Cake

"Dear Mario, please come to the castle. I've baked a cake for you. Yours truly, Princess Toadstool, Peach."

- Princess Toadstool

Cake is a form of sweet, baked dessert and a recurring object in the Mario franchise. Even though the appearance varies from game to game, it is often featured with more than one layer and is almost always decorated with cream and strawberries. Cakes are often associated with Princess Peach, as she usually bakes one for Mario upon her rescue. Throughout the Paper Mario series, there are many variations of cakes that can be prepared by the cooks including Chocolate Cake, Couple's Cake, Fruity Cake, Mousse Cake, Nutty Cake, Shroom Cake and Strange Cake.

Super Mario 64 / Super Mario 64 DS
The game Super Mario 64 begins with an invitation letter from Princess Peach to Mario, which implies that she has baked a cake from Mario before she gets kidnapped. After rescuing her, she decides to thank Mario by baking a cake for him. The game's final scene shows a cake with two layers, with the words "Thank you" and statuettes of Mario and Princess Peach.

In Super Mario 64 DS, the game begins with the same letter, but Luigi and Wario follow Mario to the castle. The game is almost the same as Super Mario 64, but additional statuettes will appear on the cake at the end of the game of the characters unlocked.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Bowser Jr. with his Koopalings hides in a cake for Princess Peach's birthday party to kidnap her. Then they use the cake to send her to an airship waiting outside the castle.

Paper Mario
Cakes are made by mixing Cake Mix in Paper Mario. A Cake has to be made for Gourmet Guy in Shy Guy's Toy Box to progress. Cake Mix can be found in the Shy Guys' playground beyond Anti Guy's spot. Cake restores fifteen FP and sells for the most at Star Haven, where they will pay fifteen Coins. Cooking a Cake is highly recommended, as it is a vast improvement over the single FP that the Cake Mix will heal.

If Mario reclaims Tayce T.'s Frying Pan from the Shy Guy who stole it, the cook will prepare him a Cake. After Mario gets this Cake, Tayce T. mentions that she used a Cake to win over her nameless, now late husband, rendering the making of Cakes troublesome for her. Of note is that this back story is extremely similar to the one given for Wonky and his Couple's Cake in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Regardless, she will continue to make him Cakes whenever he brings her more Cake Mix.

The Cake seems to be flavored and garnished with strawberries, despite the Cake Mix likely not having any. It also seems that Tayce T. creates the icing herself.

In Chapter 4, Princess Peach bakes a cake for Gourmet Guy. Twink gets a cookbook from the kitchen bookshelf, suggests the "Special Strawberry Cake", and reads the recipe for Peach. She uses Butter, Cream, Flour, Milk, Salt, Strawberries and Sugar to bake a cake delicious enough for Gourmet Guy to eat. The ingredients need to be combined in the right order and then to be heated in an oven for thirty seconds in order to be able to complete the interlude task. Putting Cleanser as an ingredient will ruin the cake.

Twink's instructions are:
 * Special Strawberry Cake
 * Put Sugar and Eggs in a bowl.
 * Mix and whip the ingredients in the bowl.
 * Put Flour and Butter in the bowl.
 * Bake the batter in the oven for 30 seconds.
 * We're going to decorate it with cream and strawberries.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, a cake was delivered to Mario in the Glitz Pit by a fan of his. If Mario and his partner eat it, it will refill all of the party's stats. Later, another "fan" gives Mario a cake. Mario's partner eats it first this time around, but before they have time to give some to Mario, they start to feel sick and Mario will have to fight the next competitor alone. Before fighting with Rawk Hawk, he reveals that he tricked them into eating the poisoned cake. If Mario decides not to eat the cake, (though Mario's partner will say otherwise), Shellshock will eat it instead, either saying that the cake tasted really good or he got poisoned by it.

Names in other languages
Torta Kuchen