Wedding Cake
A wedding cake is the traditional cake served to the guests at a wedding reception (in England, at a wedding breakfast) after a wedding. It is usually a large cake, multi-layered or tiered, and heavily decorated with icing, occasionally over a layer of marzipan or fondant, topped with a small statue representing the couple. There are many different designs, types, colours and shapes of wedding cakes to choose from. Wedding cakes are elaborate constructions, each standing for a particular marriage and each used in the wedding that establishes it. The link between cake and wedding, the distinctiveness of its form, its derived uses, and the meanings attached to it have all been most complexly and influentially developed in the English-speaking world. Other common motifs include doves, gold rings and horseshoes, the latter symbolising good luck. Achieving a dense, strong cake that can support the decorations while remaining edible can be considered the epitome of the baker's art and skill.
The traditional fruit cake is still the most popular, though you are not limited to this. Other options available consist of chocolate, white or orange mud cake or sponge cake. If you wish to keep the top layer of the cake it must be fruit cake. You can still have other cake types for the lower layers.
Tradition generally requires that the first cut of the cake be performed by bride and groom together, often with a ceremonial knife or even a sword. An older, archaic tradition had the bride serve all portions to the groom's family as a symbolic transfer of her household labor from her family to the groom's family.
Most wedding cakes are decorated with flowers made of icing or silk. Your cake maker will provide both of these. Another option is fresh flowers. These will need to be ordered from your cake decorator.
Tradition may also dictate that the bride and groom feed the first bites of this cake to each other. Again, this may symbolize the new family unit formed and the replacement of the old parent-child union. For some, it is also fairly popular for the bride and groom to shove the cake in each other's faces rather than eating it.
Other guests may then partake of the cake, portions may be taken home or shipped to people who missed the festivities. (An old tradition held that if a bridesmaid slept with a piece of wedding cake beneath her pillow she might dream of her future husband.)
A portion may be stored, and eaten by the couple at their first wedding anniversary, or at the christening of their first child. The cake may be frozen for this purpose; the top tier of the cake might consist of fruitcake, which could be stored for a great length of time.
Wedding Cake Toppers
Wedding cake toppers are small models that sit on top of the cake, normally a representation of a bride groom in formal wedding attire. This custom was dominant in US wedding in the 1950s where it represented togetherness.
This symbol is still used though there is more variety in design and significance. Wedding toppers today are often figures that indicate shared hobbies or other passions.
Personalised wedding figures can be created from edible sugar paste or from coloured clay, and can be customized to look very similar to the wedding couple or even the whole Wedding Party.
The Wedding Cake Traditions
It may come as a surprise to most brides that, originally, the wedding cake was not eaten by but thrown at the bride! It developed as one of the many fertility traditions surrounding a wedding. Luckily this custom evolved into actually eating the cake.
It may come as a surprise to most brides that, originally, the wedding cake was not eaten by but thrown at the bride! It developed as one of the many fertility traditions surrounding a wedding. Luckily this custom evolved into actually eating the cake.
There are some wedding traditions, honestly, that do make you wonder about the sanity of the people who started them. Maybe we're just sticks in the mud when it comes to fun and frivolity, but olde tyme wedding cake traditions are kind of wacky. We don't recommend that you try any of these at your wedding, unless you want to watch your mom go into cardiac arrest.
Throwing Wheat
Before rice was the big have-lots-of-babies food (yep, that's why you throw a ton of it when the wedding's over), wheat was the fertility food of choice. Wheat used to be showered at the happy couple, and single men and women (so we're told) then scrambled for a grain or two to ensure their own betrothals. And we think throwing the bridal bouquet is demeaning?
Breaking Bread On The Bride's Head
Wheat was the first wedding cake component, and the Roman Empire was responsible, we are told, for beginning the wedding cake tradition. But for eating? No. Loaves of wheat bread were broken over the bride's head, usually by the groom, and guests were encouraged to eat the crumbs that fell for good luck. Again with the guests digging crumbs of lucky cake off the floor. Wedding guests today are treated much better, we think, and at least get a first shot at the wedding cake without having to scrape for crumbs.
