Have you ever wondered about cake? Rochdale has lots of cake shops but there's more to cake than yummy deliciousness. Cakes have developed over the years, changed and modified to become what they are now. There are so many variations of cakes from sponge to cheese and many are classified in different ways, suchas their content "fruitcake" or "chocolate cake" or their display "stack cakes". There's a long history behind cake but lets focus on a few interesting facts!

Fun Fact 1. It used to be customary for the guests of a wedding couple to bring them a cake, the couples popularity would then be determined by the height of the stacked cakes.

Fun Fact 2. Chocolate cake didn't always mean what it does now, in the Victorian era these were spice or yellow cakes with chocolate icing.

Fun Fact 3. Chocolate wasn't used as an ingrediant in cakes until the 20th Century.

Fun Fact 4. Cupcakes are the same as Fairy Cakes in Britain and Patty Cakes in Autrailia.

Fun Fact 5. In ancient times bread/cake was broken over a brides head to finalise the marriage, guests would then throw the pieces at the bride.

Fun Fact 6. Chocolate Biscuits are subject to VAT at 17.5% whereas cakes are xero rated.

Fun Fact 7.Jaffa Cakes are not counted as biscuits, they are cakes. Britain tried to reclassify them as biscuits but were opposed by McVities (it would add a lot to costs for them) who went on to bake a 12-inch Jaffa cake to prove its cakiness and one the case.

Fun Fact 8. The key difference between a cake and a biscuit is that when biscuits are stale they go soft whereas cakes harden.

Fun Fact 9. Cheesecakes are not actually cakes, they come under the custard deserts category.

Fun Fact 10. An old and Weird English cake custom involves a cake as a sort of love potion. This cake is known as Cocklebread and is best defined in the words of Diarist John Aubrey as follows -"Young wenches have a wanton sport which they call "moulding the cocklebread" they get upon a table-board and then gather up their knees and coates with their hands as high as they can then they wabble to and fro with their buttocks as though they were kneading the dough with their arses, and say these special words My dame is sick and gone to bed/and I'll go mould my cocklebread'. This dough was then baked and fed to her object of desire to make them fall for her. Very odd.

Do you know any local Rochdale cake stories or facts?