蛋糕裡的文化史：從家族情感、跨國貿易到社群認同，品嘗最可口的社會文化

by 艾莉莎·萊文(Alysa Levene), 艾莉莎·萊文, 鄭煥昇 (Translator)

談蛋糕，就該五花八門地談，談到意猶未盡！
　　習得厄爾瑪「廚房裡的閒話家常」的精神真傳，烹飪聖經《廚藝之樂》的蛋糕文化版！

　　1.嚐原料：從麵粉、糖、奶油、蛋，到蜂蜜、香料、果乾、巧克力，看見跨國貿易的影響。
　　2.嚐種類：從水果蛋糕、磅蛋糕，到天使蛋糕，探索蛋糕樣貌與市場發展。
　　3.嚐慶典：從生日蛋糕、結婚蛋糕，到聖誕蛋糕，細數珍貴的生命記憶。
　　4.嚐國族：英國、法國、德國的蛋糕傳統文化，到美國民族熔爐的食品商與蛋糕市場，橫跨大西洋兩岸的紙上甜蜜之旅。
　　5.嚐性別：從「家政女神」和「杯子蛋糕小姐」揭示家務到專業的變化，探究女性與蛋糕的情愛糾葛。

　　廚藝大師安東尼．卡瑞蒙、茱莉亞‧柴爾德，伊莉莎白‧大衛相繼登場，帶來經典蛋糕食譜。

　　千古以來，甜蜜可口的蛋糕不僅療癒人們的味蕾和心靈，也烘托出慶典的歡欣與奢華，更使人們對家庭、社群、地區及傳統文化的情感連結益發綿密，帶來回味無窮的記憶。

　　艾莉莎‧萊文身為社會歷史學家，以及狂熱的業餘烘焙者，
　　從今日一場有趣的「雪球案」為引，帶領我們重新認識蛋糕在人類史上的樣貌和意義：
　　•蛋糕何時開始和麵包分道揚鑣？
　　•蛋糕的甜味和內餡用料，透露了哪些跨國貿易的歷程？
　　•聖誕節如何演變為最重要的冬季慶典，聖誕蛋糕則成為不可或缺的要角？
　　•歷代「家政女神」怎麼透過食譜，指引女性走出自己的道路？
　　•國王蛋糕作為紐奧良狂歡節的主角，顯現出怎樣的旅行軌跡和移民文化？
　　•生日蛋糕如何和兒童文化的發展相得益彰，成為重視個人特殊性的象徵？
　　•杯子蛋糕從美國風靡全球的現象，反映了哪些文化發展和心靈需求？

　　現在，一起打開千變萬化的蛋糕歷史展示櫃，一片片切取，品嘗其層次豐富的文化內涵

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Food, Food and Drink, Cooking, Food History, Foodie

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2016

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I swear that this has never happened before, but when I got to Goodreads, it already knew I'd finished this ebook and had set the status to "read." I've ready Kindle e-books via Amazon before and this hasn't happened. Kind of weirded out. Anyway...

This book was okay. It attempts to describe the history of baking as an art/science while at the same time delving into the social science aspects of baking in general, and all that issues of class and gender that go along with it. While the author was quite thorough, the organization left me a little bewildered. It wasn't linear, there was much repetition, and much of the history had to do with the last few decades. There's a lot to absorb here -- what makes a cake a cake, the rise of rising agents, how cakes have come to be associated with special occasions, nostalgia for commercial snack cakes, baking fads like cronuts and cake pops. And a warning -- if you haven't been keeping up with The Great British Bake Off, you might want to be aware that there are spoilers here.

All in all an interesting book about an awesome human creation. I just felt it was a little unfocused at times. Or maybe I was the one that was unfocused while reading it?...

Warning: this book will make you want cake.

[Diane Graft · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some interesting information, but I found enough errors to make me distrust the reliability of the book overall. But what was most glaring to me - a book about cake, something that is often quite a visual experience, that contains NO illustrations. The edition I read had a drawing of a generic cupcake on the front of the jacket, and another on the back, and that was all. The book could have been so much better with visual references for the cakes the reader might not be familiar with.

[Stephanie *Spunky Avenger* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review. All my opinions are my own.
---

If you really love cake and want to know its history than this will definitely be for you. It starts off with the beginning of cake and the interesting things that were associated with it and its ingredients.

Not my normal kind of read but I'm trying to expand my reading palette this year :). Glad I took a chance.

[Orsolya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cake. While it is nothing but a pile of empty, unhealthy calories; it is beloved by many all over the world. From birthdays to baking contests and everything in between; cakes take various forms in all cultures and are certainly here to stay. This leaves us to ponder: what makes a cake, a cake? When did the first cake originate? How did cakes spread? What is the importance of cake? Alysa Levene attempts to explore the answers to these questions in, “Cake: A Slice of History”.

Even though “Cake” begins with a history introduction to the first recorded cakes; don’t expect the pages to be a purely chronological study on the history of cake. Rather, Levene takes a topical subject-by-subject social history view on the various incarnations and appearances of cake, thereby attempting to answer what cake truly is. It is undeniable that Levene has researched a multitude of channels and is primed to present all of her findings to the reader. In this sense, “Cake” is a strong piece.

The problem with “Cake” is in the execution and unfortunately on that end, there are many issues. “Cake” has a very scattered premise often times running off on tangents and focusing too much on the commodity history of the ingredients of cake. This is distracting and feels like ‘filler’ information. Not to mention that this, along with the tone, makes the construction of “Cake” like that of a college term paper. In fact, I had to write a similar thesis at my university back in the day and I can honestly say that Levene’s style is the same and therefore not necessarily the most captivating or streamlined of pieces.

Levene’s “Cake” also suffers from heavy repetition. There are several occasions where topics are revisited in the same manner as previously discussed without shedding any new light on the matter (and even textually the same, at times). This may reflect poor editing or a lack of strong writing skills on Levene’s behalf but whichever it is; it results in “Cake” having an absence of intrigue.

As a whole, much of “Cake” can be described as ‘boring’ and without any zest which is unlike other food social history pieces. “Cakes” isn’t memorable and doesn’t leave the reader with interesting facts or food for thought (pun intended). Simply put, “Cake” is not sticky and one forgets the material, quickly.

“Cake” is more so suggested for British readers as there is a heavy emphasis on the history of cake on the British Isle. This leaves readers from other locales feeling somewhat excluded and also sort of in the dark about what is being discussed.

One of Levene’s annoying habits is her constant mention of what will be approached coming up (i.e. “This will be explored more in the next chapter but for now…”) to recapping what was discussed (“as we have stated in the last chapter…”). This solidifies the essence of “Cake” feeling like a college-level paper without expertise in execution.

The final chapters of “Cake” experience an upsurge in readability as Levene ventures down a more pop-cultural expose of cake. This is more relatable and welcomes all readers. “Cake” still isn’t as captivating as one would hope but it is much better in comparison to the former half of the text. Sadly, the ending is abrupt and, again, doesn’t leave on a strong note.

Levene wraps “Cake” up with an ‘Epilogue’ summarizing the findings in her work and a lightly annotated ‘Notes’ section. “Cake”, however, is missing a bibliography or further reading offering.

Although attempting to be a thorough look at cake; Levene’s writing is neither academic nor cheeky and straddles a middle ground of boredom. “Cake” often lacks direction, bleeds on tangents, and isn’t memorable therefore being no better than a college term paper. Honestly, there isn’t much to say about “Cake” as it has few high points and readers won’t gain anything too insightful. “Cake” can sadly be skipped and doesn’t do this sugary treat justice.

[Jenne]

This was not quite the ultimate history of cake that I have been hoping someone else will write. I want something more technical and less social, I think.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love cake, and I wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, it felt like something of a rush-job,and the constant typos and other glaring errors grated on my nerves. For example, Julia Child is referenced quite a lot, and most of the time her name is spelled correctly, but she is also referred to as "Julia Childs," which seems to be a pretty basic proofreading error. Later on, Hobnob biscuits are referred to as "wheaty chocolate Hobnobs," and while Hobnobs certainly contain some wheat flour, I think anyone who's ever eaten one would agree that their distinguishing characteristic is oatiness, especially when one is trying to differentiate them from digestives, as Levene is. Levene also displays a measure of ignorance where American baking (and America in general) is concerned; at one point she describes Appalachian stack cake as a New England specialty. While the Appalachians indeed technically extend into New England, the region commonly referred to as Appalachia is much further South, encompassing parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee, amongst other Southern states, and this is the region where stack cake comes from. She also refers to doughnuts as "bready," thus completely ignoring the delicious world of cake doughnuts, which is perhaps not surprising, as they're not at all common in Britain, but one would think she'd done some research, especially given how much this book reads like a dry academic text, rather than a book aimed at the popular market, despite her frequent attempts to introduce a personal touch by talking about her own baking experiences. All these did was convince me that she's not a very competent baker, especially after she went on and on (in multiple chapters!) about how difficult angel food cake was to make (sure, back in the day when you had to whip egg whites by hand, but in this age of electric mixers, it's actually pretty quick and easy. The trickiest part is getting it out of the pan!). I'm sorry to come down so hard on this book; it's not all bad! The parts where she talks about historical British cakes are interesting...perhaps she should have focused more on British baking rather than venturing so much into American baking, where she seems out of her element, but as it stands, I hope someone gives this book a good edit before they print another edition!

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read and finally answered my burning question of why the British have virtually no tradition of going to a place where you get a fancy dessert with coffee on a Sunday afternoon. But there were Issues, hence the loss of stars - first of all, hopeless Anglo-centrism. Which of course is to be expected from an anglophone author as well as considering the format and size of the book, but it would really need to be acknowledged at least somewhere in the text, together with the fact that maybe, Germany and France do not encompass nor represent all of continental Europe in matters of cake making.

The second issue I have with the book are the author's attempts to elaborate on baking traditions in feminist context, and I can't help but wish she had left it out altogether - the parts from the book that were supposed to tackle the issue were lukewarm at best and cringe-worthy at worst. I presume the author wanted to stay impartial with such a 'sensitive subject' but the results were the weakest parts of an otherwise decent book - there is no 'delicate' way to explain historical and still prevalent gender inequality.

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always liked food history—maybe because as a small child I spent quite a lot of time reading “The Cooking of Vienna’s Empire,” a Time-Life cookbook my mother had, and from it learned quite a bit of history. Many, if not most, modern cookbooks contain large sections of history, and many food history books contain a lot of recipes, such as Anne Mendelson’s “Milk.” So there is significant overlap between the two genres. This book, “Cake,” by Alysa Levene falls more into the history category and less into the cookbook category. It offers a largely successful blend of well-written data dump and mild social commentary—satisfying, like a cake!

Naturally enough, the book is subtitled “A Slice of History.” That history is, for the most part, that of the Anglo-Saxon world of cake. To the extent other countries and cultures show up, it is mostly because their cakes were imported into, or influenced, the Anglo-Saxon world. Levene begins, in fact, with Alfred the Great, than whom it is harder to get more Anglo-Saxon. As the legend goes, King Alfred, on the run from the Vikings, took anonymous refuge in a woman’s house. She asked him to watch the cakes baking over the fire; he, daydreaming of victory over his enemies, let them burn, whereupon the woman scolded him. Levene’s point is that cakes have a long history, and also that what Alfred burned wasn’t really what we think of when we say “cake.” It was more like bread, had no raising agent, and wasn’t sweet, much less frosted. And the instruments of baking were, of course, primitive and hard to control. The history of cake is the history of how our food got from there to here.

Levene goes through all we know about early baking, back to Classical times. Such baking could be quite fancy and was highly varied, even within particular cultures. As with much else, technology and variety, driven largely by ingredient availability, was lacking in early Western Europe, which had lost those earlier cakes, along with machinery and roads. The renewal of cake began with fruit cakes, which became popular across Europe in the Middle Ages, as international trade increased and specialty ingredients, from sugar to exotic fruits and spices, became widely available. Here, as throughout the book, Levene alternates history with examples of the cakes resulting from that history, from gingerbread to a still-made-today Easter cake called “Simnel cake,” a fruit cake “covered with marzipan, with a second marzipan layer in the middle, and decorated on the top with eleven marzipan balls representing the Apostles (minus Judas).” Marzipan is my favorite sweet, and you can buy quality versions on Amazon in bulk nowadays. I know what I’m doing this weekend! Anyway, much of this history is cultural history, rather than kings-and-battles history (King Alfred is the rare king mentioned), and Levene does an excellent job of tying specific cakes and history together.

The book then turns to more modern times, when colonialism and slavery made sugar cheap, and foods like pound cake, angel cake, and other refined, risen cakes started coming to the fore. At first, leavening was provided by eggs and hours of elbow grease; then by chemical agents. At the same time, starting in the Eighteenth Century, cookbooks began to be written and become popular. Levene alternates among descriptions of cakes popular through time, some still popular today, the technical methods used to make those cakes, and how those methods changed over time. This may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I find it fascinating, in large part because my focus in cooking tends to the technical, which is an important element of successful baking, more so than some other forms of cooking. If you don’t like either history or baking, though, this book probably isn’t for you.

Throughout, but not with an overly heavy hand, Levene weaves the theme of how baking is mostly something done by women (except for professionals in France, who are nearly all men), and tries to analyze whether this is good, bad or indifferent. To her credit, she doesn’t have a simplistic “woman in kitchen bad” approach; rather, she (channeling Nigella Lawson) notes that a woman can be, by her own choice and to her own advantage, a “domestic goddess,” and there is nothing inherently demeaning about women baking or, for that matter, sex roles in general, even if dictated by culture more than biology. She notes “the much overlooked fact that women are attached to homemaking and housekeeping even in an era when these things are not fashionable or expected of liberated and career-capable women”—by the choice of those women. In many ways, after all, baking and cookbooks were methods throughout history by which women were able to flaunt their abilities, and they are obviously methods of nurturing, which biologically is tied more to women than men (not that Levene mentions this last, obvious and indisputable yet not politically correct, point). Almost all famous cookbooks in history were written by women, and women like Julia Child are indissolubly identified with modern cuisine, so to suggest that necessarily “baking = drudgery for women” is pretty obviously wrong.

Levene covers the 20th Century as well—the wars, the shortages and resulting use of ersatz ingredients, the 1950s, the changing cultural role and symbolism of birthday cakes, and, finally, the recent cupcake craze, which has largely, but not completely, burnt out. This last she uses to return to the theme of women’s relationship to cake, noting that women dominate the trade and the home production of cupcakes, which she ascribes to cultural reasons, and also notes that cupcakes are a frippery of the affluent. But that doesn’t mean they, and cakes in general, are not popular for good reason. In these days of political bitterness, every one of us can get behind a good slice of cake, and then line up for seconds. It’s time for me to work on my Simnel cake!

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book must have been a labor of love for its author, a professional historian who also happens to be an enthusiastic baker. And so it is a mix of plain history (what happened when) and social history (especially of the role of baking in the lives of women, or the different approach to baking in England (home baking) and France (a male-dominated profession requiring rigorous training). And so this book moves us at a steady clip through the history of cake, from its first connection with bread, through the nut-and spice flavored concoctions of the Middle Ages, to the various revolutions in cake-making introduced by the incorporation of eggs, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, or the availability of temperature-controlled ovens, electric mixers and other technology. There is also a chapter examining the role between cake and childhood memories, or the craze for individual cake-y confections (such as cupcakes, macarons and cake pops). All of this is interesting, but very little of it was new to me. So the book was not as informative or interesting as it could have been. I was also disappointed by some of the errors in the book.

For instance :

page 54 : "The Romans had learned how to utilise the monsoon winds in their larger ships to make a direct trip to Southern India, but the journey still took almost a year; prior to that it had involved a much longer trip across open sea from China, Malaya and Indonesia, across the northern coast of Africa". I could not figure out what this sentence meant. It would be news to me that the Romans had sailed to Southern India, with or without monsoon winds, and how one gets by sea from China to the northern coast of Africa (which I guess would be the Maghreb countries in the Mediterranean) is not something I can imagine.

page 66 : "Another suggestion is that the small versions were more akin to what we would think of as cookies today (perhaps explaining the linguistic connections between that word and the Dutch name for cake, koekje ". The thing is, the Dutch word koekje may have led to the English word cookie, or vice versa, but it does not mean "cake". It means "cookie" or "biscuit" or "little wafer" or something like that. The Dutch nowadays use the word "cake" for cake, and in the past they may have used the word gebak , which corresponds more closely to the generic "baked goodie", and they may even have used the word koek , but probably not the diminutive koekje

page 209 : The French word for "encyclopedia" has the wrong accent on on the penultimate "e".

Finally, it's a pity that there are no pictures or -dare I say it - recipes in the book. There are so many descriptions of cakes in the book, but in the end they all sound the same : layers of cake with cream or custard and chocolate or icing.

Summary : an undemanding read that misses its mark somewhat : the content is not scholarly enough to appeal to the die-hard devotees of culinary history who are willing to read books like this without pictures. At the same time, the people most likely to enjoy this book (a home baker with a moderate interest in knowing about the history of cakes) will prefer a book with glossy illustrations and recipe.

[Pak · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose to closed-read the introduction and Chapter 8 "Paris-Brest" pastry. While I did learn some important names in the history of patisserie, I found the author's writing style to be simple and "British-centric". She covers gingerbread and Victorian cake, among other cakes, which I believe it was related to her history education in the UK.

However, I did not find a very logical flow in this book, from Angel cake to King's cake to birthday cake. I was expecting a horizontal slice of cake history, however, I just saw pieces and crumbs of cake history. Although there is a wide variety of cakes and patisserie, I did not understand why the author chose to focus on "Paris-Brest" in Chapter 8 and how it was significant.

The author discussed the history of birthday cake in ch.7 and the cupcake in Chapter 9. She attempted to argue that these cakes are related to personalism and feminism. However, the chaotic arrangement of chapters confused me, especially with the injection of French cake in Chapter 8. I did not expect the chapters to be written chronologically, but the current arrangement is a bit messy.

The epilogue is just a repeat of the introduction, I rate this book lower and lower while I recall what I have read. I would re-read it in some days to verify my comments so-far.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I expected from this, perhaps trivia, perhaps interesting recipes or things that I'd want to check out. I honestly think that this could make a pretty good seminar (with tasting) opportunities. This book was obviously very well researched...however...and it's a big however...it read like a high school essay. A VERY LONG high school essay. More times than I could count, she would write something like, "later we'll meet" or "in chapter 3" which didn't add anything to what I was reading right then. Her information was not well organized even if there was a lot of it. She certainly had a passion for her subject, which tended to pull her slightly off the rails and into side topics which weren't as relevant as I would have preferred to cake. I could have done entirely without the two chapters, "Domestic Goddesses" and the "Feminist Cupcake". I get why you might want to devote a section of time to addressing that part of history but it was over the top and her extrapolations were seemingly irrelevant to the rest of the tome. I did learn a few things and if this were presented with pictures or with cake tastings, I'd be all in but in its current format, I could have passed on this.

[Aadisht · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fantastically interesting book this was.

There is a lot about cake itself, and the history of cake. There is even more about What It All Signifies. Now, of course, What It All Signifies is open for debate. But I enjoyed that this book decided to go there. And where it went was the feminist significance of cake, especially viewed through:

* baking is very gendered, seen as something women do, not men
* the pressure to be a domestic goddess
* the countervailing trend that women happily seek fulfilment from being a domestic goddess
* the fact that cake is a luxury, and so the creation of cake is an act of not sustenance, but higher purpose (hmmm)
* the feminism of cupcakes
* the bonkers history of French pastry
* how some cakes call for a lot of leisure and / or domestic staff and / or money
* baking soda as revolutionary labour-saving technology

All this, plus the regular history of cakes and baking.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book discusses the history of cake, from its oldest origins up to modern times. The focus leans into the British traditions, but does cover cake in other areas of the world. Tying in with cake is the development of recipe books and the role of women over the course of history in baking. In covering how cake changed over time, the author also delves into some of the ingredients and technologies that influenced the makeup of cake, including the availability of sugar from sugarcane and ovens with better control over temperature. There is a dip into how women and baking are perceived and the concept of the “domestic goddess”. Overall, it was an interesting overview of cake baking in history.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting fairly quick and light read. This definitely isn’t an in-depth history, or a chronological one. I’ve seen other reviews that say this books could benefit with the edition of illustrations and I completely agree. Even though I am a fairly experienced baker myself, I’m from america and am not really familiar with the British or Australian references, despite watching the great British bake off. Speaking of, this books definitely has an Anglo-Australian research bias, though it does at points five into the US and to a lesser extent, Europe, but overall there is an imbalance in the subject examples provided that betrays the authors own heritage.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little book on the history of cake, both as a baked good and the place it holds in culture. Reading some of the reviews I agree with some of the critiques. First, I have no idea about the accuracy of her scholarship. I’ve no reason to believe it’s not sound so I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with that one. I do agree the book would have done well to have added illustrations. I wound up using the internet to see some of the cakes she discussed. Personally I also would have liked a couple more recipes. Not enough to make this a cookbook but a few more. Finally i would have liked the scope to have been a bit more broad.

[Ifrah Akhtar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book but it failed in expectations. Although this book markets itself as a history of cake, it’s more like a sliver of that story—particularly focusing on the Western and European history of the confection.
The chapters themselves felt a bit scattered and in the entire book, there was not a single photo of any references.
A helpful addition would have been a timeline of cake’s history, as that would have presented the swathes of text in a neater manner. I did learn some new things but overall, this book covers just a small crumb in cake’s story.

[W.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

嗯我還在看飲食文化史XD
以糕點做主題的飲食文化史其實不少，這本的話，更聚焦在近代，特別是「蛋糕」這一項目的發展（主要集中在歐美國家）。
我自己覺得最有趣的是書中特別討論了廚藝、蛋糕以及女性（在家中）地位的關係，她將「家政女神」這樣的角色是怎麼反應不同的社會氛圍下女性在家庭中的定位轉變這一點拉出來談，也整理了這樣的象徵人物在不同時代的面貌，讀起來很有趣。
另外也列舉了不少有趣的食譜書，雖然是說，我想這些食譜就算有中文版本我也不會去看啦（咳），但看特色整理還是蠻好玩的

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this historical journey through the world of cake. It did make me want to eat so many things though!

[Betsie Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as humorous as the title suggests that it will be, but very informative and delicious.

[Kerliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dense read just like pound cake :)

Page 192: honorary mention of Tim Hortons and Canadian doughnuts. I love steeped tea and a sour cream.

[Kristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting history of cake but I like books about the history of things.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out as a great story of the invention of cake as a food apart from bread. It fizzled at the end and ventured into territory that I didn't expect and really didn't care about.

[Celest · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of cake, and what defines it, unfolds in this delicious book. The author begins with some interesting legal situations regarding how cake is defined in modern times, and then takes the reader through origin stories of the first European cakes, and forward through time reviewing advances in cake making.

The author crosses from food history into socio-economic and political factors that influence baking (availability of ingredients, ingenuity of cooks based on what is available, how certain ingredients are obtained, and what those say about a society-not to mention who it is doing the baking).

The writing is interesting and with a lite scholarly tone, never going very deep into one particular area, making this an approachable read for a broad audience.

[Ellie Levine]

Some interesting ideas/thoughts

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This definitely needed some editing. Some grammar issues but not the worst issue. This book needs better organization. This book tries to be academic and popular and fails at both. The author states a thesis and then doesn't even touch it in the ensuing chapter. Or says she'll talk about something and then never does. Chapter titles and chapter subjects don't really match up. And lots of tangents into unrelated topics especially things that weren't cake. German nouns are capitalized, not lowercase (I minored in German in college so this really irked me.) The author should have done better research into American foods, geography and history.

I would have found it useful if illustrations/photos had been included for some of the cakes so I could see what they really looked like. Otherwise, a good start and very general overview of cake. And I mean very general.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like other readers, I wanted to love this book. The subject is cake...what's not to love? Well, first and foremost it's more of a history book about cake than a book about cake. Face it, the title gives that away so I should have been warned however, given the topic, I was sure it would be fun to read. Unfortunately it was dry. Though some interesting factoids were strewn throughout, the reading is a bit tedious and it could have used a better edit job to tighten it all up. There were numerous references about things to be discussed in later chapters which made little sense. I also felt that the author was trying too hard in places to be her own cheerleader and convince the reader to hang in there.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about all the wonderful varieties and history of cake - and not a SINGLE picture of one? While the details are fun to read I think this suffered from poor editing (Julia Child frequently referred to as "Julia Childs") and a lack of the fore mentioned pictures to help identify some of the wide variety of European cakes mentioned that American readers might not be familiar with.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very enlightening. A little too slow at times, but I appreciate that someone took the time to overanalyze cake. It was cool to learn about the origin of cakes and how different cultures appreciate it. The portion about cakes and gender was also interesting. And I loved reading about cupcakes!

[Kai · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a mess. This thing is in desperate need of an editor and a complete re-write. Not even sure what the point of this book was?