Cake: A Slice of HistoryCake can evoke thoughts of home, comfort someone at a time of grief or celebrate a birth or new love. It is a maker of memories, a marker of identities, and delicious! It was the year 878 A.D., and a man claimed sanctuary in a small village home in Wessex. To the surprise of the villager, the man was not a passing vagabond but Alfred, King of the Anglo-Saxons. The village homemaker was happy to hide him from the marauding Danes, provided he keep an eye on the cake she had baking in the oven. Preoccupied with how to re-take his kingdom, Alfred let the cake burn, and the incident passed into folklore forever. From these seemingly ignoble beginnings, not only was Alfred able to reclaim his spot in history, but the humble villager's cake has become a part of world culture as well. Alysa Levene looks at cakes both ancient and modern, from the fruit cake, to the pound cake, from the ubiquitous birthday cake to the angel food cake, all the way up to competitive baking shows on television and our modern obsession with macaroons and cup cakes. Along the way, author Alysa Levene shows how cakes are so much more than just a delicious sugar hit, and reflects on how and why cakes became the food to eat in times of celebration. Cake reflects cultural differences, whether it is the changing role of women in the home, the expansion of global trade, even advances in technology. Entertaining and delightfully informative, Cake: A Slice of History promises to be a witty and joyous celebration of our cultural heritage. |
Contents
The Secret Meaning of Fruit Cake | |
Butter Sugar and Slavery or Queen Victorias Sandwich | |
Domestic Goddesses | |
The Cardboard Wedding Cake | |
The Cake That Travelled the World | |
A Cake Just For | |
The Original Showstoppers | |
The Feminist Cupcake | |
A Slice of History | |
Acknowledgements | |
Endnotes | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alan Davidson Amelia Simmons American angel food cake appearance bakers became Beeton Betty Crocker birthday cake biscuits bread Britain British buns butter cake mixes cake pop Carême celebration chapter Christmas colour cookbooks Cookery cooking cream cronut culinary culture cupcake decorated dessert domestic goddess dough dried fruit Drink in America eaten eating eggs Eliza Acton Elizabeth David Encyclopedia of Food England English Europe fact favourite feature female festive flavour flour Food and Drink foodways fruit cake German ginger gingerbread grain home baking honey household huge included ingredients Irma Julia Child kitchen kugelhopf layer cake London macaron margarine meanwhile medieval milk modern nineteenth century original oven Oxford Encyclopedia pastry chef pâtisserie popular pound cake produce raising agents shape small cakes spices started sugar sweet sweetened taste traditional treats Twinkie Victoria sandwich wedding cake whoopie pie women yeast