Talk:gingerbread

A type of cake? We are talking about cookies here, aren't we? --Connel MacKenzie 06:59, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

gingerbread
Sense of "a cake" - is this a countable sense, or is it just what the cake is made of, just as the biscuits/cookies are? &mdash; Paul G 08:25, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * What does your copy of the OED say? SemperBlotto 10:35, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Good question. I didn't think to look there, for some reason. The senses are (summarised): "obsolete: preserved ginger; a kind of cake flavoured with ginger; something showy and unsubstantial; type of ironstone; type of tansy; slang: money". The "cake" sense is the one intended by our first sense (as the OED refers to it being cut into gingerbread men and the like) so it looks like the senses are one and the same. In any case, gingerbread is a cake, not a biscuit. Fixing now... &mdash; Paul G 17:28, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * How on earth do you make cookies from a cake? --Connel MacKenzie 23:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Gingerbread cookies (such as gingerbread men and gingerbread houses) are not the same as gingerbread, the cake (at least in the US), and they should have seperate entries. The cake is similar to other cakes; it has a thickness measured in centimeters (or, in the US, inches), it is moist, and it is full of largish airy holes baked in.  The cookie material, on the other hand, is dense and flat, having a thickness measured in millimeters.  Additionally, while both use ginger as an ingredient for flavoring, they have different flavors.  The word refers both to the construction material for the cookies (a gumdrop castle made of gingerbread and icing) where it is uncountable, and also to the cake and servings of the cake (Pass me a piece of gingerbread. or We baked a gingerbread for the potluck luncheon.)  There are boxed mixes available for both kinds, but I can't hit shopping sites at the moment to display the difference. --Jeffqyzt 16:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Rfvpassed, in widespread use. --Connel MacKenzie 07:54, 29 December 2006 (UTC)