Christmas cracker tradition of wearing festive hats is believed to date back to Roman times and the Saturnalia celebrations, which also involved decorative headgear. Christmas crackers are also associated with Knut's parties, held in Sweden at the end of the Christmas season. The "Oxford English Dictionary" records the use of "cracker bonbons" and the pulling of "crackers" from 1847. Tradition tells of how Tom Smith of London invented crackers in 1847. He created the crackers as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper). As sales of bon-bons slumped, Smith
Layer cake and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Many wedding cakes are decorated layer cakes. In the mid-19th century, modern cakes were first described in English. Maria Parloa's "Appledore Cook Book", published in Boston in 1872, contained one of the first layer cake recipes. Another early recipe for layer cake was published in "Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book", published in London in 1894. An older form of layer cake is common in southern and eastern Europe. In Ukraine and Russia, people still make these cakes in the old traditional way. The cake batter is baked in a frying pan in thin