Las Violetas, Buenos Aires, April 2009
Some of my favorite people on earth have birthdays this week and here I am thousands of miles away from them unable to share in the classic festivities. Festivities would include, of course, the birthday cake.
The origins of the birthday cake are a bit fuzzy, but most sources trace it back to the ancient Greeks who offered round cakes to Artemis, the goddess associated with the moon. Lit candles were inserted to the round cakes to make the cake glow like the moon and the smoke from the candles was thought to carry the prayers of the people upward to the gods. Other cultures probably offered cakes to the gods before this, but they are generally not discussed in the birthday cake lore. The word "cake" itself is thought to derive from the ancient Norse "kaka".
The Romans, as they did with most things, co-opted the cake idea from the Greeks, but they expanded the concept to include the emperor in the offerings. Why should the gods have all the fun? One can imagine that along with the decline and fall of the Roman empire that all sorts of standards were not maintained until, well, just about anyone could have a birthday cake, if they could have a birthday cake.
Time and cooking skills progressed. Much pastry happened in Germany from the 15th through the 17th centuries. Cake became a concept culminating in ultimate pastry quote of all time attributed to Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake" or more correctly "brioche". The first commercial boxed cake mix is attributed to Duff and Sons in England in the 1920's. Betty Crocker cake mixes became available in the states in 1947. A more modern Duff brings us the "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network.
Birthday cake is by it's nature rich. The best are transcendent - what we would want for our friends, right?
The ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs and some kind of fat - typically butter are pretty basic. The principle ingredient, wheat, is a staple grain for a significant part of the world's population. Like all grains in the Chinese dietary materia medica, wheat has an affinity for the Spleen and Stomach, the Earth elements. Wheat strengthens us, builds our blood and calms our Shen. Wheat has a sweet flavor and generates fluids. It's cooling (some say the gluten) nature slows things down and settles those pesky little fires of irritation in our lives. When things get too much we want mac and cheese not broccoli. Wheat is used in Chinese herbal medicine to treat hysteria and night sweats. People with dampness issues should perhaps keep wheat consumption to a minimum, but birthday celebrations generally happen just once a year!
Sugar is considered neutral and is sweet. It has an affinity for the Spleen and Stomach and in small quantities tonifies. It also generates fluids. The damp among us beware! Sugar is in itself not evil, however. It's just that when sugar becomes part of everything that problems arise.The sweet taste makes things linger, slows things down. We have our desert, our birthday cake, at the end of our meal as though to keep the good times just a little bit longer. Sweet generates yin our foundation. We just love it and sometimes can't get enough.
Butter is warm and sweet and also tonifies Qi and Blood. In the body and in the cake it moistens. Butter will have a post of its own soon, I promise.
Chicken eggs are generally considered neutral in temperature. Actually the yolk is warming and the white is cooling. (Egg whites are actually really good to use in the treatment of burns and bruising. Apply topically.)
The egg itself tonifies Qi and Blood, moistens dryness and tonifies Yin. It is often used as a postpartum and convalescent food. Though it belongs to the earth element and has an affinity for the Spleen and Stomach, the egg also has an ascending nature. It is after all a miniature bird. So besides the idea of making whatever richer, we technically use eggs as a levening agent. We can think of it also as the eggs bringing all that goodness up to the heart.
Happy Birthday songs are
common worldwide. "Happy Birthday to You" in English, "Zhu
ni sheng ri kuai le" in Mandarin Chinese, "Feliz cumpleaños a ti" in Spanish, "Bonne Fête" in French, and "Tanti Auguri a te" in
Italian. We sing the song and the honored guest makes a wish and blows out the candles .Those with sufficient lung capacity get their wish. As one gets older this becomes more difficult in a kind of unfortunately frustrating metaphoric way. It's a good thing we've come up with the candle binary system - the numeral 4 and the numeral 0 for 40 for example. Even the Greeks covered all bases when delivering messages to the gods.

San Telmo Score, April 2009