fbpx
Wikipedia

Birthday cake

A birthday cake is a cake eaten as part of a birthday celebration. While there is no standard for birthday cakes, they are typically highly decorated layer cakes covered in frosting, often featuring birthday wishes ("Happy birthday") and the celebrant's name. In many cultures, it is also customary to serve the birthday cake with small lit candles on top, especially in the case of a child's birthday. Variations include cupcakes, cake pops, pastries, and tarts. In more recent years, it has become a common flavour for confectionery including ice cream, PopTarts, various cereal varieties among others. The flavour is usually vanilla with sweeter hints to imply sprinkles.

Birthday cake with lit candles

History Edit

 
The Birthday Cake by 19th-century German genre painter Pancraz Körle [de].

Birthday cakes have been a part of birthday celebrations in Western European countries since the middle of the 19th century.[1] However, the link between cakes and birthday celebrations may date back to ancient Roman times; in classical Roman culture, cakes were occasionally served at special birthdays and at weddings. These were flat circles made from flour and nuts, leavened with yeast, and sweetened with honey.[citation needed]

In the 15th century, bakeries in Germany began to market one-layer cakes for customers' birthdays in addition to cakes for weddings.[citation needed] During the 17th century, the birthday cake took on its contemporary form. These elaborate cakes had many aspects of the contemporary birthday cake, like multiple layers, icing, and decorations. However, these cakes were only available to the very wealthy. Birthday cakes became accessible to the lower class as a result of the industrial revolution and the spread of more materials and goods.

Birthday candles and contemporary rites Edit

 
Modern celebration candles spelling out "Happy birthday"
 
Child with a birthday cake, c. 1930–1940

The practice of serving cake on birthdays is commonplace in many cultures. In contemporary Western cultures, birthday cakes for children are often topped with small candles, secured with special holders or simply pressed down into the cake. In the Anglosphere, the number of candles often corresponds to the age of the individual being celebrated, occasionally with one extra for luck.[2] An increasingly popular alternative is to use candles shaped as the numeral digits of the celebrant's age. Sparklers may also be used alongside or instead of the traditional wax candles.

The cake is usually presented with all the candles lit, at which point it is customary for the guests to sing Happy Birthday to You in unison, or an equivalent birthday song appropriate to the country. Upon the conclusion of the song, the celebrant is traditionally prompted to blow out the candles and make a wish, which is thought to come true if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath. Another common superstition holds that the wish must be made in silence, not to be shared with anyone else. [3][4][5]

Theories of origin Edit

Though the exact origin of the birthday candle ritual is unknown, there are multiple theories which try to explain this tradition.

One theory explaining the tradition of placing candles on birthday cakes is attributed to the early Greeks, who used candles to honor the goddess Artemis' birth on the sixth day of every lunar month. The link between her oversight of fertility and the birthday tradition of candles on cakes, however, has not been established.[6]

 
Kinder Fest.

In 18th century Germany, the history of candles on cakes can be traced back to Kinderfest, a birthday celebration for children.[7] This tradition also makes use of candles and cakes. German children were taken to an auditorium-like space. There, they were free to celebrate another year in a place where Germans believed that adults protected children from the evil spirits attempting to steal their souls. In those times there was no tradition of bringing gifts to a birthday; guests would merely bring good wishes for the birthday person. However, if a guest did bring gifts it was considered to be a good sign for the person whose birthday it was. Later, flowers became quite popular as a birthday gift.[8]

  • In 1746, a large birthday festival was held for Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf at Marienborn near Büdingen. Andrew Frey described the party in detail and mentions, "there was a Cake as large as any Oven could be found to bake it, and Holes made in the Cake according to the Years of the Person's Age, every one having a Candle stuck into it, and one in the Middle."[9]
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, having spent 24–30 August 1801 in Gotha as a guest of Prince August of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, recounts of his 52nd birthday on 28 August: "when it was time for dessert, the prince's entire livery in full regalia entered, led by the majordomo. He 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."[10] As the excerpt indicates, the tradition at the time was to place one candle on the cake for each year of the individual's life, so that the number of candles on top of the cake would represent the age which some one had reached; sometimes a birthday cake would have some added candles 'indicating upcoming years.'

A reference to the tradition of blowing out the candles was documented in Switzerland in 1881. Researchers for the Folk-Lore Journal recorded various "superstitions" among the Swiss middle class. One statement depicted a birthday cake as having lighted candles which correspond to each year of life. These candles were required to be blown out, individually, by the person who is being celebrated.[11]

Bacteriology Edit

In June 2017 researchers at Clemson University reported that some individuals deposit a large number of bacteria onto the cake frosting when blowing out the candles.[4][5][12] They found that on average, the act increased the amount of bacteria by 14 times, but one of the researchers described this as "not a big health concern".[3]

Birthday cakes in different cultures Edit

There are many variations of sweets which are eaten around the world on birthdays. The Chinese birthday pastry is the shòu bāo (simplified Chinese: 寿包; traditional Chinese: 壽包) or shòu táo bāo (simplified Chinese: 寿桃包; traditional Chinese: 壽桃包), a lotus-paste-filled bun made of wheat flour and shaped and colored to resemble a peach. Rather than serving one large pastry, each guest is served their own small shòu bāo. In Western Russia, birthday children are served fruit pies with a birthday greeting carved into the crusts. The Swedish birthday cake is made like a pound cake that is often topped with marzipan and decorated with the national flag. Dutch birthday pastries are fruit tarts topped with whipped cream. In India there are very few people who celebrate birthdays in the villages, but in cities and towns, birthday cakes are consumed similarly as in Western countries, especially among people with higher education.

Gallery Edit

See also Edit

References Edit

  1. ^ "Birthday Cakes: History & Recipes – Online article with an extensive bibliography".
  2. ^ Marcus, Ivan G. (1 March 2012). The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times. University of Washington Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-295-80392-0.
  3. ^ a b Sarah Zhang (2017-07-27). "Blowing Out Birthday Candles Increases Cake Bacteria by 1,400 Percent: But it's okay, really!". Atlantic magazine. Retrieved 2017-12-03. On average, blowing out the candles increased the amount of bacteria on the frosting by 14 times. But in one case, it increased the amount of bacteria by more than 120 times. "Some people blow on the cake and they don't transfer any bacteria. Whereas you have one or two people who really for whatever reason ... transfer a lot of bacteria." says Dawson."
  4. ^ a b Sarah Young (2017-07-31). "Blowing out birthday candles increases bacteria on cake by 1,400%, study reveals". The Independent. Retrieved 2017-12-03. They then lit the candles and blew them out before diluting the frosting with sterilised water and spreading it out on agar plates for the bacteria to grow.
  5. ^ a b Elizabeth Sherman (2017-07-28). "Blowing Out Birthday Candles Could Ruin the Cake". Food & Wine. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
  6. ^ Rusinek, Marietta (2012). "Cake:The Centrepiece of Celebrations". Celebration: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2011. Oxford: Prospect Books. pp. 308–315.
  7. ^ . German Hausbarn. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  8. ^ . Archived from the original on 2020-01-30. Retrieved 2013-11-04.
  9. ^ Frey, Andreas (1753-01-01). A true and authentic account of Andrew Frey. Containing the occasion of his coming among the ... Moravians [&c.]. Transl.
  10. ^ Shirley Cherkasky: Birthday Cakes and Candles, p. 220 books.google. Goethe's Tag- und Jahreshefte 1801 http://www.zeno.org/nid/20004859979
  11. ^ The Folk-lore Journal. Folk-lore Society. 1883-01-01. p. 380.
  12. ^ Paul Dawson, Inyee Han, Danielle Lynn, Jenevieve Lackey, Johnson Baker, Rose Martinez-Dawson (2017). "Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake". Journal of Food Research. Vol. 6, no. 4. Retrieved 2017-12-03.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links Edit

Listen to this article (2 minutes)
 
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 16 April 2006 (2006-04-16), and does not reflect subsequent edits.

birthday, cake, this, article, about, tradition, other, uses, disambiguation, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find,. This article is about the tradition For other uses see Birthday cake disambiguation This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Birthday cake news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message A birthday cake is a cake eaten as part of a birthday celebration While there is no standard for birthday cakes they are typically highly decorated layer cakes covered in frosting often featuring birthday wishes Happy birthday and the celebrant s name In many cultures it is also customary to serve the birthday cake with small lit candles on top especially in the case of a child s birthday Variations include cupcakes cake pops pastries and tarts In more recent years it has become a common flavour for confectionery including ice cream PopTarts various cereal varieties among others The flavour is usually vanilla with sweeter hints to imply sprinkles Birthday cake with lit candles Contents 1 History 2 Birthday candles and contemporary rites 2 1 Theories of origin 2 2 Bacteriology 3 Birthday cakes in different cultures 4 Gallery 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksHistory Edit nbsp The Birthday Cake by 19th century German genre painter Pancraz Korle de Birthday cakes have been a part of birthday celebrations in Western European countries since the middle of the 19th century 1 However the link between cakes and birthday celebrations may date back to ancient Roman times in classical Roman culture cakes were occasionally served at special birthdays and at weddings These were flat circles made from flour and nuts leavened with yeast and sweetened with honey citation needed In the 15th century bakeries in Germany began to market one layer cakes for customers birthdays in addition to cakes for weddings citation needed During the 17th century the birthday cake took on its contemporary form These elaborate cakes had many aspects of the contemporary birthday cake like multiple layers icing and decorations However these cakes were only available to the very wealthy Birthday cakes became accessible to the lower class as a result of the industrial revolution and the spread of more materials and goods Birthday candles and contemporary rites Edit nbsp Modern celebration candles spelling out Happy birthday nbsp Child with a birthday cake c 1930 1940The practice of serving cake on birthdays is commonplace in many cultures In contemporary Western cultures birthday cakes for children are often topped with small candles secured with special holders or simply pressed down into the cake In the Anglosphere the number of candles often corresponds to the age of the individual being celebrated occasionally with one extra for luck 2 An increasingly popular alternative is to use candles shaped as the numeral digits of the celebrant s age Sparklers may also be used alongside or instead of the traditional wax candles The cake is usually presented with all the candles lit at which point it is customary for the guests to sing Happy Birthday to You in unison or an equivalent birthday song appropriate to the country Upon the conclusion of the song the celebrant is traditionally prompted to blow out the candles and make a wish which is thought to come true if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath Another common superstition holds that the wish must be made in silence not to be shared with anyone else 3 4 5 Theories of origin Edit See also History of candle making Though the exact origin of the birthday candle ritual is unknown there are multiple theories which try to explain this tradition One theory explaining the tradition of placing candles on birthday cakes is attributed to the early Greeks who used candles to honor the goddess Artemis birth on the sixth day of every lunar month The link between her oversight of fertility and the birthday tradition of candles on cakes however has not been established 6 nbsp Kinder Fest In 18th century Germany the history of candles on cakes can be traced back to Kinderfest a birthday celebration for children 7 This tradition also makes use of candles and cakes German children were taken to an auditorium like space There they were free to celebrate another year in a place where Germans believed that adults protected children from the evil spirits attempting to steal their souls In those times there was no tradition of bringing gifts to a birthday guests would merely bring good wishes for the birthday person However if a guest did bring gifts it was considered to be a good sign for the person whose birthday it was Later flowers became quite popular as a birthday gift 8 In 1746 a large birthday festival was held for Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf at Marienborn near Budingen Andrew Frey described the party in detail and mentions there was a Cake as large as any Oven could be found to bake it and Holes made in the Cake according to the Years of the Person s Age every one having a Candle stuck into it and one in the Middle 9 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe having spent 24 30 August 1801 in Gotha as a guest of Prince August of Saxe Gotha Altenburg recounts of his 52nd birthday on 28 August when it was time for dessert the prince s entire livery in full regalia entered led by the majordomo He 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 10 As the excerpt indicates the tradition at the time was to place one candle on the cake for each year of the individual s life so that the number of candles on top of the cake would represent the age which some one had reached sometimes a birthday cake would have some added candles indicating upcoming years A reference to the tradition of blowing out the candles was documented in Switzerland in 1881 Researchers for the Folk Lore Journal recorded various superstitions among the Swiss middle class One statement depicted a birthday cake as having lighted candles which correspond to each year of life These candles were required to be blown out individually by the person who is being celebrated 11 Bacteriology Edit In June 2017 researchers at Clemson University reported that some individuals deposit a large number of bacteria onto the cake frosting when blowing out the candles 4 5 12 They found that on average the act increased the amount of bacteria by 14 times but one of the researchers described this as not a big health concern 3 Birthday cakes in different cultures EditThere are many variations of sweets which are eaten around the world on birthdays The Chinese birthday pastry is the shou bao simplified Chinese 寿包 traditional Chinese 壽包 or shou tao bao simplified Chinese 寿桃包 traditional Chinese 壽桃包 a lotus paste filled bun made of wheat flour and shaped and colored to resemble a peach Rather than serving one large pastry each guest is served their own small shou bao In Western Russia birthday children are served fruit pies with a birthday greeting carved into the crusts The Swedish birthday cake is made like a pound cake that is often topped with marzipan and decorated with the national flag Dutch birthday pastries are fruit tarts topped with whipped cream In India there are very few people who celebrate birthdays in the villages but in cities and towns birthday cakes are consumed similarly as in Western countries especially among people with higher education Gallery Edit nbsp Birthday cake in the shape of a teddy bear nbsp Cutting a Calavera shaped birthday cake nbsp 2nd birthday cake nbsp Christmas tree birthday cake nbsp Birthday cake with a written message nbsp Construction worker themed birthday cake nbsp 100th birthday cake with 100 candles nbsp Birthday cake in the shape of a Lace monitor nbsp Elaborately layered birthday cake nbsp Birthday cake garnished with a birthday party diorama nbsp 18th birthday cake nbsp Chocolate with assorted fruit birthday cake nbsp Tteok cake nbsp Creamy raspberry birthday cake nbsp Association football themed birthday cake nbsp Homemade birthday cake nbsp Birthday cake with a 3 shaped candle nbsp German cake for a 100th birthday nbsp Birthday cake in the shape of a ladybug nbsp Mixed fruit birthday cake nbsp Construction worker themed birthday cake nbsp 25th birthday mint mousse cakeSee also EditWedding cake List of desserts Birthday Rite of passageReferences Edit Birthday Cakes History amp Recipes Online article with an extensive bibliography Marcus Ivan G 1 March 2012 The Jewish Life Cycle Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times University of Washington Press p 120 ISBN 978 0 295 80392 0 a b Sarah Zhang 2017 07 27 Blowing Out Birthday Candles Increases Cake Bacteria by 1 400 Percent But it s okay really Atlantic magazine Retrieved 2017 12 03 On average blowing out the candles increased the amount of bacteria on the frosting by 14 times But in one case it increased the amount of bacteria by more than 120 times Some people blow on the cake and they don t transfer any bacteria Whereas you have one or two people who really for whatever reason transfer a lot of bacteria says Dawson a b Sarah Young 2017 07 31 Blowing out birthday candles increases bacteria on cake by 1 400 study reveals The Independent Retrieved 2017 12 03 They then lit the candles and blew them out before diluting the frosting with sterilised water and spreading it out on agar plates for the bacteria to grow a b Elizabeth Sherman 2017 07 28 Blowing Out Birthday Candles Could Ruin the Cake Food amp Wine Retrieved 2017 12 03 Rusinek Marietta 2012 Cake The Centrepiece of Celebrations Celebration Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2011 Oxford Prospect Books pp 308 315 Keeping the Legacy German Hausbarn Archived from the original on 2016 10 05 Retrieved 2015 08 12 History of Birthdays Archived from the original on 2020 01 30 Retrieved 2013 11 04 Frey Andreas 1753 01 01 A true and authentic account of Andrew Frey Containing the occasion of his coming among the Moravians amp c Transl Shirley Cherkasky Birthday Cakes and Candles p 220 books google Goethe s Tag und Jahreshefte 1801 http www zeno org nid 20004859979 The Folk lore Journal Folk lore Society 1883 01 01 p 380 Paul Dawson Inyee Han Danielle Lynn Jenevieve Lackey Johnson Baker Rose Martinez Dawson 2017 Bacterial Transfer Associated with Blowing Out Candles on a Birthday Cake Journal of Food Research Vol 6 no 4 Retrieved 2017 12 03 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Birthday cakes Birthday cake at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Definitions from Wiktionary nbsp Media from Commons nbsp News from Wikinews nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource nbsp Textbooks from Wikibooks nbsp Resources from Wikiversity Listen to this article 2 minutes source source nbsp This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 16 April 2006 2006 04 16 and does not reflect subsequent edits Audio help More spoken articles Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Birthday cake amp oldid 1179968165, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.