Wedding cakes and Birthday cakes: similar and different

A cake (from Italian torta or Spanish tortilla) is a form of food that is usually sweet and often baked. Cakes normally combine some kind of flour, sugar, generally egg, fats, a liquid (milk, water, and fruit juice), flavors. Cakes are usually prepared for special occasions: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries. Cakes may be round, square or other different shapes.

A finished cake is often covered by frosting, or icing, and toppings. Frosting is usually made from powdered (icing) sugar, milk or cream, and often flavorings such as vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Piping bags or syringes are used for decorating cakes.

So, what are the types of the cakes? The most important and popular are the birthday cakes. These are cakes with the candles: one candle for each year of life. And the extra candle in order to bring luck to person. Still there can be used special candles in the form of numbers. There is the tradition to write the phrase "Happy Birthday" on the cake. This tradition appeared when the song "Happy Birthday to You" spread in the early 1900s.

Another popular type of cakes is known as wedding cakes. These cakes are usually very tasty, beautiful and expensive (as everything for the wedding day). Don't forget that wedding day happens once in your life (or may be two, three etc). So, don't grudge if you don't want to spoil the best day of your life. The custom for wedding cakes is to put the figures of bridegroom and bride on the top of the cake. The cutting of a wedding cake forms a social ceremony in some cultures. There are plenty of traditions connected with the wedding cakes. One of the most popular is to sell the first slice of cake to the guest who will pay the largest sum of money. The money will be given to newly married couple. And they in their turn will invite that guest to their golden wedding. And at this anniversary there will be cakes too.

What else? Cakes can be also used during various festivals, such as Christmas and Easter, and other ones. For example, on the 14th of February there is a tradition to bake cakes in the form of heart.

Cakes are very often used as missile weapon in order to demonstrate public distrust or contempt for famous people. This tradition was established by the organization "International cake brigades". But still you can use your birthday cakes as missile weapon not to show your distrust to your guests but to add more fun to your party.

There are thousands of birthday, wedding, anniversary cakes recipes. So, choose the one that you like, prepare it by yourself or buy it and Bon appetit!