A May West is a round dessert cake with creme filling. It was created in Canada, and continues to be particularly popular in the province of Quebec. It is currently made by Vachon Inc., a division of Canada Bread. It was originally called a "Mae West", after the eponymous movie star, but the spelling was changed in the 1980s.
The cake was invented by René Brousseau, pâtissier at Vaillancourt Inc., a Quebec City bakery. As of 1932, May West cakes were made by Stuart Ltd, run by the wealthy Montreal-based Allard family; they were bought out in 1979 by their longtime competitor, Vachon Inc.[1] Vachon continued to market them under the Stuart brand, before retiring the Stuart brand and rebranding the line to reflect a consolidated Vachon lineup.[2]
The original crème filling was custard, but was replaced by a shortening-based vanilla creme close in taste and texture to the filling found in Twinkies.
