shortcake n.

1540s, "action of making short," verbal noun from shorten.

The meaning "butter or other fat or oil used in baking" (by 1796) is from shorten in the cookery sense "make crumbly," attested by 1733. This is from short (adj.) in a secondary sense in reference to food, "friable, easily crumbled," attested by early 15c. in cookery books.

Hence short pastry, in full shortcrust pastry, that to which lard or butter has been added to make it soft and flaky. This also is the short in shortbread and shortcake. Also shortening bread (by 1884), a U.S. Southern specialty.

Short (adj.) as "easily crumbled" also has been applied to things other than food, and this use of it perhaps implies "having short fibers," as materials with short fibers fall apart more easily (e.g. short-staple cotton).

early 13c., "flat or comparatively thin mass of baked dough," from Old Norse kaka "cake," from West Germanic *kokon- (source also of Middle Dutch koke, Dutch koek "a cake, gingerbread, dumpling," Old High German kuohho, German Kuchen "a cake, a tart"). Not believed to be related to Latin coquere "to cook," as formerly supposed. Replaced its Old English cognate, coecel.

What man, I trow ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake and haue your cake? ["The Proverbs & Epigrams of John Heywood," 1562]

Extended mid-15c. to any flat, rounded mass. Extended from early 15c. to "a light composition of flour, sugar, butter and other ingredients baked in any form." To take the cake "win all, rank first" (often ironic) is from 1847, American English; piece of cake "something easy" is from 1936.

The let them eat cake story is found in Rousseau's "Confessions," in reference to an incident c. 1740, long before Marie Antoinette, though it has been associated with her since c. 1870; it apparently was a chestnut in the French royal family that had been told of other princesses and queens before her.