US cake recipes, why are they always too sweet?

[ratcreature]

I made some this upside down apple cake, and I already reduced the sugar by a third in the cake (and put no sugar in the whipped cream), yet in combination it was still so sweet as to be almost inedible. This always happens to me with US cake recipes. Are other people having this problem? In principle I like sweet things, and the cake recipes that came with my mixer for example I make without reducing the sugar, so it's not like I'm against a sugary taste, but whenever I try a recipe from an US blog, things turn out too sweet. I guess I should bake more often to get a better feel for tolerable sugar amounts so I don't have to depend on the recipes.

Comments

[kyriacarlisle]

In Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century, Laura Shapiro calls this "the characteristic sweetness of much American cooking" - it's so perfect and obvious a description that I've remembered the line ever since I read it.

Checking back in with the source, she dates it to ca. 1910 or so, as cooks got more and more used to stirring processed foods like ketchup into their cooking. After all, sugar-flavored foods were consistent, and reliably pleasing.

[ratcreature]

I like things sweet too. I wouldn't have made caramelized apple cake if I didn't want a sugary treat, but just not quite this sweet. I guess if I baked more often I would be able to judge and adjust better beforehand, but living alone I don't bake that often, so I'm always wary to change too much.