Yesterday, we celebrated my husband's 75th birthday...how did this happen?! Weren't we just in our first year of college? We're both flabbergasted that he's three-quarters of a century old!!!
Unlike me, my husband has never been a big one for cake with frosting and candles. He prefers a flaky fruit pie or a puff pastry dessert. But the origin of a birthday cake and how it became associated with around trip around the sun got me thinking.
The ancient Egyptians are credited with "inventing" the celebration of birthdays. They believed that when pharaohs were crowned, they became gods, so their coronation day was essentially their "birth" as gods. But there was no birthday cake as yet.
Ancient Greeks borrowed the tradition but realized that a dessert would make the celebration all the more meaningful. So, they baked moon-shaped cakes, to offer up to Artemis, goddess of the moon, as a tribute. They decorated them with lit candles to make the cakes shine like the moon...and that's why we put candles on our birthday cakes!
Ancient Romans are thought to be the first to celebrate the birthdays of ordinary, non-godlike people with a special cake baked with wheat flour, nuts, yeast, and honey.
The modern birthday cake as we know it come from 18th century Germany through celebrations known as "Kinderfest" for children. Each cake was decorated with candles corresponding to the child' age, plus one extra candle called the "light of life," symbolizing hope for the coming year. Children would make a wish before blowing out the candles, a ritual that blended earlier Greek and Roman customs into the familiar act of today. And just like modern tradition, the birthday girl or boy wouldn't tell anyone the wish so that it would come true.
Until the Industrial Revolution, birthday cakes were a luxury--quite literally. With ingredients like sugar, butter, and refined flour being costly, only the wealthy could afford to celebrate with a sweet slice.
Following the Industrial Revolution, everything changed. Mass production made baking staples cheaper and more accessible, and bakeries began selling ready-made cakes. Suddenly, the once exclusive treat became a festive must-have for all, showing up not just on birthdays but on any occasion as an excuse to gather and indulge.
Many authors put birthday celebrations into their romances, giving the readers an opportunity to show the aging of characters and the passing of weeks and months in their stories. In addition, the celebrations provide a reason for the characters to meet other than at church services and social gatherings allowing the author to tell the story through dialogue between the characters.
The origin of birthday cake is layered. From ancient offerings to mass-produced treats, the birthday cake has journeyed through centuries, cultures and customs to earn its spot at the center of joyous celebrations. While today's birthday cakes might be covered in rainbow sprinkles and alight with candles, it's worth noting how this sweet treat reached your table.
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Lila Hartley had waited for hours on the frozen train platform, a mail-order bride no one came to claim, her trunk beside her like a tombstone. The man who'd promised her marriage, a home, and a future, left her stranded two thousand miles from Boston with nothing but the clothes on her back and a heart full of shattered dreams.
Just when hope was fading, a man emerged from the white curtain of snow like an apparition, took off his coat, and changed her life.
Clay McCallister viewed every woman who had taken a chance on the frontier as the sister he’d failed…a woman who’d risked everything for the possibility of something better, much like the woman standing on the platform in the bitter cold.
Sometimes warmth doesn’t always come from fire — sometimes it comes from the heart.
