Thanks for that geographic perspective. All of the cakes I mentioned have a high appeal in the Carolinas and South of them, and I wondered how far north they'd reached.

Have you considered writing for @KatieMichaelson at her shortform site, The Daily Cuppa? I think she'd be v. interested in your observations on things like U.S. v. British food (or English v. Scottish). The Daily Cuppa is a great place to write: a well-designed pub with kind and responsive editors (they tweet a lot of stories) and highly engaged followers. I think the read/ratio is about 80% on the last cake story I did. And you can do casual observations about food as I do: no need to have a Good Housekeeping-level test kitchen at your place.