yeast cake

a small cake of compacted yeast for baking or the like.

a cake or sweet bread containing yeast as a leavening agent.

Origin of yeast cake

First recorded in 1785–95

We tried all sorts of schemes to get rid of this yeast-cake nuisance, and finally adopted Harold's "curled bread" project.

The Library of Work and Play: Electricity and Its Everyday Uses |John F. Woodhull
Another Biddy, engaged by a friend of ours, having to make a yeast-cake, put it under her bed-clothes 'just to plump it a bit.'

Town Life in Australia |R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny
She never once thought of the yeast-cake, for so many exciting things had happened since she left home.

Peggy in Her Blue Frock |Eliza Orne White
“Mother, I forgot all about the yeast-cake,” she confessed miserably.

Peggy in Her Blue Frock |Eliza Orne White

Dissolve the yeast-cake in a quarter of a cupful of lukewarm water.

The Century Cook Book |Mary Ronald

yeast cake

mainly US and Canadian living yeast cells compressed with starch into a cake, for use in baking or brewing