Krystina Castella, a professor at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena,California, was inspired to begin work on A World of Cake when a fundraising bake sale was held on campus. American students contributed the usual bake-sale treats, but the sales tables were also filled with a veritable United Nations of sweets. Foreign students had brought in cakes from all over the world, and many were far from the American concept of what “cake” looks like. Steamed rice cakes, mooncakes, corn meal cakes, tamales, fritters and tortes...these treats, and so many more, inspired Castella to learn the history of each cake, its place in the culture of its origin, what the cakes celebrated, and how they involved.
