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Albon, D. (2015) ‘Nutritionally “empty” but full of meanings: the socio-cultural significance of birthday cakes in four early childhood settings’, Journal of Early Childhood Research, 32(1): 49–60. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1476718X14538599 (first online in 2014).

In this paper, Deborah Albon examines the significance of birthday cakes for practitioners and young children in four early childhood settings in England. She employs an ethnographic approach to the research, involving extensive observation over time as well as interviewing. She observed events when children were really eating such as mealtimes or birthday celebrations etc., as well as children’s play around food events.