Birthday Cake Origin

The ancient Egyptians are actually credited with “inventing” the celebration of birthdays. They believed that when pharaohs were crowned gods it represented their “birth” as a god and the day needed to be celebrated.

Ancient Greeks borrowed the tradition and decided it would be even better with the addition of a sweet treat. They made moon-shaped pies to honor Artemis, goddess of the moon, and added lit candles to make the cakes shine like the moon. That is where we get birthday candles tradition from.

Since the ingredients to make a cake were expensive, the tradition did not become popular until around the Industrial Revolution when the ingredients started to become more plentiful.