I listened to Ed Levine's Serious Eats podcast interview today with Maira Kalman and Barbara Scott-Goodman discussing their new book Cake. https://soundcloud.com/user-306003081/special-sauce-artist-and My initial reaction was that though they are interesting people "Cake? - really?". But knowing how I can be dismissive without giving things a chance, I listened and reflected, and realized I had a deep history with cakes though my cultural sweets experience is Austro-Hungarian pastries. I'll share my memories and would love to hear yours.
My first significant cake baking experience was at around age 10 when I was driven to make the Enchanted Castle cake from the Betty Crocker Boys & Girls Cookbook for my sister's birthday. Scroll past the bunny salad https://popgoesthepage.princeton.edu/tag/betty-crockers-new-boys-and-girls-cookbook/ I used a box mix and improvised on the decorating but it was essentially as shown. Suprisingly I was not pained when the first cut was made; just delighted that she and others were delighted.
The next wow cake was when my mom made a tunnel cake with dark cherry mousse for a dinner party. It seemed magical. This was in th 60's before they were a "thing". (see attached image of recipe from Good Housekeeping magazine found in mom's recipe binder)
I'd started baking in general and became the designated cake baker for the sweet my dad took to work for lunch. This was the era of bundt cakes and pudding cakes. I unearthed some of the recipe cards and came upon: the poppy seed cake from the olo can, carrot cake from Blue Ribbon Recipes, apple cake with orange juice, pistachio pudding cake, sauerkraut chocolte cake & mashed potato chocolate cake, Maid Heatter's Royal Viennese Walnut Torte- list goes on
One Christmas Austrian friends sent us a Sacher Torte complete in its adorable wooden box from the Hotel Sacher. Anticipation was high; disppointment was deep. Dry/boring! - though I did like the apricot jam under the chocolate glaze.
In the 80's a Vietnamese friend introduced me to the less sweet style of Asian cakes with light fruitiness and a whipped cream & crushed fruit filling.. Around that time I also became enamored of a roulade cake flavored with pandan from the big Chinese market (99 Ranch).
There was a big "cake lull" until I recently baked an olive oil cake with tangerine zest when the pantry was bare. In fact I think I'll make it again tomorrow 
