From Bread to Cake – The History of Baking
Thousands of years have passed before the type of baking we know today. Over 6,000 years ago, the Egyptians were already using yeast to loosen bread dough. The Old Testament also mentions the art of loosening dough when making bread with sourdough and yeast.
The ancient Egyptians revered grain and its processing into bread and pastries as a sacred art. The bread was offered as a sacrifice to the gods. The pastries were given to the deceased on their journey to the afterlife. They were baked on hot stones or in hot ashes.
Until the 19th century, baking focused in large parts of the population on bread making and thus on the supply of this staple food. Eating cake was a pure luxury that only nobles, princes and kings could afford, if at all.
It was only with increasing industrialization and growing prosperity in the 19th century that baking became more accessible to the middle classes. However, home baking was still very laborious for housewives, if they could afford it. Households were in no way equipped with suitable ovens comparable to those of today. Instead, people were forced to take the dough they made themselves to the baker, who had a suitable oven, or to the communal bakehouse in the village on certain baking days.
