Are cheesecakes cake?

[Purpelia]

If the intent of cooking is to create a cake like thing and than the thing created is a cake.

[Deacarsia]

I consider cheesecakes cake.

[The Free Joy State]

Strongly disagree. Strawberry cake is the best!

Strawberry Cheesecake.

Oh... my favourite cake.

[Sanghyeok]

Who said "crepe is a cake'? Please explain your ideology to us, and enlighten what we mortals cannot understand.

[Infected Mushroom]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

[Sanghyeok]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

Liberté, égalité, fraternité

[Purpelia]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

Nope. Not really. Most people won't ever get cake because they are too poor. And of those that can afford it a significant portion can't have it because of medical, religious or other reasons. And of those who are left many don't even like cake. So yea, it's a crapshoot at best.

[Page]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

You can have your cake and eat it too it just so happens that a day or two after eating the cake it will no longer be in a form you want to keep.

[Infected Mushroom]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

Nope. Not really. Most people won't ever get cake because they are too poor. And of those that can afford it a significant portion can't have it because of medical, religious or other reasons. And of those who are left many don't even like cake. So yea, it's a crapshoot at best.

This makes me really sad because I can’t imagine the horrors of a life without cakes

[Infected Mushroom]

Regardless of how this thread turns out, can we agree on one thing?

That everyone can have their cake and eat it too?

You can have your cake and eat it too it just so happens that a day or two after eating the cake it will no longer be in a form you want to keep.

True

[Cetacea]

It's a pie since it's not baked/fried batter, but a custard-type dessert.

Of course defining cake as baked or fried batter is contentious considering that Pastry-Cake - Bread are all part of the same continuim of baked batters. Pastries are marked by shortening whereas cakes and breads are defined by the leavening agents.

Thus a cake is a baked leavened sweet batter, typically with greater fat content and moist texture than a bread.

As to The poll it really depends again on that batter - thus cake, shortcake, Japanese and American Cheesecakes both use a leavened batter and so meet the definition of Cake (the Japanese jigglycake is essentially a souffle based sponge). Pancakes and Crepes are also cakes (unless they lack baking power in which case they are not)

No-bake cheesecakes that use no flour and thus no batter, should probably be considered pies, but really Cheese Pie sounds a bit naff.

[Infected Mushroom]

It's a pie since it's not baked/fried batter, but a custard-type dessert.

Of course defining cake as baked or fried batter is contentious considering that Pastry-Cake - Bread are all part of the same continuim of baked batters. Pastries are marked by shortening whereas cakes and breads are defined by the leavening agents.

Thus a cake is a baked leavened sweet batter, typically with greater fat content and moist texture than a bread.

As to The poll it really depends again on that batter - thus cake, shortcake, Japanese and American Cheesecakes both use a leavened batter and so meet the definition of Cake (the Japanese jigglycake is essentially a souffle based sponge). Pancakes and Crepes are also cakes (unless they lack baking power in which case they are not)

No-bake cheesecakes that use no flour and thus no batter, should probably be considered pies, but really Cheese Pie sounds a bit naff.

I think the cake part of the name is essential for conjuring up the imagery of a sweet snack

If you say cheese pie, it just sounds... not sweet, like it’s salty

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I think of them as a dessert like trifle or tiramisu.

[Infected Mushroom]

I think of them as a dessert like trifle or tiramisu.

Tiramisu is a cake though right?

Or at least I have been viewing it that way

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I think of them as a dessert like trifle or tiramisu.

Tiramisu is a cake though right?

Or at least I have been viewing it that way

To me tiramisu is an Italian trifle, I don't think of trifle as a cake.

[Infected Mushroom]

Tiramisu is a cake though right?

Or at least I have been viewing it that way

To me tiramisu is an Italian trifle, I don't think of trifle as a cake.

So more akin to a pudding?

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

To me tiramisu is an Italian trifle, I don't think of trifle as a cake.

So more akin to a pudding?

I think dessert is a better category for being so broad. Pudding means something more specific to me involving steaming and suet. Pies have a pastry lid, tarts don't. It's all down to the terminology I grew up with.

Take an Eton Mess, it is easier to just say it is a dessert than to try and shoehorn it into some narrower category.

[Dumb Ideologies]

For calorific purposes I'm quite happy for it to be considered a salad.

[Infected Mushroom]

For calorific purposes I'm quite happy for it to be considered a salad.

I’m pretty good at resisting the temptations of cheese cake

Except where blueberry cheesecake is involved, then I lose it

[Senkaku]

no, they are cheese

[Esternial]

I've experimented with cheesecake-making during the first weeks of lockdown, and I'd say it entirely depends. You can add (some) flour or cornstarch to a cheesecake if you want, and it will have a more "cake-like" texture.

I personally prefer to add no flour at all, and bake it in a water bath in the oven. I honestly feel the cheesecake is a distinct category of dessert. You might classify it as a torte...but not quite.

I wouldn't call it a traditional cake, anyway. The absence of flour and its importance in the processes that determine the structure (and texture) of a cake is hard to overlook.

You are able to beat some air into a cheesecake by beating the egg whites, but without cornstarch you're pretty limited. If I'm not mistaken all those "fluffy cheesecakes" rely on starch to permit further expansion - I assume by allowing more air to get trapped.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

I make cheesecake with ricotta cheese and cream. But I believe it's quite common to use cream cheese (which is barely cheese).

Still, I'd go with the name. Sure, cheesecake is cheese!

[Twicetagram and JYPe]

I’d say cheesecake is a special cake. It’s still got the characteristics of a cake but it’s special because it leaves out or adds ingredients

[The New California Republic]

And a ten choices, pick ten? Kind of pointless, isn't it?

I selected all ten, just for that exact reason.

[Forsher]

Cheesecakes are cheesecakes, duh.

No, but seriously, they're cakes. A cake is a medium or large baked sweet good that is capable of maintaining its own shape, is neither brittle nor fully encased, and has an appreciable vertical component. It is also not bread.

Pies are not inherently sweet so they fail the first test. Cupcakes are small so they likewise fail the first test (and are to be contrasted with muffins in that they're necessarily iced). Biscuits are brittle except when they're chewy but they lack the appreciable vertical component so they're out. Crepes, pancakes, pikelets and so on are, like biscuits, essentially flat so they fail there. Sweet breads are bread so they fail the exclusion test.

Ice-cream cakes... I can't recall if they can maintain their own shape so they may or may not be cakes. Hahaha, no. These are obviously not baked. They're imitation cakes.

Of course, if you don't use a "common sense" definition... cheesecakes aren't cakes. But what they are is... it seems... unclear, so I return once again to:

cheesecakes are cheesecakes, duh.