Cake Taxon*

Cake is often unofficially classified into Yeast Cake, Cheesecakes, Sponge Cake, Butter Cake, and Other Cake. However no thorough phylogenetic study has been done on Cakes to test whether these categories hold true in practice. This may be because cakes have little to no actual genetic material to work with.

 The following descriptions come from my general understanding of cakes, and some help from the Wikipedia article on cakes and the Wikipedia list of cakes for inspiration. The credit for this idea belongs to Will and Cindy.

Note: Cakes proved very elusive in South-East Asian rain forests, and it was hard to get observational notes or pictures of them in their natural habitat. 

Charlotte/ice-box cake – chilled, layered cake of sponge and fruit and/or custard

Coffee cake – spongy coffee-flavored cake

Cheesecake – cream cheese or other rich filling, with a crust

Pound cake (US version) – buttery cake served plain or with toppings

Upside-down cake – made in a pan and uses chopped fruit to form a topping

Ice-cream cake – spongy cake layered with ice cream

Black forest cake – chocolate cake with frosting, chocolate shavings, and cherries

Pancake – made in a griddle, forming a flat round shape on which butter or syrup is poured

Tres leches cake – cinnamon-flavored cake soaked in milk and/or cream

Kek lapis Sarawak** – butter cakes with complex patterns created by different-colored layers

Tiramisu – lady fingers dipped in coffee and/or liquor and cream, layered

Mooncake – very rich filling sometimes containing egg yolk inside a thin crust

Carrot cake – sweet spice cake with nuts and raisins, frosted with cream cheese

Fruitcake – rich cake containing dried and candied fruits and nuts

Molten chocolate cake – extremely rich and chocolaty, with undercooked insides

Red velvet cake – red-colored, rich, sweet cake, frosted with cream cheese frosting

Also, since this page is one big diversion, I guess I will put this here:

(More accurately, one of Litopenaeus vannamei, which is actually a prawn, and one that is a hat of some unidentified species, distributed by Ajinomoto Frozen Foods Co.)

There is another intriguing page from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology that doesn’t include shrimp papercraft but has some cool deep sea creatures and research vessel papercraft. Don’t you wish Harvard’s research institutions made papercraft like this?

*By the way I swear I didn’t just spend all my time doing the cake taxon instead of doing my shrimp taxon. I made this because I have a very short attention span as well as not enough shrimp. I’m also pretty sure the Mefloquine is contributing something to this.
** Why did I have to learn about the existence of this cake through Wikipedia and not first-hand experience?

Last updated August 2008. Contact Justine at jschow88 [AT]gmail.com.