HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

           Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake

– Edward Morykwas, author, photographer

It’s time to party!

Is it your birthday? A family birthday? Kids? How about friends, pets, and celebrities?

That adds up to a lot of celebrations and tasty birthday cakes. How much would you pay for the perfect birthday cake? Let’s find out.

Birthday celebrations have been around for ages.

According to How Stuff Works, “the ancient Egyptians were good bakers who made honey-sweetened breads.”  Their “cakes” were flat, dense, unleavened, and cooked on a smooth stone. Nothing like the colorful, frosted ones we eat today.

Others argue it began with the ancient Greeks who made honey cakes or bread. Food & Wine suggests they were shaped and decorated to make them glow like the moon. Similar to the Chinese, they were literally, mooncakes.

The Romans established new customs. Birthday cakes celebrated a personal, private individual; a commemoration of a past or present emperor; or the rare fiftieth birthday; but NEVER for a woman. Cakes were made from flour, nuts, yeast and honey.

I bet Nero had a lot of birthday cakes and hats.

In the Middle Ages the Germans began to celebrate birthdays like we do today. They created the kinderfest – a party for children. The day began with a cake and lit candles that no one touched. The candles burned all day until after dinner when the cake was served. I wonder if the wax stuck in their teeth?

When the industrial revolution began in the 1800s, things shifted. Ingredients and tools became available, and everyone could bake or eat cake (not just the rich).

Today it’s not a birthday celebration without a cake. They come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and flavors. Let’s ask that question again. How much would you pay for the perfect birthday cake?

In 2015 British cake designer Debbie Wingham was commissioned to create a birthday cake for the daughter of a couple from the United Arab Emirates. The cake was six feet long, weighed one thousand pounds, and looked like a fashion runway show. Everything was edible except for the strategically placed four thousand pink, yellow, black, and white diamonds. The largest was a six-carat yellow diamond and fifteen five-carat white diamonds. It was dubbed The Runaway Cake and took over one thousand hours to make. Along the runway were tiny, hand-made, edible “spectators” in colorful outfits. The front row seating was Madagascan vanilla bean with mascarpone cream and strawberry conserve. The runway was triple Belgium chocolate with chocolate ganache and chocolate truffle cream.

Yum!

How much did the indulgent parents pay for the cake?

Look at it this way. The cost of The Runaway Cake was roughly equivalent to the combined price of two Manhattan Park Avenue penthouses, one luxury Beverly Hills home, ten Rolls Royce SUVs . . . well you get the idea.

Seventy-five million dollars.

That’s some Happy Birthday!

Whether it’s a seventy-five-million-dollar cake or seven-dollar bargain from the local supermarket, celebrating a birthday is special. As John Glenn once said, “there is still no cure for the common birthday.” That goes for the young and old and everyone in-between. In other words, all of us.

Birthdays R Us.

The birthday cake means caring – a commemoration of the past, present, and future (don’t forget that extra candle). It’s the culmination of centuries of traditions that celebrate the lives of loved ones and a validation of hope that all the birthday wishes will come true (especially those you make before blowing out the candles). Close your eyes and go for it. Think Aretha Franklin who once said, “every birthday is a gift!”

Party on!