ash cake
1
8.2
- noun
- /æʃ keɪk/
- US
- In some southern households, ash cake is still baked using traditional methods for special occasions.
Examples
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She prepared an ash cake by wrapping cornmeal dough in cabbage leaves and placing it in the coals.
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She baked an ash cake for the family reunion.
-
During the camping trip, they made fresh ash cakes over the open fire.
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Have you ever tried ash cakes at a festival?
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For dinner, we enjoyed some warm ash cake that had been baked in leaves over the fire.
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The family gathered around the campfire to eat ash cake wrapped in cabbage leaves.
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They served us a slice of homemade ash cake with a side of honey for a tasty treat.
Synonyms
1
2.0
A flat food like a pancake made from cornmeal and cooked on a pan
1
3.0
A small flat cake made from ground corn, usually fried or baked and served as a side
1
9.9
A simple cornbread wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked in hot ashes
A cornbread cake wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked in hot ashes
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'ash' (residue from burning) and 'cake' (a shaped baked food) can infer a cake associated with ashes, i.e. a cake baked in or covered by ashes. Cultural details (leaf-wrapping, cornbread tradition) may be new, but the basic lexical combination is transparent and predictable from the constituents.
Etymology
Ash cake comes from a simple cooking picture: cornmeal dough was wrapped in leaves and cooked in hot ash to make a flat cake. So today ash cake means 'a type of cornbread baked in the ashes'.