The obesity epidemic is creating panic in the community, with media commentators expressing outrage at our widening waistbands and academics raising alarms about the health implications of carrying excess weight.

Billboards – designed to shame – tell us to eat right, eat less, eat sensibly, count calories, exercise more, reduce fat, reject junk foods, and forget cakes, pastries and fries.

But while we spin in a confusion of knowledge and directives, we may well be losing sight of all those good things that are embodied in a piece of cake.

There are many understandings of what constitutes “junk” food. Generally, it is food that lacks nutrients but is high in calories made up of fat and sugar. Or, as one researcher says, it’s food that isn’t represented in the healthy eating pyramid.

But cake is so much more than junk food. I’m not talking about the airy confection-infused types with chemical concoctions to preserve, flavour, colour and aerate. I mean cake as a symbol of joy and celebration; the conveyor of history, culture and tradition; as a token of love, belonging and social occasion..
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