The History of Celebration Cakes
The History of Celebration Cakes
Many cultures around the world have long used cakes and other sweet treats to mark special occasions while others have special, sentimental savoury dishes that they traditionally prepare when celebrating with family and friends. Food is a well known love language and is something we use to help us enjoy the good times and as a source of comfort in the not so good times.
The celebration cake is a very special thing, instantly recognisable and loved for their sweet flavour and often extravagant decoration with icing, frosting and fondant. Whether they are fully frosted delights or modern, semi-naked confections adorned in fresh fruit and foliage, celebration cakes are synonymous with sharing special moments with the people who mean the most to us.
Some of the most popular occasions to celebrate with a beautifully decorated and decadent cake are birthdays, weddings, christenings, anniversaries, and other meaningful moments such as getting a drivers’ licence or nailing that promotion at work. It seems as though any occasion is a good excuse to indulge in a slice (or two) of cake, but where did this tradition come from?
It is extremely difficult to pin down the exact origins of celebration cakes because they are something that has transcended culture and time, and more than likely have been baked for the ‘first’ time many times throughout history. To narrow things down, it might be helpful to focus on birthday cakes as they have a more easily defined origin story.
Where did birthday cakes originate?
Historians and food history experts in particular believe that the birthday cake originated in Germany in the Middle Ages where they were popularly used to celebrate the birthdays of young children in a celebration known as ‘Kinderfest’. Originally, these cakes were coarse and not very sweet, though they were packed with dried fruits they more closely resembled bread than the cakes we know today.
Over time, these simple cakes became sweeter and more decadent, but it wasn’t until the 1600s that bakers began to decorate their cakes with icing or assemble the cakes in layers with various fruit and cream fillings. These cakes were much more similar to the kinds you can buy in a celebration cake shop today, though their exotic and expensive ingredients meant that only the wealthiest could afford them.
Fast forward to the 1700s and the ingredients as well as the baking equipment needed to create these lavish cakes became much more affordable and accessible for a wider segment of the population. As the price of the cakes came down, their interest and popularity went up and has only grown ever since then.
Earlier examples of celebration foods and traditions
If we go back to pre-Middle Age society, we can see that we have been celebrating the birthdays of everyday people at least since Ancient Roman times. Prior to this, birthday celebrations were reserved almost exclusively for religious figures. Ancient Romans would celebrate the birthdays of their friends and family privately, and public holidays were designated to the birthdays of famous citizens of Ancient Rome.
Candles are seen today as an essential part of celebrations, especially when placed on top of a birthday cake. This might seem like a strange thing to do, but it is so ingrained in celebration culture that most of us have never taken a moment to think about the origins of this tradition. Surprisingly enough, the candle tradition actually predates the celebration cake tradition by quite a number of years.
The Ancient Greeks initially began decorating cakes with candles as a form of worship to the goddess Artemis, patron of the hunt and the moon. The light of the candles gave the cakes an ethereal glow that represented the moon, and the smoke from the candles was believed to carry wishes and prayers up to the goddess herself.
Today, in a post-industrialised world, celebration cakes are an essential part of all kinds of special occasions, from huge, extravagant wedding cakes to smaller personal cakes to congratulate a friend or loved one on a personal achievement. You can find these cakes in all kinds of flavours, but traditional tastes include vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, lemon, strawberries and cream, and coffee and walnut.