Cake. A global history

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.