Imagine traveling the world and tasting 150 cakes representing different countries. Better yet, imagine doing it with your favorite professor who has a passion for baking, a genuine interest in world cultures, and an entertaining and informative way of conveying what she knows. In A World of Cake, Krystina Castella takes us on this journey with the goal of redefining and contemporizing the word “cake” for today’s world.
Staring with a brief history of cake and methods of making it, the book moves on to talk about how cake has influenced culture and played a role in tradition. Along the way are plenty of recipes. color photos, interesting facts and anecdotes and even cake family trees.
What I like best about the book is that it covers the cakes an intrepid baker might already know about such as Moon Cakes, Honey Cakes, Tres Leches and Stollen, but it also introduces some cakes most Americans have never heard of. My favorite example of that is the Marta Rocha cake, a Brazilian cake made in honor of a runner-up in the Ms. Universe pageant who lost because her hips were too wide. (?!?!)
The recipes aren’t necessarily complicated, but they do take some time. Everything is scratch, but the recipes are easy to follow so if you read closely and schedule yourself accordingly (for instance, you may want to make lemon curd a day ahead and or get a jump on the cake by making frosting first), you’ll find a rhythm. Most of the frosting and fillings are Krystina’s favorite tested recipes. They’re all at the back of the book, so a recipe may give you ingredients for the cake, but say “turn to page 224” for the filling or frosting.
I’m really enjoying this book and learn something new every time I open it. Plus, the recipes I’ve tried so far (peanut frosting, Kolaches and Black Forest Cake) have been good.
Of course I’d like to hear what you think, and so here’s a chance to get a copy of your own from Storey Publishing. For a chance at a free copy of the book, write a comment telling me your family’s favorite cake. I will pick a winner on Saturday morning. Deadline for entries is this Friday at midnight.
{ 209 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →
German Chocolate is our favorite. From scratch of course. The box mix doesn’t even compare.
Our favorite cake is anything chocolate…it’s the only kind my husband will eat!
That book looks fantastic! I’ve experimented with alot of different cakes for my family members’ birthdays over the last few years. And it seem like a toss up between German Chocolate and Red Velvet. Two classics. I guess it’s for a reason these two cakes are so well known and eaten (at least in North America!)
The kids will take chocolate or white cake, but the frosting has to be homemade and chocolate!
My mom’s cheesecake. Seriously the best recipe I’ve ever tasted!
Wow, this is tough! Turtle Cheesecake or Carrot Cake. Yum!
Our favorite cake is chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. My family loves chocolate!
So hard to pick just one! Probably classic chocolate cake. Can’t go wrong there!
My fave is our family recipe for chocolate with a light and fluffy buttercream frosting. The frosting is the hardest part but it is well worth it!
My sister makes the best New York Cheesecake!
My grandmother makes a very simple chocolate cake that, coupled with her frosting, is divine. She just doctors up a box mix and while she has given out the recipe for her frosting, no one has been able to replicate the entire package that is Grandma Jo’s cake.
Since I will never be able to master her signature cake, I need one of my own:)
We love love love my homemade carrot cake!
Yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
beth
I would love to win this cookbook. I try to make everything from scratch; homemade is just better. I have instilled this into my girls who also do the same in their homes. My family’s favorite cakes are carrot cake and chocolate cake with coconut-pecan icing. Happy Holidays to you!
Tami
Our fav cake is chocolate with peppermint icing.
Love your blog, thanks!
A chocolate cake known by many names. Most often called Texas Sheet Cake around here, but my Idaho family calls it Scotch Cake.
Debbie’s carrot cake w/cream cheese frosting. It’s the best!
My family loves sour cream chocolate bundt cake with chocolate sour cream frosting. MMMMmmmm…
Texas Mud Cake – my own combination!
Chocolate cream-filled cake from Concannon’s Bakery in Muncie, IN! But I love to make my own cakes too!
We actually don’t eat cake that much but I’m having trouble picking! At first I though chocolate chip pound cake…but then I remembered caramel cake. The caramel cake would be one that everyone in the family eats but we’ve never made it…always have gotten it from a family friend. Let’s say the caramel cake!
my family (my mom in particular) loves my scratch marble cake with vanilla buttercream
my family is pretty satisfied with your basic chocolate box mix and some homemade icing. There is also an oreo cake that we love
My Mom’s chocolate chip cake is my favorite!
My favorite cake is banana nut cake with banana icing. The icing is to die for.
Well, we all like different cakes: I love Russian cheesecake (cheesecake with a chocolate crust and chocolate crumbs on top), my sisters love crumb cake and my mom can’t get enough of pecan pie.
My family’s favorite cake is a Carrot Cake recipe that came from a Patti LaBelle cookbook. This cake is more like a “Fresh fruit” cake, but so dense and moist. And it’s sugar-free and low-fat. And the cake is completely from scratch, just the way I like to bake!
My family’s favorite cake is a Marble Bundt Cake.
I could really use this book because I am starting a family and I want to create traditions. I grew up in a house with parents who just didn’t have time to bake cake (plight of the modern working class American-YIKES!) Some traditions I have started for my family, and that have been thriving for years, include a group blood donation at Thanksgiving, annual trip to Yosemite Park, and orange glazed cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Now….I get to find a cake for us to all remember!
Caramel cake is our favorite!
Their favorite cake at the moment is the duck cake whose recipe I found on this website.
My favorite is spice cake wth caramel frosting. My husband likes any cake as long as it has”wedding cake”frosting on it HA!
Coconut cake from scratch. My husband makes it every year for my birthday.
Red Velvet Cake. And we’re not even southern! There is some internal disagreement on the frosting: cooked vs. cream cheese.
My family has two favorites; two very different tastes.
A glazed coconut pound cake-a very dense coconut filled and moist delight that everyone fights to have the last piece. Another favorite is a century old recipe for cinnamon coffee cake………no crumbles on this beauty. The topping is melted butter and cinnamon sugar-heavy on the cinnamon. Both make the house a smell sensation.
My family favorite is RED VELVET cake. It reminds us of us summer and get family get togethers!
I love my Lemon Pound Cake and others like Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Way too sweet for me.
The family favorite is a classic Hershey’s chocolate cake and frosting (from the Hershey’s cocoa container). My personal favorite is chocolate cheesecake.
My family’s favorite is chocolate layer cake with vanilla icing. We have both chocolate and vanilla lovers in the house. BTW, I love Krystina Castella’s Crazy About Cupcakes cookbook – it’s one of my favorites – so I’m sure this one is great too!
My family’s favorite cake is a neopolitan cakes or a chocolate tuxedo cake
Oh wow! I do really like your blog – and I’m so hoping you’ll also be shipping internationally! Anyways, a family favourite that is also really typical for my region is a simple square cake with a yeasted dough and simply fruit on top, maybe topped with some crumbs (streusel).
My family favorite cake is Trinidad Sponge Cake, which is from my country Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. Sponge cake is made is made for almost every event, we just love the rich authentic taste, the flavors of the grated nutmeg and the vanilla combine is delish. The smell of sponge cake brings everyone together.As a child growing up, sponge cake was just the usual cake you would get in your party bag (a brown paper bag) at a birthday party or class party. It would be mixed up with the popcorn and other sweets that were in the bag by the time you reached home but you didn’t mind and ate it anyway (Sponge cake and popcorn; what an interesting taste that was!) Sponge cake was just the Mr Regular of cakes for me; nothing extraordinary. The milky taste is still in my mouth, Happy Holidays to you and yours, be blessed.
Everything Lemon!!!
There are too many! I love practically every kind!
Our favorite is German Chocolate Cake.
When I was growing up, my mother made a 6 or 7 layer German Chocolate Cake for everyone’s birthday. Still my favorite.
my family favorit cake is apple strudel who remind my dad his grandmother who used to tdo the pastry by her self
We don’t bake cakes in my family, but we all love chocolate and cheesecake. I’m the only person who likes to actually bake and I make cookie cakes. I think my favorite recipe is on your site!
My husband’s favorite cake is pretty straightforward: Pillsbury yellow cake mix (w/pudding) with an ADDITIONAL package of pudding in bundt form, usually accompanied by Cool Whip.
I’m a little more fancy with a scratch made Red Velvet Cake with Ermine icing (butter roux). So much better than cream cheese.
My family LOVES cake, but our favorite cake is chocolate cake with either chocolate frosting or coconut frosting.
← Previous Comments
Next Comments →