Traditions of the Wedding Cake

Traditions of the Wedding Cake

The tradition of serving cake at a wedding goes back to Roman times and certainly no wedding today would be complete with a wedding cake.

The Romans started baking savoury cakes, made from wheat and salt, which would be part-eaten by the groom during the ceremony.  The rest of the cake would be broken over his bride’s head to symbolise his dominance in the marriage and also to bring good fortune and long life.

Thankfully, brides today won’t have their expensive hair style ruined by cake crumbs, as the modern tradition is for the happy couple to cut the cake together as a symbol of their new joint life, often they will also feed each other a forkful of cake as a show of commitment to each other. 

In medieval England, cakes were piled on top of one another and the bride and groom would try to kiss each other over the tower without toppling the cakes.  The higher the tower of cakes, the more prosperous the couple would be. This tradition of piling the cakes led to the tiered wedding cakes we know of today.

Modern wedding cakes advanced further when in 1888 sugar paste frosting was invented, the use of pillars to support the different tiers was introduced in 1902.

In the 1950s, wedding cakes in the United States started being decorated with cake toppers. These were usually models of a bride and groom in their formal wedding clothes.  Nowadays, cake toppers can be formal or fun, and often depict a shared hobby or pastime of the couple.

Wedding cakes are traditional made with a rich fruitcake, often topped with marzipan and then iced.  Fashions change and chocolate, vanilla sponge and even carrot or cheese cake are used instead of fruitcake, depending on the couple’s preference.

Wedding cakes can be square, round or even heart shaped.

White icing was originally used on wedding cakes to symbolise the purity of the virgin bride.  Today’s wedding cakes usually incorporate the colours of the bride’s flowers, bridesmaid’s gowns or other wedding accessories.

Most wedding cakes tend to be between three to five tiers high, depending on the number of guests they have to serve.  The wedding cake was sliced and given to guest to take away with them, or sent to people who couldn’t attend the wedding.  Bridesmaids were supposed to put their slice of wedding cake under their pillow in the hope that they would soon meet their groom-to-be.  The modern wedding cake is often served as a dessert at the night-time reception. 

Tradition had the top tier saved and stored away until the christening of the couple’s first born child, as many couples had children quite soon after marriage. A lot of couples now use the top tier to celebrate their first wedding anniversary instead, preferring to have a new cake for the Christening.

Many couples are now completely shunning the traditional wedding cake and opting for cupcakes instead. These are usually served on large tiered cake stands and use the colours of the wedding party for decoration and icing.