The importance of the birthday cake

I don’t know where the tradition of the birthday cake came from but I really hope it never dies out in years to come. So many of my childhood memories come from the birthday parties I can remember so vividly and the cake is all part of that. I love the thought that the humble Victoria sponge for one day a year can stand proud in the middle of a table of food simply because it is wearing its finest royal icing and has been crowned with candles.

This is a beautiful cake made by a friend for another friend's birthday! We all sat around eating it together and it was such a great afternoon!

My first memory of reading cookery books comes from looking at all the pictures in a great cake book which my mum used every year for our birthdays. She did not need guidance on how to bake a perfect cake but she used the book for inspiration on how to make a normal cake transform into a racing car or a beach scene. It would be part of the centre piece of every party and birthday cake definitely helped start my love of food and the creativity which can be explored through food.

To me, birthday cake is strongly linked with the tradition of sharing food. It does not only trigger most birthday memories, having everyone sing to you and then you blowing out the candles but also a great part of birthday cake is that it is shared by everyone celebrating the birthday that day. The concept of sharing food and sitting down to eat as a group of people is something I love and want to encourage. I believe this can all stem from appreciating the importance of a birthday cake from a young age!

                In these modern times where the culture is to eat whatever you want whenever you want, meal times are not so important. It is also not necessarily the case that even if you are sitting around the same table that you will be eating the same thing as everyone else. We have grown up in a culture where if you like a certain food you can have it in excess and if you don’t like something you don’t have to eat it at all. Sweet treats such as cake are no longer rare or thought of as special. This is just a reflection that food is over produced and we have become greedy.

                Yet the magical thing in my eyes is that when a cake is donned a ‘birthday cake’ people do seem to treat it more as something special and those who may worry about weight or eating healthy are often swayed to have “just a slither!” Birthday cake allows you to feel part of something, a group of people celebrating someone’s birthday and enjoying cake with no regrets. Cake is common and easily eaten by all, whenever they want, but birthday cake is special and rare and reminds people that food can be fun and should be appreciated. Even if it only happens once a year, people can be reminded that eating something delicious, as a group, is a great treat and an enjoyable experience. This is why I believe the birthday cake is and always will be, extremely important in our lives.