Most people get excited by the potential of a slice of cake. After all, it is so much more than dessert. It says "Happy Celebration"--equally happy and celebratory--to everyone. It has no substitute.

In Let Me Eat Cake, Leslie F. Miller embarks on a journey (not a journey cake, but it's in there) into the moist white underbelly of the cake world. She visits factories and local bakeries and wedding cake boutiques. She interviews famous chefs like Duff Goldman, of Food Network's Ace of Cakes, and less famous ones like Roland Winbeckler, who sculpts life-size human figures out of hundreds of pounds of poundcake and buttercream frosting. She takes decorating classes and samples the best cakes and the worst.

Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Butter, Sugar, Eggs, Baking Powder, Vanilla, and a Pinch of Salt, is a combination of history, folklore, odd facts, personal narrative, recipes, and stories. The book is held together by the hero on the quest. And, as a book about cake would demand, this one is a multi-layered, amply filled and frosted, delicious concoction that offers something for everyone.

Let Me Eat Cake is the first book ever to explore the history of cake, from its moment of conception to its transformation into edible Prada shoes and handbags. So put on some elastic-waist pants, and grab a fork.