Birthday Cakes

In honor of my birthday yesterday, I spend a little time looking into the history of the birthday cake.

The origin of the birthday cake is very similar to that of the wedding cake, so I will skip past the European origins as most of it is listed in my post Wedding Cakes: A History.

The birthday cake (as we know it) has been an essential element of Western cultural birthday celebrations since the 19th century. Originally birthday cakes were a sign of wealth and status, over time they have become common to most celebrations regardless of wealth.

It appears that most traditional birthday cakes contained birthday candles, but not quite as we know them today. The tradition of candles seems to have a religious background in all cultures. The first cake with a candle is said to have come from the Greeks - who would place candles on cake and then offered then to Artemis, God of the Moon. Because lighting a candle on a cake made it glow like the moon. The Germans would place the candle in the center of the cake to represent the "light of life." Originally when people blew out the candles on their cake it was believed that their wish was carried to god and their prayers would be answered.

Today the number of candles on a cake will correspond with the age of the birthday person. According to tokenz.com - there is an additional tradition of adding an extra candle for good luck. This one I was unaware of - but I like!

I also learned in my reading that if a cake fell while it was baking it was considered to be a bad omen/bad luck for the birthday person in the coming year.