Inflation

Stories relating to labor illustrate the shifting valuation of sweets and sweets making in factual and fictional contexts. In domestic fiction, the making of cakes measures girls’ skill and maturity: in Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne’s liniment-flavored cake cures her of “carelessness in cooking”; in Emily of New Moon (1925), Emily’s successful production of a cake causes her aunt to concede Emily’s identity as a competent family member. In recent years, however, comic culinary ineptitude is celebrated: “Puffy popcorn chocolate soufflé or carbonated exploding swamp?” Saffron asks of a burned cake she and her friend Sarah bake in Hilary McKay’s Permanent Rose (2005). The hilariously disastrous cake is a sign that like Saffron’s mother, a successful artist and kitchen incompetent par excellence, the girls are interesting, creative people. After two failed attempts, they resort to a prepared cake mix, and the resulting confection is received with as much enthusiasm and respect as one “made from scratch.”