A Piece of Cake

Many cakes rise in this superb collection--``Marvelous Mud Cake,'' ``Crazy Mixed-up Chocolate Cake,'' ``Jo's Blitz Torte,'' even ``Parsnip Cake''; sponges, charlottes, ladyfingers, scones. From the simplest to the many-tiered, Purdy ( As Easy As Pie ) enlists over 200 of her ``personal favorites,'' combining lucid advice on basic equipment, ingredients and techniques (``What Happens When a Cake Is Baked'') with detailed directions and playful asides on cake history. We learn that the modern custom (or folly) of ``girls jumping out of cakes'' at stag parties originated in medieval banquets made merry with ``live rabbits, frogs, other small animals, and occasionally dwarves . . . encased in pastry crusts,'' while American frontier corn dodgers were so called ``because they were so hard you had to dodge or risk injury if one was thrown at you.'' Glamorous French (hazelnut white-chocolate marquise) and Viennese (Sachertorte) pastries serve as divas, yet the most appealing may well be the old-fashioned jam cake, buttermilk spice cake, devil's food cake, caramel cake with penuche icing and their cousins. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC Cooking and Crafts Club main selection. (Sept.)