Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert

Sweet Invention is a social, cultural, and—above all—culinary history of dessert. It explores the world’s great dessert traditions, from ancient India to twenty-first century Indiana. It explores the history of some of the world’s favorite treats and the people who made them: the sweet makers of Persia who gave us the first donuts, the sugar sculptors of Renaissance Italy whose creativity (by way of Paris and London) gave birth to the modern wedding cake; and the hard-working (and wildly inventive) home economists of the early twentieth century who cooked up such unforgettable delights as chocolate chip cookies and rice crispy squares.A fun and enjoyable read that is groundbreaking in its scholarship, Sweet Invention embraces the pleasures of dessert while elucidating the uses—social, political, religious, and even sexual—that societies have found for dessert.