Cake or Pie? Take your pick

[torakris]

I am coming in very late to this thread...

I can't believe anyone would choose cake over pie!

Give me pie any day, I could easily live without cake.

Not any of those "cream" pies though, fruit and only fruit!

[Ling]

The Caramel Cake that started this whole mess(sorry for the rough icing job, but I no longer have a turntable).

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You are mean. Mean , mean , mean . Where's the recipe, already?

That looks sooooooooo good.

I have a wonderful date cake recipe I could post in exchange...

I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours!

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It's not the same recipe posted, but this one looks fantastic!

Thankful Butterscotch cake

[bavila]

...

What the hell is that quote about cake being high-falluttin' and pie being homey?  It's driving me crazy.  Was it from Michael Lee West or Edna Lewis?

...

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This may not be what you’re thinking of, but it was my sig line for awhile (I don't think it covers all occasions, but I liked the ring of it):

Cakes are fancy-ass, honey. Pie is home."

-- Idella Johnson, Veteran Pie Baker, as quoted in Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax

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YES, Thank you!

[KitchenMom]

Chiming in late here with a resounding CAKE

I checked with my husband, who said "that's easy - cake," and my kids much prefer cake, so we are unanimous around here. Now, if only I could get a nice big Wedge of german chocolate cake with a glass of milk. . .

[LindaK]

With all due respect, the best cakes also offer all the salty/sweet/crunchy/gooey things one may find in a pie. 

Take, for example, a birthday cake I recently made.

4 layers of rich, deeply-chocolately cake (from scratch, with lots of Valrhona cocoa and chocolate)

salty--salted caramel

sweet--the cake itself, and the various fillings

crunchy--layers of dacquoise

gooey--a soft, whipped ganache layer

In addition, a cake can be plated artistically with various garnishes (e.g. brittles, caramel cages, etc. ) that offer height and dimension, enhancing its visual appeal. Temperature difference--ice-cream may be served alongside, as may various warm sauces. You can get some tang and colour with a berry coulis too.

This is an argument against cake. Cake has to work too hard (and I don't mean the cook has to work too hard). In its simplicity, pie achieves all this. It is the Coco Chanel of desserts.

Give me pie any day, I could easily live without cake.

Not any of those "cream" pies though, fruit and only fruit!

This may be the heart of the debate. The majority of pies are all about the fruit. Speaking only for myself, I'll take a sour cherry pie (maybe w/ vanilla ice cream, pie does the temp differential thing too) over chocolate ANYTHING any day.

[pamjsa]

Pie pie pie. That counts as three votes.

When I posed this query to my husband, his immediate response was "Cake is just poor consolation for the lack of pie."

My daughter, who regularly requests pumpkin pie instead of birthday cake, needn't even be asked.

As for me: my mom used to bake a birthday pie for our neighborhood grandma, Miss Emma. As a kid, I found this highly suspicious: no candles? No frosting? What kind of birthday is that? "You're supposed to have cake on your birthday," I said.

"Well, Miss Emma doesn't like cake," my mom said, "so I'm taking her a pie. On your birthday, you should have things the way you want them."

I still remember very clearly the look of absolute bliss on Miss Emma's face when we showed up on her doorstep, and later when my mom sliced out a piece of that homemade apple pie. Looking back on it now, I realize Miss Emma was way past her own baking days and at the mercy of grocery stores and generous neighbors. But, looking back, it's also clear that Miss Emma's the one who taught me about the miracle of pie.

Make that four votes. No question about where Miss Emma's loyalty would be.

[Dana]

Hope I'm not too late to be counted.

CAKE

[Mayhaw Man]

Hope I'm not too late to be counted.

CAKE

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Vote early and often!

[CanadianBakin']

Won't it be a little hard to tally on this thread since we may not know the gender of posters?

[C. sapidus]

The experts have ruled that flan and baklava are exempt as being neither cake nor pie. By extension, I declare that cookies are neither cake nor pie. Therefore, I add my vote for pie.

I asked my wife, and she declared “PIE!” This declaration was made firmly, without hesitation, and with definite overtones of “Well, duh.” She is female.

Bruce

[snowangel]

Some other thoughts on why pie is so great.

I have some peach pie filling in the freezer from last September that I need to use.

So, we will have pie tomorrow night. When I roll out the crust, there will be all of that overhand that gets trimmed off which I will lay on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake and the kids and I will have a great after school snack. Cake crums and trimmings are not nearly as good.

When I mentioned this debate, Peter automatically said pie. "Usually there's fruit, and that makes it healthier. Fruit has fibre, mom, and not as many carbs."

[Pam R]

Cake crums and trimmings are not nearly as good.

But.. .you're forgetting how well they soak up rum...

or... trimmings suspended in mousse make a whole OTHER type of cake out of the original cake...

[tejon]

If I was forced to choose, it'd definitely be cake.

Thankfully, I don't have to choose and can have chess tart and genoise to my heart's content .

Edited April 28, 2006 by tejon (log)

[bavila]

Cake crums and trimmings are not nearly as good.

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Au contraire, mon frere (well, ma soeur, I suppose).

Madi and I baked a beautiful lemon pound cake in a bundt pan for her school's teacher appreciation lunch, and we cut off the puffed up ridge so the cake would sit flat on the stand. Daddy, Madi, and I each had a yummy sampling.

Note: there were two other cakes at the luncheon, but not pie!

I also love all the moist crumbly stuff that accumulates in the baking pans, underneath the cake on the plate, and on the knife when cutting. I'd be happy just eating that!

[miladyinsanity]

Cake cake cake cake cake cake.

No contest. I don't do pie at all, because I don't like crust--unless it's the crust on a really good loaf of bread.

Chocolate cake, cupcakes, flourless cake, you name it, I'll eat.

I don't do frosting either. I admit to making extra ganache to lick though.

[EllenC]

I like cake. My son likes cake and my daughter likes cake. I also have 13 other people at my office who regularly ask for cake. (That would be 3 women and the rest men). When a pie comes in here it takes three or four days for it to dissappear. Bring in a cake it's gone by 5 pm that day.

CAKE!

Oatmeal chocolate chip

Lemon roll cake

Four flavor cake

German chocolate cake

carrot cake

You name it - it disappears.

I'll eat pie. But good cake is sublime.

Edited April 28, 2006 by EllenC (log)

[Ling]

When I roll out the crust, there will be all of that overhand that gets trimmed off which I will lay on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake and the kids and I will have a great after school snack.  Cake crums and trimmings are not nearly as good.

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I do the same with my excess pie crust, but who can argue with the crisp, sweet crust on a pound cake? Mmmm....

[Ling]

With all due respect, the best cakes also offer all the salty/sweet/crunchy/gooey things one may find in a pie. 

Take, for example, a birthday cake I recently made.

4 layers of rich, deeply-chocolately cake (from scratch, with lots of Valrhona cocoa and chocolate)

salty--salted caramel

sweet--the cake itself, and the various fillings

crunchy--layers of dacquoise

gooey--a soft, whipped ganache layer

In addition, a cake can be plated artistically with various garnishes (e.g. brittles, caramel cages, etc. ) that offer height and dimension, enhancing its visual appeal. Temperature difference--ice-cream may be served alongside, as may various warm sauces. You can get some tang and colour with a berry coulis too.

This is an argument against cake. Cake has to work too hard (and I don't mean the cook has to work too hard). In its simplicity, pie achieves all this. It is the Coco Chanel of desserts.

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I see the fillings/frostings/ganache that usually accompany a cake as part of the cake itself. A German chocolate cake would not be a German chocolate cake without the fillings/frostings, for example. Pie may be simpler, but I get infinitely more joy out of eating a good slice of cake.

(And yes, I make a decent pie too.)

[Mallet]

Pie!

(but cake can be pretty good too)

[Priscilla]

Cakers can claim Boston Cream Pie, which is clearly a cake.

[Aileen]

For me, neither. But for my SO, definitely pie. Rhubarb pie especially.

[Toliver]

Cake has to work too hard (and I don't mean the cook has to work too hard). In its simplicity, pie achieves all this. It is the Coco Chanel of desserts.

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There's nothing simple about making pie since two things can go wrong...the crust and the filling.

As for cake, it's so easy and so portable, too...cupcakes! Nobel should award the inventor of the cupcake. And they taste exactly like a large piece of cake. Oh sure, you could fling your tartlets at me and call them "pies" but I'll still add the quotation marks to them. And what kid would want to be seen fishing a tarlet out of their lunch box? Pulling out a cupcake makes them the envy of the cafeteria.

And how many kids will clamor for tartlets? None. Cupcakes, yes. Little portable cups of frosting covered joy. And you can add sprinkles and jimmies to a cupcake. Ask the nearest kid how cool is that...

As for portable deep fried fruit pies, well, they're no substitute for real pies, now are they? Sure, they're portable, but there's no way you're going to tell me that a deep fried cherry pie is a good subsitute for a nice baked-in-the-oven cherry pie. They're the Yugos of pies. Okay in their own right, but paling quite a bit when compared to the real McCoy...or the McMercedes known as real pie.

Cake has it all over pie.

Word.

[My Confusing Horoscope]

Pie is not about fruit. It's about crawfish.

Oh, and crabcakes? Now, they say where I am from in Louisiana we talk funny. But they're no better in Maryland. My first time here, somebody said I should try a crabcake sandwich. I thought to myself what insane Duncan Hines monstrosity is that? And then to put it on a bun! When I was served it, I set them straight. "Oh, you meant a crab burger!!! A crab patty!!!"

The answer is cake. Gateau syrop, and pineapple upside down.

Edited April 28, 2006 by My Confusing Horoscope (log)

[Parmhero]

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There's nothing simple about making pie since two things can go wrong...the crust and the filling.

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Which is why a good pie is hard to find. I know many of us recognize this, yet it must be said: It's amazing how many appallingly bad pies there are out there, and how difficult it is to find a really good pie outside of baking one. I've yet to find an acceptable pie in 16 years of living in this area of Connecticut. The dissappointment has come from every quarter, including bakeries and expensive, high-end places like Hay Day (now Balduccis).

Same thing goes for cakes. It's difficult to find a really good cake at a bakery, store, restaurant, or deli, even at places that are supposedly cake specialists.

[ludja]

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There's nothing simple about making pie since two things can go wrong...the crust and the filling.

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Which is why a good pie is hard to find. I know many of us recognize this, yet it must be said: It's amazing how many appallingly bad pies there are out there, and how difficult it is to find a really good pie outside of baking one. I've yet to find an acceptable pie in 16 years of living in this area of Connecticut. The dissappointment has come from every quarter, including bakeries and expensive, high-end places like Hay Day (now Balduccis).

Same thing goes for cakes. It's difficult to find a really good cake at a bakery, store, restaurant, or deli, even at places that are supposedly cake specialists.

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I never buy whole pies but will occasionally order a slice if the place looks very promising. I've found consistently excellent pies at Harry's Roadhouse in Santa Fe and good (for commerical) pie slices at Duarte's in Pescardero (south of SF).

A nice thing about baking pies is that once you have mastered the technique for make a good crust it is easy to make a very good pie yourself. I don't use canned or frozen fillings so the fillings come out good as well. (I'm not saying a good pie can't be made with canned or frozen fillings; I just haven't experimented with them as I usually feel inspired to make a pie when I see some great seaonal fruit. Else I'll make a nut, lemon, custard or buttermilk pie.)

In comparison, baking a new cake is always a slight adventure although if you have experience with baking that particular class of cakes and frosting/filling one is usually met with at least some measure of success. I am always torn between repeating my favorite tried and true cake recipes and wanting to try new ones.

A good cake recipe is something to be treasured as is finding a place that serves good cake. I don't mean to offend any of our wonderful professional bakers, but I agree with your assessment of cakes at most 'regular' commerical bakeries, stores, restaurants, etc. I think they are often constrained by the price of ingredients, the need to prolong shelf life and the average tastes of target consumers. There are certainly wonderful cakes and tortes availabe at some great shops that I could not easily make at home in terms of the techniques involved or the look of the final product. At least to date, I bake less pastries at home and so, most often turn to professionals for these instead of cakes.