Wedding Cakes And Cultural History

First published in 1992, Wedding Cakes and Cultural History is a unique contribution to the anthropology of food, tracing the fascinating history of wedding cakes, from late medieval feasts and rites, through the Victorian wedding breakfast and into the 1990s. Dr. Charsley maps the intricate creation of the wedding cake and explores its uses and meanings. He shows that the wedding cake provides a vivid illustration of the traditions and traditional values inherent in all foods and demonstrates the part that material culture plays in the process of change. Challenging in its ideas, yet approachable in style and subject matter, this book will be of great interest to students and teachers of anthropology, sociology and cultural studies.

This book develops new and innovative methods for understanding the cultural significance of places such as the World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House. By connecting participatory media, visual culture and social value, Cristina Garduño Freeman contributes to a fast-growing body of scholarship on digital heritage and the popular reception of architecture. In this, her first book, she opens up a fresh perspective on heritage, as well as the ways in which people relate to architecture via participation on social media. Social media sites such as YouTube, Pinterest, Wikipedia, Facebook and Flickr, as well as others, become places for people to express their connections with places, for example, the Sydney Opera House. Garduño Freeman analyses real-world examples, from souvenirs to opera-house-shaped cakes, and untangles the tangible and intangible ways in which the significance of heritage is created, disseminated and maintained. As people’s encounters with World Heritage become increasingly mediated by the digital sphere there is a growing imperative for academics, professionals and policy-makers to understand the social value of significant places. This book is beneficial to academics, students and professionals of architecture.

Be it a birthday or a wedding—let them eat cake. Encased in icing, crowned with candles, emblazoned with congratulatory words—cake is the ultimate food of celebration in many cultures around the world. But how did cake come to be the essential food marker of a significant occasion? In Cake: A Global History, Nicola Humble explores the meanings, legends, rituals, and symbolism attached to cake through the ages. 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. Featuring a large selection of mouthwatering images, as well as many examples and recipes for some particularly unusual cakes, Cake will provide many sweet reasons for celebration.

As Long as we Both Shall Eat is a culinary history of wedding feasts. Examining the various food customs associated with weddings in America and around the world, Claire Stewart not only provides a rich account of the foods most loved and frequently served at wedding celebrations, she also offers a glimpse into the customs and celebrations themselves, as they are experienced in the West and in various other cultures. Shesheds light on the historical and contemporary significance of wedding food, and explores patterns of the varieties of conspicuous consumption linked to American wedding feasts in particular. There are stories of celebrity excess, and the book is peppered with accounts of lavish strange-but-true wedding tales. The antics of wealthy socialites and celebrities is a topic rich for exploration, and the telling of their exploits can be used to track the fads and changes in conventional and contemporary wedding feasts and celebrations. From cocktail hours to wedding cakes, showers to brunches, the food we enjoy to celebrate the joining of life partners helps bring us together, no matter our differences. Readers are treated to a tasty trip down the aisle in this entertaining and lively account of nuptial noshing.

This three-volume encyclopedia on the history of American food and beverages serves as an ideal companion resource for social studies and American history courses, covering topics ranging from early American Indian foods to mandatory nutrition information at fast food restaurants. The expression "you are what you eat" certainly applies to Americans, not just in terms of our physical health, but also in the myriad ways that our taste preferences, eating habits, and food culture are intrinsically tied to our society and history. This standout reference work comprises two volumes containing more than 600 alphabetically arranged historical entries on American foods and beverages, as well as dozens of historical recipes for traditional American foods; and a third volume of more than 120 primary source documents. Never before has there been a reference work that coalesces this diverse range of information into a single set. The entries in this set provide information that will transform any American history research project into an engaging learning experience. Examples include explanations of how tuna fish became a staple food product for Americans, how the canning industry emerged from the Civil War, the difference between Americans and people of other countries in terms of what percentage of their income is spent on food and beverages, and how taxation on beverages like tea, rum, and whisky set off important political rebellions in U.S. history.

This book is not just for the novice wedding cake designer, but also the experienced designer as well. The novice can gain confidence in working with a bride and the experienced designer can see their business grow by learning how to hone their marketing skills. It covers the wedding cake creation process from beginning to end: from advertising and making the first contact, all the way to delivering the cake.