Back Away From the Cheesecake! Quiz

Answer: Sacher-Torte

Legend has it that the cake was invented out of necessity when Prince Metternich's chef fell ill and the chef's apprentice, 16 year old Franz Sacher, was forced to step in and produce a top quality dessert for a prestigious dinner party. It wasn't until Sacher finished his apprenticeship and was working as a chef proper that he recreated the cake and began serving it to the public.

The cake is packed with chocolate but whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks and folding them into the cake mixture gives the sponge a fluffy texture.

Answer: Dates

Steaming the sponge is the traditional method of cooking and keeps it exceptionally moist but is a little time consuming and there are many recipes that bake the sponge in an oven instead. Fruits other than dates can also be used, sultanas for example, or prunes, but the dates give a rich depth of flavour with a slight tang that perfectly balances the sweet toffee sauce.

This comfort food should be eaten with caution, it will fill you for the whole day.

Answer: It contains no yeast

In Irish Soda Bread, bicarbonate of soda reacts with buttermilk to become the raising agent, so no yeast or proofing is needed, making it one of the easiest breads to make. Beginners should give it a go but if you really want it easy there are soda bread mixes commercially available.

The trick to a good soda bread is to leave it alone, mixing the ingredients together with the least amount of handling required, kneading is not needed. For the most luxurious results, eat it on the day you make it with a good helping of Irish butter.

Answer: Blondies

Blondies have a golden hue and the taste is a little like butterscotch. Sometimes a white chocolate brownie can be referred to as blondie too. Other variations sampled during selfless research for this quiz include the apple pie brownie, where the chocolate element is replaced by cinnamon, sugar, and sweet chopped apple. Delicious.

Answer: Madeira or Pound Cake

Madeira or Pound Cake is a light, firm, plain but versatile cake that can take many adaptations and cooks very well with fruit. You can't forget the recipe, it's equal weight of just 4 ingredients: self-raising flour, butter, eggs, and sugar.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a great cake to make with children as they can do most of it themselves and enjoy the dramatic turning out at the end. Various fruits can be substituted for the pineapple but don't stint on the syrup, that's the best bit!

Answer: Brandy Butter

Guard or Guard's Sauce is butter flavoured with brandy and icing sugar, and more commonly just called Brandy Butter. For those of us who find Plum Pudding too rich, brandy butter is just as nice on Mince Pies.

Plum Pudding became inextricably linked to Christmas in Britain in Victorian times thanks to its appearance on the royal Christmas lunch menu as well as featuring in stories by Charles Dickens. For centuries before that, however, Plum Pudding was regularly served as party or festival food all year round, and especially at harvest time.

Answer: New York

New York restaurant "Serendipity 3" first offered its record breaking sundae for a mere $1000 but before you rush to purchase I should warn you it requires advance booking of at least 48 hours notice.

Only the best ingredients in the world are used: Five scoops of Madagascar and Tahiti vanilla bean ice cream are decorated with chocolate sauce made from one of the world's most expensive chocolates (Amedei Porcelana), the edible gold leaf is abundant, chocolate truffles and gold dragées are used as sprinkles along with bespoke candied fruits from Paris, some of the sugar decorations are so intricate that they take up to 18 hours to prepare, the dessert caviar sits in its own edible sugar-glass leaf balanced right on top of the sundae, and customers can keep the crystal bowl its all served in as a souvenir!

Still feeling proud of that "banana split" you made last week?

Answer: French

The difference in the methods is when and how the sugar is introduced to the egg whites. The Italian method is often used in restaurants, the egg whites are whisked to stiff peaks and boiling sugar syrup is added which sweetens and partially cooks the mixture.

The Swiss method uses a bain-marie to heat the mixing bowl and the sugar and egg whites are whisked to stiff peaks together over the heat; the resulting meringue has a marshmallow texture. The French method is most commonly used in home-baking; caster sugar is gradually beaten into the egg whites after they have already been whisked.

Answer: Choux

The moisture in a choux pastry provides enough steam during baking to puff up the balls of mixture leaving them crisp and hollow. In France, for special occasions such as weddings, the piece de resistance is sometimes a tall decorated cone of filled profiteroles, bound together with strings of hardened caramel. This spectacular dessert is called a Croquembouche (crunch in the mouth).

Answer: Greek and Roman writings

The Roman statesman Cato the Elder wrote "De Agricultura" (On Farming) somewhere around the year 160 BC; in it there lies a recipe for a dish called (in Latin) "Placenta".

This takes the form of a wheatflour crust, baked, and then spread with softened and sieved ewe's cheese that has been sweetened with honey, and topped with an upper crust before the entire cake is baked. After this baking, more honey is spread on top. "Placenta" was apparently made to be used in religious rituals.

Cheesecake: if it's good enough for the gods...