Cake

Cake A Global History - Edible

Hardback (15 May 2010)

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Publisher's Synopsis

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 gâteau 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.

Book information

ISBN: 9781861896483
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Imprint: Reaktion Books
Pub date:
DEWEY: 641.8653
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 144
Weight: 330g
Height: 203mm
Width: 130mm
Spine width: 16mm