What's the difference between cake and bread?

Its sandwichability.

The leavening, no? Except, I don't know that there's any good reason to call sweet quick breads (banana et al.) "bread" instead of cake.

I vaguely recall cakes with yeast, but may be hallucinating. There definitely are breads without yeast (soda bread, for instance).

There definitely are breads without yeast (soda bread, for instance).

I was trying to hedge my bets by saying "leavening." Does soda bread use significantly more soda than a cake would? Or something?

Basically, I have no idea, and think there may be no actual answer other than the Jewish one.

Its sandwichability.

I said that (co-worker discussion) and then they became obsessed with the layer cake and permutations thereof. So I backed off.

sticks together when you smoosh the crumbs, whereas bread is not

By that tenet, hard dough bread is cake, although it passes the sandwich test and the yeast test and all the other bread tests I can think of. And I'm sure it's not the only bread that does.

Its sandwichability.

I don't think I want a thanksgiving sandwich on banana bread, though. That would be kind of weird.

Also, FTR, in New Joy there are milkless breads and milky breads, and I've made them both, and they both come out quite bread-y. The milk breads come out lighter, smoother (they also have one egg in), but pretty much alike in terms of what the crumbs do. Actually, the milk bread base recipe is right next to the challah recipe, which I would get around to making, if it did not require the separation of egg yolks. Whatever would I do with the whites?

I said, SUGAR.

That's actually my made up criteria. If it is sweet, it's cake. Even though I'll call it banana or zucchini bread. It's really a cake. In disguise.

Whatever would I do with the whites?

The Cake Bible has a section where she lists recipes in different organisations, and one of them is, IIRC, about extra yolks or whites.

There are always meringues, angel food cake, facials, souffles, omelettes ... a whole bunch of options.

Betsy would know. I bet Betsy will come on and tell us it is some complex interaction between the milk, sugar, and rising agent that makes the difference. Possibly also the butter/fat content.

My criteria is this - if I can add either wheat germ or savory herbs to it with no fundamental shift in tastiness, it's a bread. Thus banana bread is a bread, as is brioche.

I fully accept that my criteria is not other people's.

After some consideration, I've decided to curtail my posting on Buffistas.

I'm used to my boards and groups, where it's primarily male and a lot of shooting shit. Religion, politics, Great Pumpkin, it's all on the table, but we take it in stride and have barbeque together whenever we're within 200 miles of each other. It's kinda like going to the bar and having your own barstool.

Buffistas, though, isn't a bar, it's more like a coffeehouse. And like a barfly in a Starbucks, I feel like I'm just jostling around and making an ass of myself. There's a group culture and repartee I don't understand, and I feel like every time I open my mouth I'm pissing someone off.

So... I'm just going to curtail my posting significantly and lurk a lot more. This isn't a culture I understand well enough yet to be a productive member of b.org. The less I talk, the less damage I can do.

Anyway. Ta. I'll be lurking if needed.