Cake: A Global History

By Nicola Humble

Book Overview

Be it a birthday or a wedding--let them eat cake. Encased in icing, crowned with candles, emblazoned with congratulatory words--cake is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures around the world. But how did cake come to be the essential food marker of a significant occasion? In Cake: A Global History, Nicola Humble explores the meanings, legends, rituals, and symbolism attached to cake through the ages.

Humble describes the many national differences in cake-making techniques, customs, and regional histories--from the French g teau Paris-Brest, named for a cycle race and designed to imitate the form of a bicycle wheel, to the American Lady Baltimore cake, likely named for a fictional cake in a 1906 novel by Owen Wister. She also details the role of cake in literature, art, and film--including Miss Havisham's imperishable wedding cake in Great Expectations and Marcel Proust's madeleine of memory--as well as the art and architecture of cake making itself.

Featuring a large selection of mouthwatering images, as well as many examples and recipes for some particularly unusual cakes, Cake will provide many sweet reasons for celebration.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1861896484
• ISBN13: 9781861896483
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"