Wikipedia
CakePHP is an open-source web framework. It follows the model–view–controller (MVC) approach and is written in PHP, modeled after the concepts of Ruby on Rails, and distributed under the MIT License.
CakePHP uses well-known software engineering concepts and software design patterns, such as convention over configuration, model–view–controller, active record, association data mapping, and front controller.
CakePHP started in April 2005, when a Polish programmer Michal Tatarynowicz wrote a minimal version of a rapid application development in PHP, dubbing it Cake. He published the framework under the MIT license, and opened it up to the online community of developers. In December 2005, L. Masters and G. J. Woodworth founded the Cake Software Foundation to promote development related to CakePHP. Version 1.0 was released on May 2006.
One of the project's inspirations was Ruby on Rails, using many of its concepts. The community has since grown and spawned several sub-projects.
In October 2009, project manager Woodworth and developer N. Abele resigned from the project to focus on their own projects, including the Lithium web framework (previously part of the CakePHP project). The remaining development team continued to focus on the original roadmap that was previously defined.