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

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?).

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.

The magic taste happens with the 2 litres of rum !

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

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

You find variations all over Europe