<Li> In 1746, a large birthday festival was held for Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf at Marienborn near Büdingen . 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's Age, every one having a Candle stuck into it, and one in the Middle ." - Gotha - Altenburg)), recounts of his 52nd birthday on 28 August: "...when it was time for dessert, the prince's entire livery in full regalia entered, led by the majordomo . He 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 one candle on the cake for each year of the individual's life, so that the number of candles on top of the cake would represent the age which someone had reached; sometimes a birthday cake would have some candles' indicating upcoming years .' </Li> <P> A reference to the tradition of blowing out the candles was documented in Switzerland in 1881 . Researchers for the Folk - Lore Journal recorded various "superstitions" among the Swiss middle class . One statement depicted a birthday cake as having lighted candles which correspond to each year of life . These candles were required to be blown out, individually, by the person who is being celebrated . </P> <P> There are many variations of sweets which are eaten around the world on birthdays . The Chinese birthday pastry is the shòu bāo (壽 包, simp . 寿 包) or shòu táo bāo (壽桃 包, simp . 寿桃 包), a lotus - paste - filled bun made of wheat flour and shaped and colored to resemble a peach . Rather than serving one large pastry, each guest is served their own small shou bao . In Korea, the traditional birthday dish is seaweed soup . In Western Russia, birthday children are served fruit pies with a birthday greeting carved into the crusts . The Swedish birthday cake is made like a pound cake that is often topped with marzipan and decorated with the national flag . Dutch birthday pastries are fruit tarts topped with whipped cream . In India there are very few people use birth celebration in villages but cities and towns birthday cakes are used similarly to western people specilly among higher educated section . </P>

Where did the tradition of birthday cakes come from