Baking a Cake

Here I am, I want to bake a cake. What makes something a cake? Clearly a rock isn't a cake. A car is not a cake, but why not? Even more difficult, bread is not a cake. So what makes it a cake and not bread?

What is in cake? I know, crazy, right? Cake has parts. You've got flour and sugar and butter and eggs and milk and more. But all of that together could be bread, but it could be cake. An egg as an egg, but it can help make up a cake. Clearly you don't go to the fridge and pull out an egg and say it's a cake. That would be silly.

So before it's a cake, it's many things. It's eggs, flour, sugar, butter, milk, etc. Not until all of those things are mixed together it becomes a cake, or does it?

When you've mixed the ingredients together, is it a cake then? No, it's still not a cake. A cake is baked and has frosting and other things, right? But once it's mixed together to make a cake, could it be anything else? Is it going to be cookies, or donuts or bread? I don't think so, it seems like once it's in the bowl mixed up, it's going to be a cake, but it isn't yet, right?

So you put your cake mixings into the oven right? Eureka! Now it's going to be a cake. Right? Well you cook it at temperature until it's done. Don't ask me, I'm not really a baker or a chef, I just know generally how it happens. Once it's done you take it out of the oven, now is it a cake? I guess it could be, but I wouldn't eat it just like it is.

Some people let it cool a bit and then frost it. You can put words on it saying "I love you", or "Happy Birthday" or anything really. Now I would say it's a cake. It wasn't a cake when it was just eggs and flour and everything, but once it was mixed it was either going to be a cake or nothing. Now that everything went according to plan, it's a cake and we can all enjoy it.

What makes a cake? Is it the ingredients? Is it the idea of it? Is it the baking? Some people can't have milk, so they use other things. You can make cake many ways, but if you make your mix and then throw it away, it will never be a cake.

So what makes something a baby?