Artist Maira Kalman Carries Cake in Her Suitcase

For artist and author Maira Kalman, the above image sums it up. “That painting is my ideal world,” she says: “Cake and coffee served in a garden.” This page from her new book, Cake—which is as devoted to its title subject as you’d guess—was inspired by a trip to Delacroix’s museum in Paris.

In fact, places where pastry and history intersect figure prominently on Kalman’s travel bucket list. “I will track down the patisserie where Gertrude Stein had her éclair, contemplating whether she should buy the Cézanne—we should all have such problems!” she says. “In Berlin I’ll visit Café Einstein; in Vienna I’ll stay at the Hotel Sacher,” home of the chocolate Sacher torte. “You know what?” she concludes. “Food is important.” That’s evident to anyone familiar with her work, such as her 28 books featuring countless sweets and her illustrations for Michael Pollan’s Food Rules.

Cake combines Kalman’s whimsical paintings and wistful text with recipes by her friend Barbara Scott-Goodman. Kalman depicts a pink cake in Rome, a sweet remedy for heartbreak, and the honey cake her Israeli cousin bakes for her visits. “I’m always going back to New York with a suitcase full of cake,” she says, “which I distribute like a miser to family.” Not all souvenirs are for sharing.