Cake or Pie? Take your pick

[merstar]

Cake all the way. It's luscious, sensual, satisfying, with endless combinations and variations. I prefer it to pie both texturally and taste-wise, and it allows for more creativity and originality. If I never ate another piece of pie, I wouldn't care, but I couldn't live without cake, especially when it's deep, dark and chocolatey.

Edited May 10, 2006 by merstar (log)

[Champagne Sadie]

Pie.

Meat pie or friut pie - I don't mind.

You can't make a meat cake.

[purplewiz]

You can't make a meat cake.

←

Actually, I did, once .

I had a meatloaf mixture come out WAY too wet, so I added more bread crumbs, and then it was WAY too bready to hold together so I added another egg, which made it wet again....so I gave up and just baked the goo off in an 8x8 pan, and served it in squares.

It was dubbed "meat cake", and no, I've never made it again! It was pretty good with salsa on top, though.

Marcia.

[melonpan]

You can't make a meat cake.

<a href="http://csua.org/u/fsm">why not?</a> <a href="http://csua.org/u/fsl">savourie cakes hor-ray</a> Edited May 10, 2006 by melonpan (log)

[savvysearch]

Bad vs. bad. A lot of store bought cakes come with that disgusting frosting that tastes like eating a stick of margarine, but you can atleast scrape that off. With pies, I hate that syrupy crap that fruit pies are filled with. It's like eating jam! Also disgusting. But you can't scrape that off, because it's the whole pie! So it's cake for me.

Good vs. good. Between a good frosting and good filling (which really means just fruit), a chocolate molten cake always beats a strawberry pie.

And to those pie defenders, cake can also be savory!

Bahn Chung cake

Potato cakes

Crab cakes

The only defense for pie is that a fruit cake is the most disgusting thing on earth an cheesecake is really a pie.

Winner: Cake

[sheetz]

If we're going to start counting crab cakes as cakes, then shouldn't we count Eskimo Pies as pies?

[carpetbagger, esq.]

PIE!

Particularly Chess, Fudge, Pecan and Key Lime pie. As much as I love strawberry and caramel cakes, I would give them up if forced to choose. But before I give up cake, I have to try a deep fried cake. Whoever posted about that needs to provide a little more info por favor.

[Toliver]

You can't make a meat cake.

←

New to eGullet?

"Pork Cake, your two favorite words in one dish"

[scottie]

Is cheesecake pie or cake? I think it's pie, because of the crust.

So, pie for me. Even better, little flaky tarts.

Cake is boring and too sweet. Pie is tangy and I like that.

edited to add that I think I'd really enjoy that pork cake, though.

Edited May 10, 2006 by scottie (log)

[Tweety69bird]

I too, stand in cake's corner, and not just because I love to decorate them. It's something about the texture, I think, the way it can mesh with so many icings and fillings and fruits and such. Now, I do love me a good pie, and a lemon tart after a meal is much appreciated, but... it's just not cake.

My dear husband, however, wouldn't even pause if asked this question. He's a pie guy: Apple, preferably made by his grandmother (how do you compete with grandma? It's no contest, no matter how good your pie). Which is why we had this at our wedding:

Yup. Wedding cake and wedding pie. I made the cake and the topmost mini pie; grandma made the middle pie, local bakery did the bottom one. It was pretty cool 

←

As I was reading through all the posts I was thinking in my head "It's so simple, no one has wedding pie, it's always wedding CAKE!" Well, here I have been proved wrong....

Can I at least say that wedding cake is prettier than wedding pie?

I choose cake!

[binkyboots]

pie forever!

lemon, sharp and tart, crisp, thin pastry...

gloopy, fruity fillings, buttermilk, lemon meringue, chocolate, caramel, I love them all.

[Terrasanct]

It's true, cake is prettier, which is much of its appeal. Pie is homely, even dowdy, but it has real substance.

[hjshorter]

Pie. Any kind. Chess, blueberry, lemon meringue, apple, buttermilk, peach, banana cream... One crust, two crust, graham cracker crust, lattice top. It's all good.

Oh and someone has probably posted this link, but it's worth seeing again. Pie.

[Terrasanct]

I did post that. I love Weebl and Bob. Piepiepiepiepie!

[pamjsa]

Pie is homely, even dowdy, but it has real substance.

←

Well, as they say, it's what's inside that counts.

Viva pie!

[bleudauvergne]

Save the pies!

[Mayhaw Man]

I was reminded of this thread in another important thread concerning cake (or more accurately-fondant-the ultimate enemy of good cake enthusiasts) and I thought that perhaps some of you might have been remiss in casting your votes.

The polls will be open until I say that they are closed. And, until victory is clearly mine, well, they will probably remain open.

[handmc]

Pie, Pie gotta have my pie.

[Nishla]

Maybe I've never had a really good pie, but I just can't see how it beats a good, moist chocolate cake (preferably warm).

[RodneyCk]

Cake to the end!!!

I am obsessed with them, so many variations. It is true, you do get the taste of whole or partial fruit in a pies and tarts, but the essence of fruit can be crafted into a well-made cake easily.

Cake gives you many more options to balance flavors on the tongue. I think most people think of them as sugar bombs because there are a lot of really "bad" cakes out there.

Plus, most people, when they walk into a room and see a cake, immediately smile and light up like a firecracker. Must be all those birthdays remembered, such a celebratory dessert.

P/S: the cakes of choice you described sound sort of lame to me. I mean a German chocolate cake is like the milk chocolate of chocolates, never was fond of them. Now a good dark, moist Devil's food...mmm.

Edited June 27, 2006 by RodneyCk (log)

[ShannenK]

Cake...I love it. I like all kinds but I must say I am partial to anything with chocolate and raspberry. Yum!

[Nina C.]

tonight's confirmed my stance on this matter

a chocolate layer cake which others raved about was a teensy too dry and too similar in texture/flavor.

Whereas a slice of strawberry rhubarb cobbler (since it had both top and bottom crust which met on one end, I am firmly placing this in the pie camp) was delicious - that contrast in textures, the different elements which balanced sweet/savory/tart and dry/flaky/moist, the way that a cooked piece of fruit feels in your mouth - soft and supple and round and waiting to be burst open.

Pie it is (although I still make exceptions for the very very best cake - a once in every five years kind of thing)

[The Old Foodie]

I do not understand this discussion.

Cake = sweet thing, various flavourings, with or without icing/frosting/fondant (dont go there); usually eaten in dessert situations.

Pie = 2 layers of pastry with MEAT inbetween. Usually eaten in savoury situations, and at football.

I speak from a position of authority. I am born a Yorkshire lass, so pastry and pies are in my blood. We probably actually invented them,but will never be able to prove it.

I am also writing the definitive, authoritative book on pies. An entire chapter is to be devoted to exploring this inexplicable American habit of the unqualified "pie" meaning some sort of wussy sweet single pastry TART-like thing.

I have held off from this discussion for a long time, for reasons of modesty as well as terror of the reaction from all of you "over there", but I can do so no longer.

You can read the Chapter headings, and the Prologue on the Companion site to my blog at The Pie: A Celebratory History

Chapter 1 explains it all really. If you read it, you'd know how wrong you all are, and how silly this discussion really is.

Edited June 28, 2006 by The Old Foodie (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

Chapter 1 explains it all really.

←

Thanks for explaining all of that. Now I get it. Even more reason to take a stand for cake over pie. We don't even have pie here in the States.

Perhaps I should retitle the thread:

Delicious, skillfully made Cake vs. Fruit Goo between layers of poorly made pastry

That should take care of any confusion.

[Parmhero]

I do not understand this discussion.

Cake = sweet thing, various flavourings, with or without icing/frosting/fondant (dont go there); usually eaten in dessert situations.

Pie = 2 layers of pastry with MEAT inbetween. Usually eaten in savoury situations, and at football.

I speak from a position of authority. I am born a Yorkshire lass, so pastry and pies are in my blood. We probably actually invented them,but will never be able to prove it.

I am also writing the definitive, authoritative book on pies. An entire chapter is to be devoted to exploring this inexplicable American habit of the unqualified "pie" meaning some sort of wussy sweet single pastry TART-like thing.

I have held off from this discussion for a long time, for reasons of modesty as well as terror of the reaction from all of you "over there", but I can do so no longer.

You can read the Chapter headings, and the Prologue on the Companion site to my blog at The Pie: A Celebratory History

Chapter 1 explains it all really. If you read it, you'd know how wrong you all are, and how silly this discussion really is.

←

O no! That means every time I've bought, baked, or eaten an apple or pumpkin pie, I've been living a lie!

(PS, I thought Al Gore invented pie.)

Edited June 28, 2006 by Parmhero (log)