Let them eat cake! What birthday, wedding or children's party would be complete without it? It is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures throughout the world, but how did it come to be so? Cake: A Global History explores the origin of modern cake and its development from sweet bread to architectural flight of fancy, together with the meanings, legends and rituals attached to cake throughout the world.
Nicola Humble reviews the many national differences in cake-making techniques and customs - the French, for example, have the gâteau Paris-Brest, named after the cycle race and 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 - and what they reveal about the nations that make them. From Proust's madeleine to Miss Havisham's decaying wedding cake, the symbol of her betrayal in Dickens's Great Expectations, Humble also relates the food's place in literature, art and film, and what it can symbolize: indulgence, gender, motherhood and guilt.
With a large selection of mouthwatering images, Cake will appeal to the many readers with an interest in food history, social, cultural, literary and art history - or, indeed, just in cake.
| ISBN: | 9781861896483 |
| Publication date: | 15th May 2010 |
| Author: | Nicola Humble |
| Publisher: | Reaktion Books |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 144 pages |
| Series: | Edible |
| Genres: |
Cookery, Food and Drink Cultural studies: food and society |
Let them eat cake! What birthday, wedding or children's party would be complete without it? It is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures throughout the world, but how did it come to be so? Cake: A Global History explores the origin of modern cake and its development from sweet bread to architectural flight of fancy, together with the meanings, legends and rituals attached to cake throughout the world.
Nicola Humble reviews the many national differences in cake-making techniques and customs - the French, for example, have the gâteau Paris-Brest, named after the cycle race and 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 - and what they reveal about the nations that make them. From Proust's madeleine to Miss Havisham's decaying wedding cake, the symbol of her betrayal in Dickens's Great Expectations, Humble also relates the food's place in literature, art and film, and what it can symbolize: indulgence, gender, motherhood and guilt.
With a large selection of mouthwatering images, Cake will appeal to the many readers with an interest in food history, social, cultural, literary and art history - or, indeed, just in cake.
Cake features in the following genres: Cookery, Food and Drink, Cultural studies: food and society
Cake is available in Hardback
Cake was written by Nicola Humble and published by Reaktion Books
Cake has 144 pages
Yes it is part of Edible series