Cakes can be categorized as sweet baked dessert or patisserie. Modern cakes are what we normally have today. The combination for cakes are basically flour, eggs, sugar, butter or oil, water or milk, nuts, purees, dried or fruits (flavouring) and yeast or baking powder (leaving agent).
Compared to the olden cakes, the shape was similar with a bread-like. People used to see cakes as a fried breads or cheesecakes with a shape of a disk-like.
Back in historical time, unlike the cakes that we eat today, it was very different. The Egyptians were the first culture who has demonstrated advanced of baking skills according to the food historians. In a country like Britain, the purpose of baking cakes was to serve the rich people who host a banquet. These cakes were meant to be decorated with nice and colourful design.
Around mid 17th century, Europe was the first to bake modern cakes (round with icing) by the ancestors. With all the advanced in technology, especially machinery, most cakes were able to bake by using oven. The Medieval Europe bakers used to bake things like gingerbread and fruitcakes which can be kept for more than several months. During that time, bakers often used cake pans or flat baking trays to place their cake onto it and send into the oven.
In the middle of 19th century, cakes have been improvised into what we have nowadays. Butter-cream frostings became the substitution for traditional boiled icings for the first few decades.
References:
Stradley, L.
(2004). Cakes - History of Cakes. Retrieved from Whats cooking America:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CakeHistory.html
Olver, L. (2000). About Cake. Retrieved from Food
Timeline: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html
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Probably can develop more from here, like cakes in different regions, for different races etc.
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