Birthday cake
Around the world many variations on the birthday cake, or rather the birthday pastry or sweets, exist. In classical Roman culture, cakes of flat rounds made with flour containing nuts, leavened with yeast, and sweetened with honey were served at special birthdays. The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthday celebrations in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century.The development of the birthday cake has followed the development of culinary and confectionery advancement. In fact, the phrase Happy Birthday did not appear on birthday cakes until the song Happy Birthday to You was popularized in the early 1900s. The birthday cake is often decorated with taper candles, secured with special holders or simply pressed down into the cake.
This tradition can be traced to Kinderfest (Kinder is the German word for children ), an 18th century German birthday celebration for children. Birthday cakes became more and more proletarianized as a result of the industrial revolution, as materials and tools became more advanced and more accessible. The cake, or sometimes a pastry or dessert, is served to a person on his or her birthday.
This represents sharing of joy and togetherness. However, the intertwining of cakes and birthday celebrations stretch back to the Ancient Romans.
The Western tradition of adding lit candles to the top of a birthday cake originates in 18th century Germany. A letter written in 1799 by Goethe recounts: ..when it was time for dessert, the prince s entire livery..carried a generous-size torte with colorful flaming candles - amounting to some fifty candles - that began to melt and threatened to burn down, instead of there being enough room for candles indicating upcoming years, as is the case with children s festivities of this kind.. As the excerpt indicates, the tradition at the time was to place candles for each year of the individual s life with some added candles indicating upcoming years . Variations on the birthday pastry exist outside of Western culture.
Certain rituals and traditions, such as singing of birthday songs, associated with birthday cakes are common to many Western cultures. In early Europe, the words for cake and bread were virtually interchangeable; the only difference being that cakes were sweet while bread was not. During the 17th century, the birthday cake took on more or less its contemporary form However, these elaborate cakes, which possessed many aspects of contemporary cakes (such as layers and decorations), were only available to the very wealthy.
In North America, the number of candles is equal to the age of the individual whose birthday it is, sometimes with one extra for luck. Traditionally the birthday person makes a private wish, which will be realized if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath. A birthday cake is shared amongst all the people attending a birthday party.
The Chinese birthday pastry is the sou bao (壽包), lotus-paste-filled buns made of wheat flour which are shaped and coloured to resemble peaches. Find more about Birthday cake on Wikipedia s sister projects: . While throughout most of Western history, these elaborate cakes in general were the privilege of the wealthy, birthday cakes are nowadays common to most Western birthday celebrations.
As a courtesy, it reflects one s hospitality and respect for guests. Though the exact origin and significance of the candle blowing ritual is unknown, the history of placing candles on top of the cake is well documented. In contemporary Western cultures, two rituals are prominent: the singing of the traditional birthday song and the blowing out of candles decorating the cake by the birthday person. The service of a birthday cake is often preceded by the singing of Happy Birthday to You in English speaking countries, or an equivalent birthday song.
