Cake Trivia
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100 free Cake trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
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 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The English word 'cake' comes from kaka, a word in which language?
Old Norse
'Cake' derives from the Old Norse kaka, brought to England by Scandinavian settlers; the word appears in English by the 13th century.
Q 02Which ancient people are credited with first using beer as a leavening agent for cake?
Greeks
The Greeks are credited with first using beer as a leavener; their plakous, named from the word for 'flat', combined flour, eggs, 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
Germany: the 1746 birthday festival for Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf at Marienborn featured a cake with a candle for each year, as big as the oven allowed.
Q 04By tradition, a birthday wish comes true only if what happens?
All candles go out in one breath
Blowing out all the candles in one breath is said to make the wish come true; a second superstition adds that the wish must be kept secret.
Q 05What new name did the white topping on Queen Victoria's wedding cake acquire?
Royal icing
Royal icing: after Queen Victoria's 1840 wedding the pure white sugar icing on her cake became known as royal icing, and white became the fashionable wedding-cake colour.
Q 06The first completely edible tiered wedding cake was made for the 1882 wedding of which royal?
Prince Leopold
Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, married in 1882; his cake was the first tiered wedding cake built entirely of edible layers instead of resting on non-edible supports.
Q 07In the 16th and 17th centuries, what dessert with a hidden glass ring was served at most weddings?
Bride's pie
Bride's pie was the usual wedding dish in 16th- and 17th-century England; a glass ring was hidden inside, and the maiden who found it would be the next to marry.
Q 08The phrase 'Let them eat cake' can be traced to a 1765 work by which writer?
Rousseau
Rousseau's Confessions, written around 1765, attributes the line to a 'great princess'; Marie Antoinette was then a nine-year-old in Austria who 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
Kirsch, a clear cherry brandy (Kirschwasser), soaks the layers of an authentic Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte; German food guidelines require it for a cake sold under that name.
Q 11Sachertorte, the Viennese chocolate cake, is layered with which jam?
Apricot
Apricot jam is spread between the chocolate sponge layers and under the glaze; Franz Sacher is said to have created the torte in 1832 as a 16-year-old apprentice for Prince Metternich.
Q 12Which Viennese pastry shop fought the Hotel Sacher for decades over the 'original' Sachertorte?
Demel
Demel, the Viennese confectioner, fought the Hotel Sacher in court until a 1963 settlement over the 'Original Sacher-Torte'; the dispute even covered whether the jam went in one layer or two.
Q 13Battenberg cake, with its pink-and-yellow chequered cross-section, is wrapped in what?
Marzipan
Marzipan wraps the pink-and-yellow chequered sponge; the cake is 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
Baumkuchen is baked in layers on a rotating spit: each brushed-on coat of batter bakes to a golden line, so a slice shows rings like a tree trunk. It is hugely popular in Japan.
Q 22A king cake is traditionally associated with which Christian feast?
Epiphany
Epiphany, 6 January, is king cake day: whoever finds the hidden fève, often a tiny baby figure, is crowned king for the day and buys the next cake.
Q 23Panettone, the Christmas sweet bread, is associated with which Italian city?
Milan
Milan is panettone's home; a popular legend credits a poor Milanese baker named Toni, whose 'pan de Toni' won the approval of the Sforza court.
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 claims to have invented red velvet cake in the 1920s?
The Waldorf-Astoria
The Waldorf-Astoria claims to have invented red velvet cake in the 1920s; Canada's Eaton's department store made a rival claim to the recipe.
Q 16Devil's food cake gets its reddish-mahogany colour from cocoa reacting with what?
Baking soda
Baking soda reacts with the acids in natural cocoa to give devil's food cake its reddish-mahogany tint; the name is thought to play on the light angel food cake of the same era.
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
Queensland: Lord Lamington was its governor from 1896 to 1901, and his French-born chef reportedly improvised the cake from leftover sponge to feed unexpected guests.
Q 19The pavlova, disputed between Australia and New Zealand, is named after a Russian what?
Ballerina
Ballerina Anna Pavlova toured Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s, and each country claims the meringue dessert was created in her honour.
Q 20Kouign-amann, a caramelised butter-and-sugar layered cake, comes from which French region?
Brittany
Kouign-amann is Breton for 'butter cake'; it was created in Douarnenez, Brittany, around 1860 from bread dough folded with butter and sugar that caramelise in the oven.
Q 24Dresden stollen was first mentioned in an official document in which year?
1474
1474: a bill from Dresden's St Bartholomew hospital is the first official record of the Striezel, as stollen was then called; protected Dresdner Stollen carries a seal bearing Augustus the Strong.
Q 25Which town is home to the Great Fruitcake Toss, a January contest begun in the 1990s?
Manitou Springs, Colorado
Manitou Springs, Colorado, launched the Great Fruitcake Toss in the mid-1990s; contestants hurl unwanted cakes by hand, catapult and pneumatic cannon for distance.
Q 26The earliest fruitcake-like recipe, from ancient Rome, mixed raisins, pine nuts and which seeds into barley?
Pomegranate
Pomegranate seeds, with pine nuts and raisins stirred into barley mash, make up the earliest Roman fruitcake-like recipe; medieval cooks later added honey, spices and preserved fruit.
Q 27Cheesecake is reputed to have been served to athletes at the first what?
Olympic Games
Olympic Games: athletes at the first Games of 776 BC are said to have been fed cheesecake for energy; Cato the Elder later recorded a Roman version, libum, baked over bay leaves.
Q 28American cream cheese was developed in 1872 by a dairyman trying to copy which French cheese?
Neufchâtel
Neufchâtel, the soft Normandy cheese, is what William Lawrence of Chester, New York, was trying to reproduce in 1872; his richer result was later sold as Philadelphia cream cheese.
Q 29Carrot cake's popularity in Britain was revived by rationing during which conflict?
World War II
World War II: with sugar rationed, Britain's Ministry of Food promoted carrots as a sweetener, reviving carrot cake; medieval cooks had used carrots the same way in puddings.
Q 30Pound cake is named because it traditionally used a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and what?
Eggs
Eggs complete the set: a pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs; the French call the same cake quatre-quarts, 'four quarters', for the same reason.