Cake : A Global History
Author(s): Nicola Humble
What birthday, wedding, bar mitzvah or children's party would be complete without a cake? In nutritional terms cake is completely unnecessary, and yet it plays a crucial role in celebrations and rituals within the majority of cultures around the world. Despite being such a popular foodstuff, however, cake is a curiously neglected subject; "Cake: A Global History" redresses the balance by closely examining the origin of modern cake, and its development and evolution through time. Nicola Humble explores the meanings, legends, rituals and symbolism attached to cake through the ages and dispels many myths and misconceptions. Cake reviews the wide variety of, and the many national differences in cake-making techniques and customs - the French for example have the gateau Paris-Brest, which is named after the cycle race and is designed to imitate the form of a bicycle wheel; in America there is New England's Election Day cake or the Southern favourite, Lady Baltimore cake.
Product Information
Nicola Humble is Professor of English Literature at Roehampton University. She is the author of Culinary Pleasures: Cook Books and the Transformation of British Food, as well as Victorian Heroines: Representations of Femininity in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Art.
Introduction: When is a Cake Not a Cake? 1 Cakes through History 2 Cakes Around the World 3 The Culture of Baking Cake 4 The Rituals and Symbolism of Cake 5 Literary Cake 6 Postmodern Cakes Recipes References Select Bibliography Websites and Associations Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index
General Fields
- :
- : Reaktion Books
- : Reaktion Books
- : 0.318
- : 30 April 2010
- : 220mm X 120mm X 18mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Nicola Humble
- : Hardback
- : 5-Oct
- : 144
- : 20 black & white illustrations, 40 colour illustrations
