Almost Half Of All People Consider This Cake Flavor Their Favorite

As with many aspects of the modern world, cake appears to come from the Ancient Greeks, according to Food & Wine. Over time the ingredients and traditions have varied, and it is believed that the current birthday cake and candle ritual stems from the Middle Ages in Germany (via Food & Wine). Indeed, we are often first introduced to cake at our first birthday celebration. Unlike pre-industrial times when cake was expensive to make, current versions can be made quite easily allowing us to sample a wider range as any person with a sweet-tooth can confirm (via Reader's Digest).

Mashed decided to conduct a survey to find out what is the most popular cake between chocolate, red velvet, lemon, or others. Among the 53,000 people who responded, close to 50 percent chose chocolate cake as their favorite flavor (49 percent to be exact). Red velvet cake lovers made up 23 percent of the votes, and 13 percent of people voted for lemon. As for the 15% who voted for "other," popular choices included cheesecake, carrot cake, pineapple cake, and enough ideas to keep you baking for years!

What the Mayans once considered as gold from the gods used for religious ceremonies, medicinally, and even in trade, according to History, is still at the top of our sweet preferences. In the comments of the Mashed survey, people listed many types of chocolate cake as their favorites, including German, Devil's Food, and flourless. Nowadays, we associate chocolate cake as rich and loaded with chocolate, however Food Timeline recounts that first renditions were simply white cakes covered in chocolate icing.

While our uses and consumption might have changed over the last thousands of years, History Daily points out that billions of dollars are spent every year on chocolate. Clearly, chocolate has found its way into the modern baking repertoire, now consumed in novel ways with the advent of technology (via Food Timeline). If all this talk about chocolate has got you ready to bake, use Eliza Leslie's recipe from The Lady's Receipt-Book, available through Project Gutenberg. While there are endless cake recipes to choose from, Leslie's is believed to be the first chocolate cake recipe published in the United States (via Mental Floss). So if you are part of the 49 percent who choose chocolate cake, tie up your apron and get baking!