{"id":2434,"date":"2012-06-11T22:22:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T12:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2012-09-06T16:49:20","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T06:49:20","slug":"cake-for-a-royal-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/?p=2434","title":{"rendered":"Queen and cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good rainy Monday \u2018Queens birthday long weekend\u2019 morning to you. Sister Rasela here to splash around in puddles with you this morning as we take a dive into the belly show and wade around in the land of birthday cakes.
\nWell it is her Maj’s birthday (officially it\u2019s actually the 21st <\/sup>of June but celebrated on the second Monday of the month) so I gathered a bit of info on Lizzie to start the show with and from there we\u2019ll move onto the lucious land of birthday cakes and find out their history, traditions and other interesting and quirky facts. A little later in the show I\u2019m going to read you a cake story \u2026 from the perspective of a 4 year old so perhaps you might want to get cosy, make a brew, relax and enjoy the Queens birthday with us here, on your community radio station, where we never take a break. Yup, we\u2019re here for you 24 hours a day 7 days a week, pumping out the love and good vibrations across the wet and wild airwaves today and every day.<\/p>\n

Even when it\u2019s raining the sun is always shining from the heart of town. I hope you can feel the warmth on these wintery days, and remember if you can\u2019t, maybe you need to turn the volume up a little next time you’re listening\u00a0??<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re in your car, your home, your workplace or your headphones, thank you for tuning into the beautiful BayFM and for the lend of your gorgeous ears and eyes if you are reading online. You\u2019re\u00a0belly is safe with us\u00a0\u2026 Happy Monday !!!<\/p>\n

Ahem ! I present to you THE QUEEN’S\u00a0titbits and trivia …<\/p>\n

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Did someone say titbits ?<\/p><\/div>\n

Born in 1926, Elizabeth was crowned Queen on 2 June 1953 and is currently fourth in the all-time list of longest serving British monarchy. Her great achievements include creating a new species of dog – the dorgi – when one of her corgis mated with a dachshund named Pumpkin belonging to Princess Margaret. So far there have been eight dorgis born into the world at the palace.<\/p>\n

I saw a TV show about her a few years ago, and one thing I remember is that she has the same thing for breakfast each day: a type of cookie called Marie Biscuits, while she waits for her bath to be drawn: an exact amount of inches deep at an exact temperature.<\/p>\n

Her Maj lists taking afternoon tea among her favourite pastimes. Alongside her special blend of royal tea, taken strong with just a dash of milk, are scones, potted shrimps and thin cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.<\/p>\n

Curries are a no-no on the palace menu as spicy foods just simply do not agree with Liz’s delicate taste buds. She prefers more simple and traditionally British meals such as roast beef, lamb cutlets and bread and butter pudding. A strict policy of no waste is also in operation with leftover roasts being recycled into shepherd’s pies and rissoles.<\/p>\n

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Hungry for lunch m'am ?<\/p><\/div>\n

FAVOURITE FOOD: roast beef, lamb cutlets, shepherd’s pie, scones, bread and butter pudding, ice cream.<\/p>\n

Her favourite ap\u00e9ritif is a Martini, shaken not stirred, finished with a twist of lemon rind.<\/p>\n

A BBC documentary, All the Queen’s Cooks, revealed that tomatoes can only be served when all the pips have been removed to save them from becoming lodged in between the royal chompers and that it can take up to three hours for servants to lay the dinner table.<\/p>\n

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson once famously escaped from a driving ban for speeding en route to the opening of the Channel Tunnel, where he was due to cook for the Queen. Having overslept suffering the after effects of a night out, he argued in court that he was forced to choose between the law and Queen and country. He escaped with a couple of points on his licence.<\/p>\n

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Thanks Liz ... you've been a good sport !<\/p><\/div>\n

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE mmm mmmmm<\/p>\n

The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthdaycelebrations in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th\u00a0century. Certain rituals and traditions, such as singing of birthday songs, associated with birthday cakes are common to many Western cultures. The Western tradition of adding lit candles to the top of a birthday cake originates in 18th-century Greece. However, the intertwining of cakes and birthday celebrations stretch back to the Ancient Romans. The development of the birthday cake has followed the development of culinary and confectionery advancement. While throughout most of Western history, these elaborate cakes in general were the privilege of the wealthy, birthday cakes are nowadays common to pretty much every Western birthday celebration. Around the world many variations on the birthday cake, or rather the birthday pastry or sweets, exist.<\/p>\n

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Whatcha smokin there Grandma ?<\/p><\/div>\n

HISTORY<\/p>\n

In classical Roman culture, ‘cakes’ of flat rounds made with flour containing nuts, leavened with yeast, and sweetened with honey were occasionally served at special birthdays, but more often at weddings as in Ancient Greece.<\/p>\n

In early Europe, the words for cake and bread were virtually interchangeable; the only difference being that cakes were sweet while bread was not. In the 15th century, bakeries in Germany conceived the idea of marketing one-layer cakes for customers’ birthdays as well as for only their weddings, and thus the modern birthday cake was born. During the 17th century, the birthday cake took on more or less its contemporary form. However, these elaborate cakes, which possessed many aspects of contemporary cakes (such as multiple layers, icing, and decorations), were only available to the very wealthy. Birthday cakes became more and more proletarianized as a result of the industrial revolution, as materials and tools became more advanced and more accessible.<\/p>\n

The service of a birthday cake is often preceded by the singing of “Happy Birthday to You” in English speaking countries or an equivalent birthday song in the appropriate language of that country. In fact, the phrase “Happy Birthday” did not appear on birthday cakes until the song “Happy Birthday to You” was popularized in the early 1900s. Variations on birthday song rituals exist. For example, in New Zealand, “Happy Birthday to You” is sung and is followed by clapping, once for each year of the person’s life and once more for good luck (well, i grew up in NZ and we never did that … i’ve still been pretty lucky though !) In Uruguay, party guests touch the birthday person’s shoulder or head following the singing of “Happy Birthday to You”. In Ecuador, sometimes the birthday person will take a large bite off the birthday cake before it is served.<\/p>\n

The birthday cake is often decorated with small taper candles, secured with special holders or simply pressed down into the cake. In North America, Australasia and the U.K., the number of candles is equal to the age of the individual whose birthday it is, sometimes with one extra for luck. Traditionally, the birthday person makes a private wish, which will be realized if all the candles are extinguished in a single breath.<\/p>\n

A birthday cake is shared amongst all the people attending a birthday party. This represents sharing of joy and togetherness. As a courtesy, it reflects one’s hospitality and respect for guests.<\/p>\n

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Come on now Emery ... that's not very nice !<\/p><\/div>\n

CANDLES<\/p>\n

The earliest reference to the tradition of blowing out the candles was documented Switzerland in 1881. Researchers for the Folk-Lore Journal recorded various “superstitions” amongst the Swiss middle class. The following statement was recorded, “\u201cA birthday-cake must have lighted candles arranged around it, one candle for each year of life. Before the cake is eaten the person whose birthday it is should blow out the candles one after another.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This tradition can also be traced to Kinderfest (Kinder is the German word for ‘children’), an 18th century German birthday celebration for children. In 1746, a large birthday festival was held for Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf of Marienborn Germany. Andrew Frey described the party in detail and mentions, “there was a Cake as large as any oven could be found to bake it, and Holes made in the cake according to the years of the person\u2019s age, every one having a candle stuck into it, and one in the Middle.” A letter written in 1799 by Goethe recounts: “…when it was time for dessert, the prince’s entire livery…carried a generous-size torte with colorful flaming candles – amounting to some fifty candles – that began to melt and threatened to burn down, instead of there being enough room for candles indicating upcoming years, as is the case with children’s festivities of this kind…” As the excerpt indicates, the tradition at the time was to place candles for each year of the individual’s life with some added candles ‘indicating upcoming years’. \u00a0Some also smear out the name of the person before slicing the cake to bring good luck.<\/p>\n

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How about just smearing it all over your face instead ?<\/p><\/div>\n

The tradition of placing candles on birthday cake has also been attributed to early Greeks, who used to place lit candles on cakes to make them glow like the moon. Greeks used to take the cake to the temple of Artemis\u2026 The Moon Goddess. Some say that candles were placed on the cake because people believed that the smoke of the candle carried their prayers to gods. Others believe that the custom originated in Germany where people used to place a large candle in the centre of the cake to symbolize \u2018the light of life\u2019.<\/p>\n

Nowdays people place candles on birthday cakes and a silent wish is made before blowing out the candle. It is believed that blowing out all candles in one breath means the wish will come true and the person will enjoy good luck in the coming year. In contemporary Western cultures, two rituals are prominent: the singing of the traditional birthday song and the blowing out of candles decorating the cake by the birthday person.<\/p>\n

Today, we believe, that if we blow out all our candles in one breath, our wish will come true. (By the way, if there are 88 candles on your cake, it\u2019s okay to ask others to blow (with) you.<\/p>\n

BIRTHDAY CAKE VARIATIONS<\/p>\n

Variations on the birthday pastry exist outside of Western culture. The Chinese birthday pastry is the sou bao (\u58fd\u5305), lotus-paste-filled buns made of wheat flour which are shaped and colored to resemble peaches. A single large pastry is not often served, rather each guest is served their own. In Korea, the traditional birthday dish is a seaweed soup. In Western Russia, birthday children are served fruit pies with a birthday greetings carved into the crusts. The Swedish birthday cake is made like a pound cake and is often topped with marzipan and decorated with the national flag. A Dutch birthday pastry are fruit tarts topped with whipped cream. The Mexican birthday tradition involves a pi\u00f1ata, a colored brittle container filled with candy.<\/p>\n

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ummm .. is this the shitty Chinese version ?<\/p><\/div>\n

A number of historians believe that the birthday cake was first cooked-up in ancient Greece. The Greeks formed round or moon shaped honey cakes or bread and took them to the Temple of Artemis to honor the Goddess of the Moon. They placed candles on the cake so that it would glow like the moon, and the smoke of the lit candles carried their wishes and prayers to the Gods who lived up above, in the sky.<\/p>\n

In medieval times, the English placed symbolic objects inside their cakes. Sometimes coins or thimbles were mixed into the batter. The person who bit into the coin was sure to be wealthy, while the poor person who found the thimble would never marry. (Oh my! Imagine that.) Needless to say, if the cake fell while baking it was believed an ominous sign and the poor
\nbirthday girl or boy was guaranteed an entire year of bad luck.<\/p>\n

Halfway through the 17th century, Europeans had made considerable advancement in the art of cake-making. They’d begun to create the precursor to today’s modern cakes. This was mainly thanks to technological development: reliable ovens, food moulds and refined sugar to make icing. Round cake hoops of wood and metal began to be used as moulds.<\/p>\n

A SWEET PROGRESS<\/p>\n

The first icing was made from a boiled composition of the finest available sugar, egg whites and various flavors. It was then poured on the cake, which was put back into the oven for a while. The cake was soon crowned with a hard, glossy, ice-like
\ncovering. Molded cakes and fancy icing was hugely popular in Victorian times. The art of baking cakes progressed through the ages, and it was not until the middle of the 19th century that the modern cake as we now know it was born. The taste and appearance was enhanced with extra-refined white flour and baking powder (instead of yeast).<\/p>\n

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Amazing what can now be achieved with the introduction of icing ...<\/p><\/div>\n

The ‘World’s Largest Birthday Cake’ was on display at Cashman Center in Las Vegas on Nevada May 15, 2005. The 1,30,000-pound cake, made as part of the City of Las Vegas’ Centennial celebration, was 102-feet long, 52-feet wide and 20 inches tall, and took 500 volunteers 14 hours to construct and decorate. A Sara Lee Foods facility in Tarboro, North Carolina baked the 30,240 half-sheet cakes needed for the project.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to luscious birthday cakes, sweet dreams and delicious wishes.<\/p>\n

Here’s the wonderful birthday cake story i found and read out by Allie Brosh. Check out ‘Hyperbole and a Half’ to\u00a0read and see more – God of Cake reading – audio<\/a><\/p>\n

Hyperbole and a Half<\/strong> is a combination of web comic and blog written by Allie Brosh. The comic is drawn in Paintbrush and is intentionally artistically crude. It is a retelling of her life, and includes stories from her childhood as well as the challenges she faces as an adult. Brosh has also expanded the comic into a series of web videos in a similar style, which have been popular http:\/\/hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com.au\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Good rainy Monday \u2018Queens birthday long weekend\u2019 morning to you. Sister Rasela here to splash around in puddles with you this morning as we take a dive into the belly show and wade around in the land of birthday cakes. Well it is her Maj’s birthday (officially it\u2019s actually the 21st of June but celebrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio-show-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2434"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belly.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}