The French Cake Cooked on a Spit (2018) [video] (youtube.com)

My favorite cake to eat in Japan is the baumkuchen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumkuchen

Yeah, it looks like a fun gimmick but it's basically a butter biscuit with a bit of rum and liqueur, which does most of the heavy lifting there.

Can confirm; looks great but I was disappointed while eating it.

I dunno how they make it in other countries, but I can confirm that a well-made German Baumkuchen, coated with chocolate to keep the dough from drying out, is simply delicious. It even got so popular in Japan that they have it in most supermarkets (baumukuhen / バウムクーヘン).

Opposite experience. The versions I've tasted were not dry (unless left out for too long), had a sort of melt-in-your-mouth texture, was sweet, had a specific taste that's hard to name (eggnog?).

They are not dry if they are made properly and eaten straight away. The stuff we can get in the stores is of variable quality (or at least variable storage conditions).

That said, it’s popular cuisine, from regions that were historically not that wealthy. It’s a bit rustic, but there is some beauty in its simplicity.

The magic taste happens with the 2 litres of rum !

But there's not really a magic taste, it's just a fun tradition.

You find variations all over Europe

Napoleon's soldier saw the spit cakes from eastern europe and brought it back to France apparently.

It’s not a very good point. Everything was from somewhere else at some point. It resonated in some places and got integrated into local traditions, it’s all there is to it. Yes, there are some things that are spread throughout Europe. They can still be part of local customs.