Nice but naughty? Cakes are high in calories

Aqueduct County Primary in Telford, Shropshire, has also asked parents not to let their children take sweets in to celebrate.

Head teacher Beryl Mound said the school was hoping to achieve a Gold Award for its health curriculum.

But parents have complained about the ruling, with one describing it as "petty" and "a great shame".

'Gateau-ver it'

Ms Mound said: "We are continually working with national campaigns to encourage children to take the healthier option and, in line with latest government thinking on obesity, we are also working with parents to advise them on healthy options for their children.

"To support us in this we have requested parents to refrain from sending their children to school with sweets and cakes on celebratory occasions and we know many parents are supportive of this."

But parent Kevin Davies told the Daily Mail that birthday cakes at the school had been "a lovely tradition which encouraged sharing and giving".

For a seemingly innocuous mixture of eggs, sugar and flour, cake has a long history of being politically divisive.

At the height of the French Revolution, the queen, Marie Antoinette, reportedly said disdainfully of the crowds demanding bread: "Let them eat cake."

However, historians have discredited the tale as apocryphal.

'Killer cream cakes'

They also note that, even had she made such a point, the literal English translation would be nearer the rather less inflammatory: "Let them eat a type of egg-based bread or brioche."

More recently, Crudwell Church of England School in Wiltshire banned home-made cakes from its summer fete for fear of causing an outbreak of food poisoning.