Elf-cake

A kind of cake or bread made by the Elves that provided sustenance for long travel, and called by them lembas or waybread. In appearance, each Elf-cake was flat and light brown, and when broken its interior was coloured like cream. A single bite was enough for hours of travel, and the cake, preserved in wrappings of silver leaves, would remain edible even for long journeys.

The secrets of making Elf-cake were brought to Middle-earth from the West by Melian, the Maia who became Queen of Doriath during the First Age. In these early times, the waybread could only be provided by the Queen, and was almost never provided to mortals (Túrin in the late First Age was the first of Men to taste an Elf-cake).

After Melian's time, the secret of the making of waybread became known to others among the Elves (Galadriel learned much from Melian, and it was presumably by this means that the Elf-cake became more widely known). During the Quest of Mount Doom, the Fellowship of the Ring were given cakes of lembas by the Elves of Lórien, and these cakes helped to sustain them over their long a rigorous journey across Middle-earth.