فوق الكيكة في شمعات.

Here فوق means on top of or above. In this context, with a cake and candles, the natural meaning is on top of the cake.

So فوق is a little broader than English on. It often tells you that something is physically higher than something else, and in many everyday contexts that becomes on top of.

Both can work, but they are not exactly the same.

• على الكيكة = on the cake
• فوق الكيكة = above / on top of the cake

In everyday Levantine, فوق is very common when something is sitting on the top surface of something. With candles and a cake, فوق الكيكة sounds very natural.

So this choice helps create the image of candles standing on top of the cake.

Yes, في can mean in, but here it does something different.

In Levantine, في is also commonly used as an existential marker, meaning there is or there are.

So:

• في شمعات = there are candles
• في شمعة = there is a candle

In this sentence, في is not the preposition in. It is the word that tells you something exists.

Because Arabic often does not use a present-tense verb like English is/are in this kind of sentence.

In Levantine, في already gives the idea of there is / there are, so you do not need another verb.

That is why:

• فوق الكيكة في شمعات is a complete natural sentence.

If you wanted past tense, then you would use something like:

• فوق الكيكة كان في شمعات = there were candles on the cake

Because the sentence is talking about:

• the cake = a specific cake already known in the situation
• candles = some candles being introduced as existing there

So:

• الكيكة has الـ because it means the cake
• شمعات has no الـ because it means candles, not the candles

This is very common after existential في: the noun after it is usually indefinite.

Both are possible, but شمعات is very natural in Levantine speech.

The singular is:

• شمعة = candle

A very common colloquial plural is:

• شمعات = candles

You may also hear:

• شموع

But شمعات sounds especially everyday and conversational in Levantine.

Yes, it is normal.

Arabic often allows more flexibility in word order than English. Starting with فوق الكيكة puts the location first, almost like setting the scene:

• On top of the cake, there are candles

That makes the location the first thing you notice.

You could also hear:

• في شمعات فوق الكيكة

That would also be natural, but it shifts the focus a bit more toward the existence of the candles first.

Grammatically, yes, but in natural English that sounds a bit odd for this situation.

The Arabic structure is natural, but the best English wording depends on context. With a cake, English usually prefers:

• There are candles on the cake
• There are candles on top of the cake

So the Arabic wording may look a little different from the most natural English wording.

A common pronunciation would be:

fōʔ il-kēke fī shamʿāt

A few notes:

• فوق often sounds like fōʔ, with a glottal stop at the end
• الكيكة is often pronounced il-kēke
• شمعات is often shamʿāt

The ع in شمعات is the consonant ʿayn, which does not exist in English.

كيكة is a very common colloquial word, especially in spoken Levantine. It is basically a borrowed everyday word for cake.

In more formal Standard Arabic, you might see something like:

• كعكة

But in everyday speech, كيكة is completely normal and very common. That is one clue that this sentence is clearly colloquial Levantine-style Arabic, not formal written Arabic.