Birthday cakes have been a part of birthday celebrations in Western European countries since the middle of the 19th century. However, the link between cakes and birthday celebrations may date back to ancient Roman times. In classical Roman culture, 'cakes' were occasionally served at special birthdays and at weddings. These were flat circles made from flour and nuts, leavened with yeast, and sweetened with honey. In the 15th century, bakeries in Germany began to market one-layer cakes for customers' birthdays as opposed to only marketing cakes for weddings, and thus the modern birthday cake was born.
