Geography Project :)

My topic was Baking around the world. I wanted to see what baking used to be popular in different countries and what is popular today.

Number One:

For my first stop I went to Ireland. I knew that baking in Ireland was always simple things like bread, but today we are influenced by lots of other countries. In the early 19^th century, women would stay at home to mind their children while their husbands would go out to work for the day. They would also spend most of their day preparing a filling meal for their “hard working” husbands. They would usually bake bread to go along with the meal. This was their place in society. Women were second class citizens who weren’t good enough to work. Their “job” was to look after their children and cook for the family. Baking in Ireland today is still quite traditional but we are influenced a lot by countries like America. Americas modern and fashionable baking has been incorporated into our lives without us knowing.

Number Two:

For my second stop I went to America. I researched information about traditional and contemporary baking. Traditional American baking consists of bread just like Ireland and scones (which they call biscuits). Over 240,000 farms in America produce wheat. The US alone produces approximately 13% of the whole world’s wheat. Two thirds of the US’s wheat production comes from The Great Plains (from Texas to Montana).

In later years, American baking started to change. It was getting more contemporary. Apple pie and pumpkin pie became popular. Pumpkin pie originated when Mexican colonists cut the top off a pumpkin, took the seeds out and filled the inside with milk, spices and honey. They baked it hot ashes and ate it. This recipe spread around quickly. People experimented and soon became The Pumpkin Pie. Today, America is known for its great, stylish baking. They have influenced lots of different countries around the world. Some popular contemporary baking in America today would be Chocolate fudge cake, cookies, cupcakes and apple pie. Cheesecake is another popular American dessert. Not many people know that it actually originated in Greece.

Number Three:

For my third stop I went to Greece. When I was researching American baking I found out that Cheesecake is Greek. I wanted to find out more about where exactly it originated. I also wanted to see what kind of baking is popular in Greece today. People normally associate cheesecake with America but it started off in Greece. It was served to the athletes during the first ever Olympic games held in 776 BC.

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece. It is said to be served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 BC. Cream cheese was invented in 1872 by two American dairymen. It was said that they were trying to recreate French cheese. Seeing as cream cheese had not been invented yet, people relied on cottage cheese to make the cake. Cheesecake was brought to America by immigrants. It was altered a lot when it got there. The first cheesecake with cream cheese came from a man called Arnold Rueben in New York City. Legend says that he was served a cheese pie by a friend. He fell in love with it straight away! From his friend’s recipe, he started to develop his own recipe and he eventually served it at his restaurant. The rest from here is history. Chefs altered different kinds of flavours into this recipe and it is now famous around the world.

Greek baking today includes things like cookies and baklava. Baklava is a pastry based dessert which is sweetened with honey and crushed nuts.

Number four:

For my fourth stop I went to Texas. As I said when researching American baking, Texas produces two thirds of the US’s wheat. They bake a lot of bread with this but most of it is imported to other countries.

Texan cuisine is a mixture between Texas and Mexico. It is called tex-mex! Chilli con carne would be a popular tex-mex dish. Other tex-mex dishes would be beef and chicken fajitas and chapulines which are roasted grasshoppers. Texan baking is just like American baking. A popular Texan dessert would be Sweet Potato Praline Pie. This is a mixture of mashes sweet potato, spices like nutmeg, vanilla extract, cream and nuts. All the ingredients are combined together and put into a pie dish. The mixture is cooked for ten minutes. It is usually served with ice-cream or whipped cream.

Number five:

For my last stop I went to Spain. Baking in Spain today is still very traditional. A popular traditional this to make is Spanish King’s Cake or “Roscón de Reyes”. It is only made around January 5^th.This is the when the three wise men bring children presents.
Spanish people eat lots of this pastry for breakfast the next morning. And the leftovers throughout the day. It is a spongy pastry with many different layers and a fluffy filling. The filling can either be whipped cream, meringue or crema (thick sugar-flour custard) Fruit is added which gives it a citrus flavor.
The cake originated in Spain because of the three wise men. However, other countries have taken the idea but have tied their own religions into it. There is a French King Cake. Tradition holds that the cake is “to draw the kings” to the Epiphany. A figure which can be anything from a car to a cartoon character is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the figure in their slice becomes king for the day in their homes.
Just like Ireland has a ring in our braic!