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.
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Our favorite family cake is the Cookie Cake. A.K.A Icebox or wafer cake. It is a MUST at all birthdays!
Right now my favorite is ginger cake from David Lebovitz. I need to expand my choices and this book would be great.
chocolate cupcakes with pink buttercream
My husbands favorite is Red velvet cake. I even came home one day a while back and he had made one and iced it! It was from a box, but he still did it all himself! =)
Everyone requests my carrot cake for special occasions.
Chocolate Mousse Torte Cake.
Cake would be hard press. We are more a cookie & pie family. However, my hubby does LOVE german chocolate cake & italian casada cake. He is very picky about both.
Our family loves white cake with strawberry between the layers. It is at almost every birthday.
We’re a family that loves a good, basic red velvet. It shows up at all of the family functions.
Pound cake! My mom makes the best..I even used the recipe for my wedding cake!
This would be great for me. My boyfriend is Romanian and he cannot stand most North American cakes. His mother makes something called chec which is so good. Awesome website.
Texas sheet cake!! You can take it from idea to eating it in less than 30 minutes!
Dirt cake is super favorite at our house!
In my family we all have our personal favorites. One favorite for all of us, especially my husbands, is his mothers fresh Coconut Cake. We have already made several of these this holiday. Fresh grated coconut, white cake, coconut juice in cake with marshmellow frosting and coconut all over. So pretty and good.
Happy Holidays!
Carrot Cake! My favorite recipe is from a 30 or 40 year old Farm Journal.
Two years ago, my family’s favorite changed from German Chocolate Cake to Italian Cream Cake.
Gosh Anna, I’ve never met a cake I didn’t like…it’s absolutely my favorite food. Your one-bowl mocha cake from Cooking Light is a fave…there’s a Coca-cola cake from my childhood…and some Texas Caramel Cupcakes my mom makes that are out of this world. (I narrowed to three…that’s the best I can do!)
My mom makes this amazing rich moist chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I’m not sure where the recipe came from, but she would only make it two times a year so it made it extra special.
I love German Chocolate Cake with the coconut pecan frosting. I make a double batch of frosting and put in the frige to eat by the spoonfuls:)
I love cheesecake, but my family loves angel food cake with the fluffy marshmallow frosting!
Let me tell you what I don’t like – Black Forest, strawberry or orange. You can take it from there LOL
Pick a favorite cake? I’d sooner pick a child! Lol. Bill’s Big Carrot Cake by Dorie Greenspan would be close for running in first place. As would be Martha’s Coconut Cake I think. I love cake.
My family loves the basic chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on the back of the Hershey’s can.
My family loves the triple chocolate cake from Sky High Cakes. It’s similar to a local specialty cake called Bumpy Cake! I would love to see a bumpy cake copycat recipe.
My family loves chocolate cake with white buttercream cake. My favorite is white cake with white buttercream cake. Great giveaway, Anna!
My family’s favorite is lemon pie, but as a good argentinian family anything with dulce de leche is perfect!
Our fav is dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. Yum!
My family’s favorite cake is chocolate chip applesauce cake. Simple and good!
My family isn’t really big on cake, though I personally LOVE cake. Favorites are chocolate, carrot and red velvet.
lemon pound cake.
everyone in my family requests something different for their birthday, but i think we all love german chocolate cake!
We love coffee cakes with streusel topping.
Thanks for hosting this.
Not sure if it is technically a cake, but we all LOVE tiramisu!
cheesecake – does that count as a cake?
Our favorite cake is a St. Honore cake. It was made at an Italian bakery in San Francisco, no other bakery has come close to making it as good. It was a giant cream puff type cake with many layers of whipped cream in between the many layers of pate choux. mmmmmmmm
Our favorite cake is Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for Banana Cake. It’s so moist and wonderful.
oh Anna… I don’t know if I can pick a favorite cake. My most requested and fine my favorite is my carrot cake. It’s epic. http://wp.me/pLLbK-it
This cookbook looks amazing. I’m adding it to my amazon wishlist!
My mom taught me how to bake when I was a little girl, but she didn’t liked cheesecake much so she never made them. THEN I discovered cheesecake and started making them for the family. My favorite is a peanut butter cheesecake my mom helped me create where we used Nutter Butter cookies as the crust. It is a crowd pleaser and always makes me think of mom when I bake it.
My family’s favorite cake is a flourless chocolate cake I make – we call it the Chocolate Catastrophe cake! SO rich and fudgy!
A funfetti cake with strawberryy buttercream frosting and white pearls on top!
My family’s favorite cake is a family recipe for a Jewish coffee cake
devil’s food with cream cheese icing
Boston Cream Pie!
Our favorite cake is German Chocolate with lots of coconutty, gooey frosting.
Current favorite is Italian Cream Cake.
One cake my whole family likes is the Holy Cow cake.
I love, love, love carrot cake, with lots of cream cheese frosting. I still remember the first time I had it, I was amazed that it had carrots in it, and I was even more amazed that anyone thought I would share any of it with them……
Strawberries and cream cake is our favorite!
We’re chocolate cake fans. I sincerly didn’t know there was a large variety as far as cakes go. Looking at the picture above, I’d like to try swiss roll after swiss roll after swiss roll!!
I love a traditional wedding cake, pound cake with white iciing.
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