50 free Cake trivia questions with answers. Cake has a longer, stranger history than the frosting suggests, and this quiz covers it from Viking etymology to the Great British Bake Off. It starts with rituals: the 1746 German birthday cake with a candle for every year, why we blow them out in one breath, the bride's pie with a ring hidden inside, and how Queen Victoria's white icing became 'royal icing'. Then the famous cakes and their origin fights: Sachertorte's decades in the Austrian courts, Australia and New Zealand's pavlova feud, the Waldorf-Astoria's red velvet claim, the priestly exemption behind stollen, panettone's baker named Tony, and why devil's food cake turns red. There is Americana too: Duncan Hines the critic, Betty Crocker who never existed, the banana-filled original Twinkie, Boston cream pie that is really a cake, and the tribunal that ruled Jaffa Cakes are cakes because they go hard when stale. Easy questions are fine for kids and family quiz night; the harder ones will stretch keen bakers. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on each cake, and the source sentence appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The English word 'cake' comes from kaka, a word in which language?
Old Norse
The oldest cakes were basically breads with sweet ingredients added, and the Greeks used beer as a leavener.
Q 02Which ancient people are credited with first using beer as a leavening agent for cake?
Greeks
Their plakous, from the word for 'flat', was baked with flour, milk, nuts and honey.
Q 03A famous early record of a birthday cake with one candle per year comes from a 1746 party in which country?
Germany
Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf's cake was said to be as big as an oven could make it.
Q 04By tradition, a birthday wish comes true only if what happens?
All candles go out in one breath
A second superstition says the wish must be kept secret or it will not come true.
Q 05What new name did the white topping on Queen Victoria's wedding cake acquire?
Royal icing
White had long been used on bride cakes as a sign of purity, but the queen's cake made it fashionable.
Q 06The first completely edible tiered wedding cake was made for the 1882 wedding of which royal?
Prince Leopold
Earlier tiered cakes had used non-edible supports; a London baker had modelled the tiered look on St Bride's Church.
Q 07In the 16th and 17th centuries, what dessert with a hidden glass ring was served at most weddings?
Bride's pie
The maiden who found the ring would be the next to marry, like catching the bouquet today.
Q 08The phrase 'Let them eat cake' can be traced to a 1765 work by which writer?
Rousseau
Marie Antoinette was nine years old at the time and had never set foot in France.
Q 09The original French of 'Let them eat cake' actually refers to which food?
Brioche
Brioche, enriched with butter and eggs, was a luxury; there is no evidence Marie Antoinette ever said the line.
Q 10Which spirit is the essential flavouring in an authentic Black Forest gateau?
Kirsch
The name Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte was first printed in 1915, and a 1927 recipe survives in a Radolfzell archive.
Q 11Sachertorte, the Viennese chocolate cake, is layered with which jam?
Apricot
Franz Sacher is said to have created it in 1832 as a teenage apprentice for Prince Metternich.
Q 12Which Viennese pastry shop fought the Hotel Sacher for decades over the 'original' Sachertorte?
Demel
The dispute even covered how many sponge layers the original had: the hotel says two, the shop said one.
Q 13Battenberg cake, with its pink-and-yellow chequered cross-section, is wrapped in what?
Marzipan
It was reportedly named for the 1884 marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Louis of Battenberg.
Q 21Baumkuchen, the German 'tree cake', is baked how?
In layers on a rotating spit
Each brushed-on layer bakes to a golden line, so a slice looks like tree rings; it is hugely popular in Japan.
Q 22A king cake is traditionally associated with which Christian feast?
Epiphany
Whoever finds the hidden fève, often a tiny baby figure, wins a prize or has to buy the next cake.
Q 23Panettone, the Christmas sweet bread, is associated with which Italian city?
Milan
A popular legend credits a poor baker named Tony, whose 'pan di Tonio' won a noble's approval.
Q 14The Victoria sponge became possible after Alfred Bird created which product in 1843?
Baking powder
Baking powder let bakers add butter and still get a high rise.
Q 15Which New York hotel has served red velvet cake since the 1920s and claims to have invented it?
The Waldorf-Astoria
Canada's Eaton's department store makes a rival claim to the recipe.
Q 16Devil's food cake gets its reddish-mahogany colour from cocoa reacting with what?
Baking soda
Its name is thought to be a play on the light, airy angel food cake popular at the same time.
Q 17Angel food cake is made with which part of the egg only?
Whites
Egg whites, sugar and flour go in at roughly a 3:3:1 ratio by weight, with no butter or oil at all.
Q 18The lamington is named after a governor of which Australian state?
Queensland
His French-born chef reportedly improvised it from leftover sponge to feed unexpected guests.
Q 19The pavlova, disputed between Australia and New Zealand, is named after a Russian what?
Ballerina
Anna Pavlova toured both countries in the 1920s, and each claims the meringue was created in her honour.
Q 20Tres leches cake is soaked in evaporated and condensed varieties plus which third liquid?
Whole milk
Recipes spread through Latin America partly because Nestlé printed them on its canned-milk labels.
Q 24Dresden stollen was first mentioned in an official document in which year?
1474
Only 110 Dresden bakeries may produce the 'official' version, sealed with the image of Augustus the Strong.
Q 25Which town has hosted the Great Fruitcake Toss every January since 1995?
Manitou Springs, Colorado
Johnny Carson used to joke that only one fruitcake exists in the world, passed from family to family.
Q 26The earliest fruitcake-like recipe, from ancient Rome, mixed raisins, pine nuts and which seeds into barley?
Pomegranate
Modern fruitcake tradition owes much to a 1491 papal exemption letting Saxon bakers use butter in Lent.
Q 27Cheesecake is reputed to have been served to athletes at the first what?
Olympic Games
Cato the Elder later recorded a Roman cheese-cake recipe called libum, baked over bay leaves.
Q 28American cream cheese was developed in 1872 by a dairyman trying to copy which French cheese?
Neufchâtel
William Lawrence of Chester, New York, ended up with something richer than the cheese he was imitating.
Q 29Carrot cake's popularity in Britain was revived by rationing during which conflict?
World War II
Medieval cooks had used carrots as a cheap substitute for sugar in puddings.
Q 30Pound cake is named because it traditionally used a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and what?
Eggs
The French call it quatre-quarts, four quarters, for the same reason.