Why Do We Eat Cake on Birthdays?

Lea Lite
December 16, 2025

In partnership with

Morning Birthday Cakes!

Hang on.

A birthday cake

Birthday cake.

Those two words don’t have to go together at all.

So why do we eat cake for birthdays??

Let’s go back to Ancient Greece..

Yes.

There’s togas:

There’s sandals:

There is even mythology and stuff:

And because they’re doing myths, the Greeks come up with this moon goddess Artemis who’s whole thing is..

So the Greeks start baking these round, moon-shaped cakes to honor her

Then cover them with candles to glow like the moon!

But this still has NOTHING to do with our birthdays.

Until medieval Germans start celebrating this thing called

A very German way of saying ‘children’s celebration’.

Aka the first birthday!

They’d place one candle on the cake for each year of your age:

Plus one extra for good luck!

Stay Celebrating,

Henry & Dylan 🌈

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