A birthday cake is a cake eaten as part of a birthday celebration. While there is no standard for birthday cakes, they are typically highly decorated layer cakes covered in frosting, often featuring birthday wishes and the celebrant's name. In many cultures, it is also customary to serve the birthday cake with small lit candles on top, especially in the case of a child's birthday. Variations include cupcakes, cake pops, pastries, and tarts.
Birthday cake with lit candles
The Birthday Cake by 19th-century German genre painter Pancraz Körle [de].
Modern celebration candles spelling out "Happy birthday"
Child with a birthday cake, c. 1930–1940
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
Layer cake
Birthday fruit cake
Raisin cake
Cake mix in plastic packets