Cake

Cake in the Old Testament refers to various forms of flatbread used both in everyday meals and in religious offerings. Unleavened cakes were a required component of the meal offering (Leviticus 2:4; Exodus 29:2), typically baked on a griddle or in a pan with oil, and accompanied sacrifices and cereal offerings in temple worship. Women baked cakes as offerings to the queen of heaven, a practice condemned by Jeremiah as idolatrous (Jeremiah 7:18; 44:19). Amnon pretended illness to have his half-sister Tamar prepare cakes for him (2 Samuel 13:8). The prophet Hosea compared Ephraim to "a cake not turned" (Hosea 7:8) — scorched on one side and raw on the other — as a vivid image of half-hearted spiritual commitment.