Is it all from the same company? Or do multiple terrible cake companes all just share the same terrible formula?
Not sure but it’s probably the same stuff they used in my college cafeteria. Sometimes the yellow cake with chocolate frosting had these crumbles on the top. It dawned on us, that the crumbles were just the cake from yesterday ground up and sprinkled on top. We called it “Yestercake”
Which cakes? I’ve searched my entire brain catalogue for Chinese cakes and I must say it was pretty empty. I didn’t know there were a particularly bad type sold at school cafeterias and cheap takeaways
I’m guessing this is what they’re referring to:
I’ve personally seen it served identically at a few different unrelated places. I’m guessing its sold pre-made, considering that the appearance is always identical.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Chinese buffet sheet cake? On what planet?
I am literally in actual China today and I have no idea what cake they mean.
Edit: I’ve seen the image below. Yeah, I don’t associate that with china.
With that said I know you didn’t mean it as China has no notable cake, but I can associate at least one cake with the most China thing ever. Ma Lai Gao. The one you see in every single dim sum restaurant. Kinda like sponge cake.
I think where I live most mainstream asian restaurants don’t showcase their desserts as much as their other dishes. You’ve just made me realise this. It’s like you need to actually search for them on the menu to find them, unlike with western style restaurants which clearly have cakes and sweets on display. I recall places selling a variety of asian cakes and sweets but they’re niche… This explains why my mental repertoire is so empty.
Ma Lai Gao. It’s on my list now, I must try this!
Chinese cakes, desserts, etc use less sugar and are generally more bland than western recipes. It is a matter of different cultures having different tastes.
I’ll have to look into that idea! Honestly I never even imagined that these were even vaguely related to actual Chinese desserts; I entirely assumed they were just Western cake ideas, but impossibly cheap.
Like the pizza that’s always on those burgers. Even less authentic than the rest of the stuff, and somehow cheaper tasting than even Cici’s. (Not knocking the restaurants for that; gotta have something for the picky kids.)
In America in particular we use a ridiculous amount of sugar in everything. People used to eating Chinese food – like, the kind they eat in China – in my experience are typically unprepared for it. I worked for a Chinese restaurant for a while and my boss, who was Cantonese, tried and subsequently declared a wide array of American foodstuffs to be completely inedible due to being too sweet. Including stuff we don’t think of as being “sweet,” like ketchup.
I’d doubt the horrid sponge cake you find at the Chinese buffet is actually related to any imported Chinese confection, but it’s probably made according to the sensibilities of whoever is running the place. Especially if they ever plan on eating it themselves. (You laugh at this prospect. And yet: one of my boss’ favorite things to do on the rare holidays we were closed was to go to other Chinese restaurants that weren’t.)
For the record, ketchup is sweet as fuck. Delicious. And sweet. So is bbq sauce.
You’re almost certainly correct that it’s just cheap cake. Is Betty Crocker cake really a traditional Chinese dessert? Furthermore, most buffets like this are Americanized ethnic food not traditional dishes.
Depends on where you go. American-chinese cuisine has its roots in authentic Chinese food, brought by immigrants; immigrants who came to a new place finding unfamiliar ingredients and adapting those ingredients to their old ways of cooking.
It’s a fascinating history; though the way they were treated was downright awful. (Story of our nation: “Exploit the new guy.”…)
Yo, I load that shit up with ice cream. I love it.
Hey, some of us like that stuff! But I have no idea
