Europe has given us a heritage of superb cakes. Generally speaking, Continental cakes have a richer, closer texture than butter, sponge or quick-mix cakes. When they contain a high proportion of ground nuts instead of flour they are often referred to as tortes, and when they are split into many layers and decorated they may be called gâteaux.
In Continental cakes rich butter-cream fillings are used, and different types of liqueurs, chocolate or coffee are favourite flavourings. Nuts and fruit are used as decorations, and frequently the cake is chilled before serving.
Springform tins make it easy to turn out the richer mixtures, and the interestingly shaped gugelhopf, bundt and ring tins give authentic shapes to Continental cakes.