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.