Do you know the history behind your favourite dessert?

Sweet stories

What's your favourite cake or dessert? Whether you're partial to a zingy Key lime pie or creamy crème brûlée, you probably haven't considered the origin story of your go-to treat. But your prize pudding might have a tale to tell, from being the result of a delicious accident to the sweet evolution of an ancient delicacy over the decades.

Key lime pie

Zesty Key lime pies are a Florida classic. But, as is common, the origin story of this dessert is hazy. For generations, it’s been accepted that a cook known as 'Aunt Sally' invented the pie in the 19th century – she worked for Floridian millionaire William Curry and cooked up the sweet treat for her boss with lashings of condensed milk. However, surprisingly, Florida’s claim to the Key lime pie is disputed. (This photo shows a traditional Key Largo tea shop touting Key lime pie in the 1950s.)

Key lime pie

The earliest local Key West recipe to be found dates back to 1939. But, Stella Parks, author of BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, suggests that the citrusy pie could have been dreamt up by the Borden condensed milk company in New York City. Its recipe, which uses lemons but is otherwise identical to the classic dessert, dates to 1931. Key West historians have been trying to dig up a local recipe that predates Borden’s but to no avail yet. Watch this space…

Sachertorte

It would be a cardinal sin to visit Vienna and not sink your teeth into a slice of Sachertorte, a rich, chocolate cake cut through with apricot jam. Visitors to the Austrian capital’s coffee houses (example pictured) have been enjoying the cake for almost two centuries. It all began with its namesake, Franz Sacher, a plucky young chef’s apprentice who created the dessert in 1832.

Sachertorte

So the story goes: Austrian Prince Metternich needed a dessert to impress some important guests, but his trusty chef was off sick. Sacher, who was 16 at the time, stepped in and saved the day with his innovative, chocolatey creation. In the decades that followed, Franz Sacher's son, Eduard Sacher, championed the recipe, eventually opening Hotel Sacher in 1876. The dessert remains the property's signature dish today.

Pastéis de nata

Pastéis de nata – perfect little pastry tarts filled with sweet, creamy set custard and lightly dusted with cinnamon – are a staple in Portugal. Today they’re doled out everywhere from traditional old-school bakeries to hip food halls across the country, but their roots date back centuries. They were apparently invented by monks in the Jerónimos Monastery (pictured) at Santa Maria de Belém, who used egg whites to starch their clothing.

Pastéis de nata

The monks’ laundry habits meant that they had lots of leftover egg yolks and, instead of throwing them out, they whipped them up into these custardy, pastry treats. When the monastery eventually closed in the 19th century, their age-old recipe was sold to a sugar refinery, which opened Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém. The bakery still operates today, making pastéis de nata to this traditional, top-secret recipe.

Tiramisu

Although it’s hard to imagine an Italian dessert menu without tiramisu, the punchy caffeinated dessert (which roughly translates from Italian as 'pick me up') was only invented in the 1970s. It’s made up of coffee-soaked ladyfingers (sponge fingers) layered with sweet mascarpone and dusted with a healthy amount of cocoa powder. And, according to lore, it was created by accident.

Tiramisu

As usual, there are multiple origin stories, but the most widely accepted is that it was concocted by Ado Campeol, who owned Le Beccherie restaurant in Treviso, northeastern Italy. Campeol, who passed away at the end of 2021, was whipping up some vanilla ice cream when he accidentally dropped some mascarpone cheese into a mix of eggs and sugar. Campeol and his wife added espresso-soaked ladyfingers to the concoction and the tiramisu was born. Pictured is a tiramisu at Le Beccherie.

Churros

These deep-fried tubes of dough, heavy with crystals of sugar, are traditional in Spain and Latin America, and they’re often served with a pool of sweet, molten chocolate. Although they’re super trendy today, the tasty morsels have been served for centuries. Yet, there are disagreements over exactly how they came to be. According to some sources, churros were first made by Spanish shepherds who cooked the cords of dough over an open fire.

Churros

There are recipes from Moorish Spain that date back to the 12th century and apparently Arabic texts that mention these doughy treats as far back as the 8th century too. Others suggest that the churro is a descendant of the Chinese youtiao, a similar dessert that’s also been eaten for centuries. Whatever their origins, the popularity of churros shows little sign of wavering – the Chocolatería San Ginés in Madrid (pictured) serves some of the world’s best.

Baklava

Layers of filo pastry, chopped nuts and deliciously sweet syrup come together to make baklava – and its history has just as many layers as the dessert itself. Countries and cultures clash when it comes to the origin story: it’s claimed by both the Turks and the Greeks, but in reality, the history of the sweet is much more complex. It’s thought that very early versions of the pastry dessert were made in the 8th century BC by the Assyrians, whose empire covered a swathe of the Middle East, including some of modern-day Turkey.

Baklava

Some sources say the recipe was fine-tuned by the Ottomans and that it was served as a staple in Istanbul's Topkapı Palace through the 15th century. It’s also said that ancient Greek merchants, who loved the Assyrian delicacy, disbanded it across the Middle East as they travelled, making their own tasty alterations. It’s possible that both could be true but, at present, the version made in Turkey’s Gaziantep has protected status from the European Union. Here chefs prepare baklava in a restaurant kitchen in Gaziantep.

Crème brûlée

Crème brûlée is a sweet, custardy dessert with a brittle sugar crust on the top. And, unlike its sugary shell, its origin story is hard to crack. Although you might think of the dish as quintessentially French, both Spain and England also make a claim to its roots. It’s widely accepted that custard has been made since the Middle Ages and, according to the Spanish, the crème brûlée was born from the traditional 'crema Catalana' dessert. The latter is made with milk while the former is made with cream – but otherwise the desserts are virtually identical. The earliest references to ‘crema catalana’ date to the 14th century.

Crème brûlée

The first mention of crème brûlée in France came several hundred years later, in 1691, in a book called Le Cuisinier Royal Et Bourgeois. And the English claim comes even later than that: a version of crème brûlée apparently graced menus at Cambridge’s Trinity College in 1879 and was known as 'Trinity Cream'. Regardless of its roots, the popularity of the crème brûlée surged in France, Britain and the US in the later half of the 20th century, and it’s been a dessert menu fixture ever since.

Victoria sponge cake

The British love this teatime classic – a pair of fluffy sponge cakes wedged together with a layer of jam and cream, and dusted generously with icing sugar. Despite bearing the name of the legendary monarch Queen Victoria, the cake actually predates her reign by several decades. The earliest known recipe for a kind of Victoria sponge (then named ‘biscuit bread’) actually goes back to 1615 and appeared in The English Housewife by Gervase Markham.

Victoria sponge cake

So how did the sponge earn its regal name? The concept of afternoon tea was dreamt up by Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford, to plug the gap between light luncheons and dinner – Russell was a good friend of Queen Victoria and her Lady of the Bedchamber for several years. She ultimately inspired the queen to partake in afternoon tea too. Queen Victoria's favourite treat on the table? You guessed it: an airy sponge sandwich filled with jam, and made extra light by baking powder invented in 1843. The queen loved it so much that it became known as a Victoria sponge.

Kulfi

A traditional Indian ice cream, sweet kulfi is characterised by its dense, creamy texture, with common flavours including saffron, rose and malai (cream). You’ll find it served at hole-in-the-wall spots and traditional shops right across the subcontinent, and it’s been eaten for centuries. In fact, it’s thought that kulfi could have been invented by inhabitants of the Himalayas, most likely during the Mughal Empire era (from the 16th century).

Kulfi

While condensed milk had already been used in desserts for centuries, the Mughals added innovative ingredients like pistachios. The delicacy eventually spread throughout the empire and remains a signature Indian dessert to this day. Here, Indian chefs prepare kulfi in the city of Amritsar.

Black Forest gâteau

There are few cakes more decadent than the Black Forest gâteau – this ultra-moist, chocolatey sponge is layered with a punchy cherry filling and, although it originated in Germany, is now popular around the world. Unsurprisingly given its name, the rich cake was inspired by the bucolic Black Forest region that it came from.

Black Forest gâteau

Cherries and cherry liquor is a specialty of the region and some sources even say that the cake was modelled on the area’s folk dress: the ladies wear dark-coloured dresses, with hats covered in bold, red, cherry-like pom poms. However the exact origins of the cake are not without contest. Some attribute it to baker Josef Keller of Cafe Ahrend, in Bad Godesberg in 1915, while others say it was concocted by Edwin Hildebrand in the 1930s.

Lamingtons

If you’ve ever ventured Down Under, then you’ll have definitely tried a Lamington. These moreish cake bites are a favourite in Australia, consisting of light sponge covered in chocolate and coconut. For a long time, it was thought that the Lamington originated in Queensland, with references to the little coconutty cubes in the Queensland Country Life newspaper as early as 1900. They're said to have been named after Lord Lamington (pictured), whose chef whipped them up when they had unexpected visitors.

Lamingtons

However, in 2014, fresh evidence threw Australia's claim to the Lamington into question. A 19th-century watercolour uncovered in New Zealand shows what looks suspiciously like a Lamington. Researchers say that the painting, by Kiwi landscape artist JR Smythe, proves that the cake was actually invented in New Zealand, and add that it was originally called a Wellington. The 1888 piece predates the Queensland newspaper reference by more than a decade.

Simnel cake

Traditionally eaten around Easter, simnel cake has a rich, fruity sponge, plus layers of marzipan and 11 decorative marzipan balls on top (to represent Jesus’ faithful disciples, minus Judas). But how did this currant-packed delight come to be? Our favourite origin story follows English pair Simon and Nell who, in the 1800s, fought over whether to boil or bake some leftover dough. As a compromise, the pair decided to do both and thus, the simnel cake – an amalgamation of the couple's names – was born. (This illustration comes from a 19th-century book.)

Simnel cake

There’s likely little truth in this fun story – more probable is the gradual evolution of the cake over centuries. The word comes from the Latin 'simila', meaning fine wheat flour, and there are references to 'simnels' – probably a kind of fruity bread – in religious correspondence as early as the 10th century. It’s thought that by the 13th century, the word 'simnel' was being used to describe cakes too, although these sweet creations varied greatly by region. Ultimately, the version popular in Shrewsbury – with a thicker marzipan crust – won out, becoming widespread across the UK.

Christmas cake

Not everyone is partial to a hunk of Christmas cake, a British staple during the holiday season, but it remains an enduring festive tradition for many – and it's one that appears to date back centuries. The cake is said to have started out as 'plum porridge', a rich and nourishing fruit-filled meal eaten on Christmas Eve, post-religious fasting and pre-Christmas feast. But by the 16th century, the oats had been ousted and the cake started to look much like it does today.

Christmas cake

Recipes dating to the 1500s and 1600s show elaborate Christmas cakes filled with warming spices like cinnamon and cloves, packed with currants and finished with icing sugar and rose water. They would have been served as part of a mammoth medieval feast, possibly with over 100 people. Today, as Christmas is typically a more humble affair, comparatively, smaller versions of the fruit cake grace festive tables.

New York cheesecake

Wonderfully sweet with a buttery, crumbly base, baked New York cheesecake is one of America’s most famous desserts. But did you know it likely had its origins in ancient Greece? Legend has it that a version of this treat was given to athletes in the first-ever Olympic Games, way back in 776 BC. The oldest recorded Greek recipe to have been found dates back to AD 230, while similar creations are set down in a Roman book from 160 BC.

New York cheesecake

However, the version we know and love today came with the invention of cream cheese more than a millennia later in 1872. A dairyman named William Lawrence was trying to reproduce a French cheese called Neufchâtel, when he added an excess of cream for deliciously smooth results. Then, in the 1920s, Jewish-German immigrant Arnold Reuben, who owned a restaurant and Jewish deli in Manhattan (illustrated here), is credited with creating the first, true New York-style cheesecake. Soon other Jewish bakers in the neighbourhood copied his creation and the New York cheesecake was here to stay.

Baked Alaska

You might assume that baked Alaska – a torched meringue case filled with layers of sponge cake and ice cream – originated in The Last Frontier state. But actually that's not the case at all. The elaborate dessert began with American-British scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson (also known as Count Rumford), who discovered that the tiny air bubbles inside of meringue served as 'insulators' – so they'd protect something cold (like ice cream) from heat.

Baked Alaska

Fast-forward to the 1830s and this discovery had inspired the invention of the 'omelette Norwegge' in France, a precursor to baked Alaska that saw the cake, ice cream and meringue concoction broiled before being served. The name is thought to stem from the work of a Parisian pastry chef in New York City: Charles Ranhofer dubbed his version of the dessert the 'Alaska-Florida' due to the clash between hot and cold. Today the dessert remains a hit and modern blow torches mean its prep is much more effortless.

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