About two years ago for one of my classes, I read Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. The basis for this theory is the idea that cultural and religious identities will unite people and be the source of conflict among these differing groups. Huntington theorized that the world would be divided as follows:
At the time, my speciality among my peers in this class was cake making. So I created a “Clash of Civilizations Cake”:
Asia and Oceania
I made two bundt cakes and used home-made frosting to seal them together. The bundt worked out well because the top is not completely rounded, so proved a good base to hold the other half.
Africa and Europe
Frosting the cake turned out to be not as difficult as originally intended. Once the countries were outlined, all that was left was to pipe in different colored frostings based on Huntington’s new civilizations map.
Americas
While I did not make the actual cake mix myself, the fun in this project was the decorating, and Betty Crocker makes great yellow and chocolate cakes. I made the cake half yellow cake and half chocolate cake so everyone in my class would have something to enjoy. This cake was especially frosting heavy, so some loved it and others peeled some off to enjoy the cake. Everyone loved how it looked though!
Tags: cake, clash of civilizations, frosting, Samuel Huntington
