kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

From the department of "divided by a common language": earlier today I was Very Upset about the US use of "coffee cake", which is apparently not a cake flavoured with coffee but rather a (style of) cake eaten with coffee.

(The recipe blog intro writes itself, really; things I am already considering include some kind of poppyseed coffee cake and of course rhubarb coffee cake, which is what precipitated this particular discovery.)

This was upsetting enough by itself but Subsequent Digressions lead to the discovery that apparently in North America "currants" with no other specifiers by default means Ribes, probably blackcurrant, and not, you know, the dried grape.

... via going "hey, this EYB recipe specifies 'currants' as an ingredient for teacakes, but I've previously been informed that that means Ribes fruit not dried grapes, surely some mistake?" and getting back, approximately, "what makes you think dried grapes are relevant??? the version of the recipe in the Guardian just says 'currants'??????"

(The linking step was being Extremely Indignant about having it patiently explained to me that "coffee cake" is like "tea cake". Apparently BUT THE FRUIT SHOULD BE SOAKED IN TEA THOUGH is not a robust defence.)

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-06 11:36 pm (UTC)
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
From: [personal profile] wildeabandon
*screams in Yorkshire* Coffee cakes are nothing like teacakes. Teacakes are bread.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 12:39 am (UTC)
starlady: Raven on a MacBook (Default)
From: [personal profile] starlady
Wait...a teacake is not a cake?

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 05:08 am (UTC)
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
From: [personal profile] wildeabandon
They are in the south, but in Yorkshire a teacake is a soft white bread roll - the sort that you might call a barm or a butty elsewhere.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 10:29 am (UTC)
sfred: Fred wearing a hat in front of a trans flag (Default)
From: [personal profile] sfred
This! A fruit teacake has to be specified as a fruit teacake, but it's still bread rather than cake.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 06:48 am (UTC)
me_and: (Default)
From: [personal profile] me_and

I'm used to "teacake" meaning a fruited bread roll, probably toasted and buttered for breakfast. Which is an obvious and sensible nomenclature, unlike this "coffee cake" nonsense

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 03:12 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional
…mmmhm :amused:

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 03:14 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional
the “cake” involved in the name was assigned back when “cake” just meant “amount of something about the right size to be held in the hand”, ie a cake of soap.

Isn’t language fun? let’s do flapjacks next!

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 03:43 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional

Mischief. 😈

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 04:09 pm (UTC)
starlady: Raven on a MacBook (Default)
From: [personal profile] starlady
Oh right, like how "tape" originally meant something like a ribbon, i.e. measuring tape.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 01:06 am (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional
That wasn’t the way I was pointing out that they’re the same; I was referencing the language construction.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 05:19 am (UTC)
wildeabandon: picture of me (Default)
From: [personal profile] wildeabandon
Fair. Although I can't quite figure out how that works for the Yorkshire version, because tea is the evening meal, not the mid afternoon one, and you'd be a lot more likely to eat teacakes for the morning or midday meals.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 10:13 am (UTC)
ludy: Close up of pink tinted “dyslexo-specs” with sunset light shining through them (Default)
From: [personal profile] ludy
But Tea Bread is eaten at Tea Time (I think the American for them would be something like fruited quick bread") and the fruit used is soaked in tea...

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 03:00 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional
And coffee cake is eaten with coffee when you’re Having Coffee With Someone. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 06:50 pm (UTC)
ludy: Close up of pink tinted “dyslexo-specs” with sunset light shining through them (Default)
From: [personal profile] ludy
No, this UK usage of Tea/Tea Time means a late-afternoon (Southern) or evening (Northern) meal and doesn’t imply the consumption of the tea-the-drink in the way that Having Coffee With Someone, the social event, does imply that coffee-the-drink will be involved

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 07:02 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional

I’m aware; and in fact at this point coffee cake does NOT require coffee be drunk at that time and can be had whenever. It’s almost like language often drifts like that!

Again: my point is not a lockstep of Exact Times You Eat the Thing or exact mirroring of meaning, but rather about drift in meaning/origin so that the concepts indicated by the phrase are not related to its dominant taste, which is unexceptional if you’re used to it (as y’all are with tea cakes and we are with coffee cake) but weird when unfamiliar (as vice versa).

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 03:03 pm (UTC)
recessional: a photo image of feet in sparkly red shoes (Default)
From: [personal profile] recessional
Again, not strictly what I meant: I was genuinely pointing out to Alex that they were not caught up by the fact that teacakes do not predominantly taste of tea and that they found the construction totally transparent, meaning that the huge Brain Freeze of “coffee cake” not being The Taste of Coffee was one of habituation top the construction (or lack thereof), rather than anything else.

(no subject)

Date: 2025-05-07 05:01 pm (UTC)
pseudomonas: "pseudomonas" in London Underground roundel (Default)
From: [personal profile] pseudomonas

Teacakes are bread.

Tell that to Tunnock's.

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