-cake-snl-le-delice-pastry-shop/

...the three-layer vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream was made
famous on Fey’s skit that night when she tackled the violent weekend
events in Charlottesville, Virginia and President Donald Trump’s
response.
....
The long-standing bakery in N.Y.C.’s Kips Bay neighborhood has been
around since 1935 and specializes in traditional pastries like black
and white cookies, cannolis and gingerbread houses during the
holidays. Their Instagram account is also filled with dozens of
intricate layer cakes, and yes, some sheet cakes as well.
....

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Peter T. Daniels]

You don't even know what show we're talking about, even though it's been
mentioned at least twice.

> The baker states that it was a three-layer cake. It's evidently a
> type of cake and frosting/icing design they regularly sell because two
> of them are shown at the bakery's Instagram account.

The "frosting/icing design" was seen only from the side.

[Peter T. Daniels]

But then it's ceased being a sheet cake and become a layer cake. A layer
cake with nothing in between? Tony claims it was an "off the shelf" model,
so if it had layers, it necessarily had something between the layers.

BTW you can't "rush" the baking of a cake, so if it wasn't a display model,
then it must have been diverted from someone else's order.

[Peter T. Daniels]

Kips Bay! That's not convenient to Rockefeller Center (it's closer to the
UN), meaning they had to contend with crosstown traffic as well.

[Jenny Telia]

On 19/08/2017 16:28, LFS wrote:
> Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake and b) what
> exactly is it made of? The cake that Tina Fey is eating on SNL looks
> much softer than a Rightpondian sponge cake.
>

a) Perhaps the Mexican person who tried it did not like it. "This is
sheet cake" is as good as any description as any.

[Mack A. Damia]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2017 17:33:12 +0200, Jenny Telia <jnyt...@gmail.com>
wrote:

When I was in tech school in the military at Sheppard AFB in Texas, we
had one good old Texas boy, an instructor called Mr. Huggins, who
liked to jaw a lot.

Sometimes when you would ask him a question or say something he would
exclaim:

S-----H-----E-----E-----T!

[Quinn C]

* Whiskers:

> I think Tina Fey's cake looks a little dryer and crumblier in texture
> than a British Women's Institute Victoria Sponge. But if cake is the
> answer to life's problems, then bring on the cake!
>
> Here's the video clip I first saw of the cake thing (one minute)
> <https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/aug/18/tina-fey-snl-weekend-update-charlottesville-virginia-trump>
> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y846hk8g>
>
> Later I found a longer version (seven minutes)
> <http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/08/18/tina_fey_talks_charlottesville_eats_cake.html>
> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9zjfct9>

Not available in my country :(

Neither are the official versions on YouTube.

Here's one that worked for me:
<http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/tina-fey-makes-surprise-snl-weekend-update-appearance-talks-donald-trump-charlottesville-1.14072560>

--
It gets hot in Raleigh, but Texas! I don't know why anybody
lives here, honestly.
-- Robert C. Wilson, Vortex (novel), p.220

[Quinn C]

* Peter T. Daniels:

> And they may have
> specified to cut down on the sugar so that Tina would be physically able to
> cram down that much in so short a time,

She didn't actually eat a lot. She made a mess of the cake, and
ate in a messy manner, to make it look ravenous.

As others have pointed out, it being a rush order, it was probably
a standard cake they had sitting there.

--
Woman is a pair of ovaries with a human being attached, whereas
man is a human being furnished with a pair of testes.
-- Rudolf Virchow

[Joy Beeson]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 15:28:00 +0100, LFS <lauraDRA...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake

Because it is wide and long and not very thick.

> and b) what
> exactly is it made of?

Any cake can be baked as a sheet.

My mother invented sheet cookies when she was invited to go somewhere
when she was in the middle of making drop cookies, and baked all the
remaining dough as one enormous rectangular cookie that she later cut
into single servings. Or maybe it was two enormous cookies; one can
put two sheets in the oven at a time.

Since these were at least as good as drop cookies, she stopped making
drop cookies.

--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Thursday, August 31, 2017 at 1:32:38 AM UTC-4, Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 15:28:00 +0100, LFS <lauraDRA...@gmail.com>
> wrote:

> > Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake
>
> Because it is wide and long and not very thick.
>
> > and b) what
> > exactly is it made of?
>
> Any cake can be baked as a sheet.
>
> My mother invented sheet cookies when she was invited to go somewhere
> when she was in the middle of making drop cookies, and baked all the
> remaining dough as one enormous rectangular cookie that she later cut
> into single servings. Or maybe it was two enormous cookies; one can
> put two sheets in the oven at a time.
>
> Since these were at least as good as drop cookies, she stopped making
> drop cookies.

They're well known, but they don't have crisp edges. (I like "dark-baked" cookies.)

[Whiskers]

I now have visions of endless cake.

[Sam Plusnet]

On 31-Aug-17 5:32, Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Aug 2017 15:28:00 +0100, LFS <lauraDRA...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Two questions for US readers: a) why is it called sheet cake
>
> Because it is wide and long and not very thick.
>
>> and b) what
>> exactly is it made of?
>
> Any cake can be baked as a sheet.
>

Just to be difficult...
A Swiss Roll is baked as/on a sheet, but the result can hardly be
described as a sheet cake.


--
Sam Plusnet