Cakes- Most popular food for special occasions

Food is one of the basic necessities of life, every living creature has to take food in order to survive. Every culture in the world place special reverence on food or food items. They are an important part of religious occasions or celebrations in all human societies. Food can be shared by all and it is ideal for any social gathering. Thus food can strengthen community bonds and helps maintain unity and a common identity of the society. People use food in different ways to help celebrate festival and special occasions like Christmas, New Year, weddings and birthdays.

Among the most common type of food used in celebrations the most popular one are cakes. From time immemorial, people have made cakes and it is considered that the first cakes ever made coincided with the discovery of flour. Neolithic people used to make a primitive form of cakes from crushed grains which were heated on a stone fire. The Egyptians are the first culture who had advanced baking skills and they used to make cakes for various occasions and religious ceremonies. But the Egyptian cakes were different from modern day cakes; they were more like flat breads and sweetened with honey instead of sugar. In Medieval Europe people made large sized cakes filled with lots of dry fruits and the cakes even lasted for months. It was later only after the Industrial Revolution that the modern day form of cakes arrived on the scene

In the olden days the cakes were used for mainly religious rites and festivities. They were used as offerings for the gods and spirits. The Chinese baked moon shaped cakes in honor of the lunar god during the harvest moon festival while the ancient Celts baked round Beltane cakes to honor the seasonal cycle by rolling them down a hill. The Romans and Greeks used cakes for the festival of the gods and the important occasions of the ruler or members of the Imperial family. Most importantly, Birthdays were the main occasions where cakes were commonly used in the celebrations. It is believed that the birthday cake traditions originated in Germany during the middle ages when people used to bake cakes for children’s birthdays on Kinderfest. But it was only the rich and privileged class who could afford cakes at that time due to the high cost of production and scarcity of ingredients. And for quite some time, birthday celebrations involving sugary cakes were unaffordable to the masses. But after the industrial revolution, with increased food grain productions, the ingredients become more abundant and also cheaper. And with new developments such as the used of sodium bicarbonate and baking soda and advanced baking equipment, mass production of cakes began and bakeries also started offering pre-made cakes at lower prices which made it affordable for the common people. Cakes also started to be commonly used in Birthday celebrations and people decorated the birthday cake with lit candles, which the celebrant blows out while making a wish.

The birthday cake is traditionally highly decorated and people used to order them even weeks in advance of the occasion.  But now in the modern age of computers and online shopping people canorder cake online for any occasion, anytime and any day of the year. People don’t even need to move out of the house as they can arrange an online cake delivery in Mumbai or any other destination with just the quick touch of a button.