If you like cakes, you're not alone. For 250 years, Americans have been making whatever cake they could with whatever they could find. Anne Byrn's impressive, big-hearted, historical tribute to the genre is a must-have for its dizzying diversity. (You surely haven't heard of Oregon prune cake, Texas sheath cake or Scripture Cake, have you?) You can trace America's gastronomic ... Read moreevolution and geographic expansion from cornmeal and molasses to Hershey bars and pineapples. Both the cakes and their stories are obscure, unexpected, delightful and worth getting to know, one sweet slice of history at a time.
T. Susan Chang, NPR Kitchen Window Readers will find decade-defining information, such as the popularity of using baby food fruit purees in baking in the 1970s, and sidebars on prominent baking figures who have made their marks in kitchens across the country, including Betty Crocker and Martha Stewart. These well researched and written pages go far beyond the average baking guide.
Publisher's Weekly Fascinating, delightfully original, American Cake [is] author Anne Byrn's can't-stop-reading history lesson that's masquerading as a cookbook. One that's bound to be a prizewinner.
Rick Nelson, Star Tribune Byrn digs deep into America's archives, including everyday recipe boxes, to find the history behind some of the country's most popular cakes.
Addie Broyles, Austin American-Statesman Show Less