When I was three or four, our cook Crista made me a fairy-princess castle of a cake, with turrets and a moat, and covered in thick swathes of the pinkest frosting she could whip up. The Kurfürstliches in Germany –– a pink and white confection of a palace –– reminds me of that birthday cake. Perhaps my memories paint it grander than it actually was, but through the eyes of a little girl, it simply was the fanciest thing.