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History of the role of the traditional Wedding Cake

Over the centuries many traditions have been associated with the wedding cake, which have their origins in different parts of the world. Some of these traditions have passed the test of time, and are still in practice, and others are not practiced anymore. The significance of some of these are explained here.

Wedding cake in chocolate ...Since early Roman times, the cake has been a special part of the wedding celebration. At the end of the wedding ceremony the Romans would break a thin wafer of ground wheat bound with grape must over the bride's head to help ensure many sons and daughters to be born into the marriage. The wheat from which the wafer or loaf was made, symbolized fertility and the guests eagerly picked up the crumbs as good luck charms. Brahmins had a similar tradition and their wafer was made out of ground lentils, in England from shortbread or thin currant biscuits.

The British have long laid claim to having been the place where the wedding cake tradition started. In medieval England, guests would bring small, home-baked cakes to the ceremony and present them as a gift to the bridal couple. It was traditional to pile the cakes in as high a stack as possible, making it a difficult challenge for the newlyweds to kiss one another over the top of the cake. If the couple managed the kiss, it was considered an auspicious symbol of prosperity. It is from this "over-the-top" kiss that little bride and groom cake toppers evolved. In the reign of King Charles II, a clever baker decided to amass all these small cakes together, covering them with frosting, and this was the precursor to the modern wedding cake.

The cutting of the wedding cake is not done just to signify the end of the wedding formalities. At one time, the wedding cake was cut only by the bride, and was symbolic of her upcoming loss of virginity. Today by tradition both bride and groom cut the cake and share the first bite with each other, symbolizing that the wedded couple promise to share a whole new life together.

According to another wedding cake tradition, if an unmarried person sleeps with a piece of a wedding cake under their pillow, they will dream of their future spouse that night. The top tier of the wedding cake was traditionally kept and used at the christening of the couple's first child. But today, this tradition has been modified slightly, and the top tier is saved to be used at the couple's first anniversary.

The bride who kept a piece of her wedding cake during her marriage, would ensure that she would retain a loving and faithful husband. Another tradition was to place charms in the wedding cake, which were attached to ribbons. A bridesmaid would pull at a ribbon, and depending on the charm that she uncovered, her fortune would be indicated. The charms that were traditionally used, and their respective meanings are:

The ring for marriage within a year;
The penny for wealth, my dear;
The thimble for an old maid or bachelor born;
The button for sweethearts all forlorn.

The French assert that the wedding cake tradition began in their country. Wedding cakes in France and Belgium tend to follow one of two styles. The more traditional style is the croquembouche, a cone made of round cream-filled choux buna which are dipped in a hot caramel sauce. When the caramel cools, it hardens to form a solid structure upon which decorations are placed. The manner in which this cake is served is interesting and unusual, for each guest is served several choux buns which are actually broken out from the main structure of the cake. The second style is baked as multiple round sponge cakes of graduated diameters. The cake is stacked with the largest on the bottom, tapering up to the smallest on the top. There can be as many as ten layers. With a cake this large, a center support through the middle of the cake is necessary to keep it upright. Presentation of the cake is reserved for the late hours of the reception, as a glorious ending to the meal.

Wedding cakeBritish influence is clearly felt in India, particularly in southern India among the Christian population. Their wedding cakes are the fruit based cakes and multi tiered. However, the expense of creating a large wedding cake is avoided by using a tall "dummy cake", cover it in sugar icing and inserting a slice of real cake for the cake cutting ceremony. The guest do not actually get a slice of cake to eat, but a piece of the icing.

In Japan, traditional wedding cakes are quite different from these. Cake was extremely expensive to make so they often used artificial cakes where the icing was made of hard wax. They still wanted the cake cutting ceremony so they made a slot in the wax where the bride and groom could insert the knife. Sometimes cakes were also made with a lever which, when depressed, emitted a burst of steam for even more effect!

Here in the US our tradition of the wedding cake has its roots in European history. We have, however, taken these traditions further and also added our own, and the American wedding cake of the 21st century is a symbol expressing the personalities and own goals for their future of the bride and groom. The American wedding cake is everthing from the very traditional British fruit cake to a free form expression of love between the couple, visually appealing and stunning in its creativity, also tasting delicious, while being one of the most remembered and treasured memories of the wedding itself.