A birthday cake with writing on it

A birthday cake in Western culture is a pastry or dessert served to a person on his or her birthday, usually decorated with the person's name and/or a message of congratulations. It is often decorated with candles, one for each year the person has been alive. The candles are lit and everyone (except the person whose birthday it is) sings "Happy Birthday to You".

Tradition holds that the person with the birthday can make a wish, which will come true if all the candles can be blown out in one breath. Another tradition is to smear out the name of the person for good luck before slicing the cake for serving.

Birthday cakes are usually Victoria sponges although many other designs can be used. One of the most popular flavours is chocolate.

The U.S. patent no. 6,319,530 teaches a "Method of photocopying an image onto an edible web for decorating iced baked goods". In plain English, this invention enables one to inkjet print a food-grade color photograph on the cake surface.