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.

Choosing the Perfect Birthday Cake

Choosing the Perfect Birthday Cake

The birthday cake is, quite rightly, the star of any birthday celebration meal and nowadays we look to really capture the personality of the person celebrating the birthday in cake form.  The nature of the cake is usually kept as a surprise for the recipient and great thought has been put into its design.

To ensure that you get the perfect birthday cake the first question you need to ask is how many people the birthday cake needs to feed?  This of course depends on whether you are throwing a huge party for a 21^st birthday or are just having a quiet family celebration for a handful of people.

Secondly, the flavour of the cake needs to be addressed.  Whilst chocolate tends to be the favourite for most people, birthday cakes can also be made as vanilla sponge or fruit cakes and there is also the choice of fillings and different toppings and icings to consider. 

Last, but by no means least, the birthday cake should reflect the person receiving it.  Whether it be a simple design, iced in their favourite colours, having a birthday cake with their name and age on it, to having a novelty birthday cake that is as individual as the person themselves.

Very often for toddlers and small children the birthday cake will resemble a character from a favourite TV program or film, such as the ever-popular Peppa Pig or Buzz Lightyear, or perhaps a number cake depicting their new age. 

For older children, tweens and teens, popular birthday cakes include electronic devices such as iPods and games consoles as well as music influenced cakes like guitars, stereos and even drum kits.

Adult birthday cakes could show the persons favourite alcoholic tipple, football club badge, handbag or favourite vintage car.

For the single man-about-town a more tongue-in-cheek, adult themed cake would be guaranteed to make them smile and create a talking point at the party.

For special birthdays such as 18^th, 21^st, 30^th, 40^th etc. the numbered birthday cakes remain ever popular, although many people are now choosing square or round birthday cakes with pictures that show the birthday girl or boys favourite pastimes.  Sporting cakes, such as football shirts or rugby balls featuring the age are also popular.

The birthday cakes tend to get a little bit more traditional as a person gets older, with many choosing square or round birthday cakes with decorative icing however, hobby cakes showing a wide range of interests from Scrabble to fishing are becoming more and more popular.

Whatever you decide you can be sure that we at Leigh Cakes can design and create a perfect birthday cake for you.

History of the Birthday Cake

History of the Birthday Cake

Always the highlight of any birthday party, the origins of the birthday cake date back to Ancient Roman times where flat rounds made with flour, nuts, yeast and sweetened honey were served up at special birthday celebrations.  

The ritual spread throughout Europe and in the 15^th Century bakeries in Germany began making one-layer cakes for birthdays and weddings.  Moving into the 17^th Century and the birthday cake began to look much as it does today with multiple layers, filling, icing  and decorations, although they were generally only eaten by the wealthy.  18^th Century America added the tradition of birthday candles on top of the cake to symbolise the person’s age and by the 19^th Century the birthday cake was integral part of a birthday celebration for most Western cultures along with the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’.

The adding of candles to the birthday cake originated in Ancient Greece, where the candles were thought to represent the glow of the moon, the Greeks used to take cakes with candles to the temple of the Goddess of the Moon, Artemis.  It was thought at the time that the smoke from the candles carried their wishes and prayers to the Gods.

Nowadays, the custom is to make a wish before blowing out the candles on the cake, with the wish coming true if all the candles are blown out all at once.

Birthday cake is served up whilst singing “Happy Birthday to You” in most English speaking countries, and indeed most other countries have their own version of this song.  Once the singing has finished the person celebrating their birthday will blow out the candles and then serve up the cake to everyone.

Today’s birthday cakes have moved on again, with fancy designs, colours and even individual cupcakes being the trend.  The highlight of many children’s birthday parties is the revealing of the cake, which is often a themed cake based upon their favourite TV or film character or a hobby they have.  Older children may prefer cakes with a sporting or fashion theme.  Advancements in cake design mean that any design is possible and cakes are getting more and more elaborate. The flavours have tended to stay the same however, as chocolate or vanilla sponge tend to be the most popular types of birthday cake with ganache, buttercream, fondant icing or glacé icing on top, depending on how the cake has been decorated. 

Leigh Cake Price Comparison

It is always a good idea to shop around to compare prices and quality, as the prices vary wildly from shop to shop for what appears to be the same cake.

Searching around takes time, effort and in the end costs you money, most cake shops and bakers work to a 10”+8”+6” formula with a 3” depth, make sure you find out what is included in the price.

1. Does it include delivery?
2. Does it include the stand and knife?
3. Does it include hand made flowers?
4. Does it include the topper?

All of these could be extras and easily add another £150 to the cost of the cake, for example the same cake at

1. Leigh Cakes £175.00 
2. Waitrose £199
3. Sophisti Cakes £225.00
4. Fancy Nancy £350.00 & upwards!

So how do you choose the right cake at the right price from the right supplier?

1. Recommendation
2. Service
3. Location
4. Price
5. Quality

At Leigh Cakes all our 3 tier, wedding cakes are the same price, you can choose a package to suit your budget, and our service is the best with only the finest ingredients used.

Leigh Cakes is conveniently located just off progress road SS9 5LQ, Essex UK, with ample parking (no need to watch out for those parking wardens) or spend time looking for a space.

To buy or make your Christmas Cake

It comes round every year Christmas and you are faced with that dilemma, buy or make your own Christmas cake, it would be much more satisfying to bake you own and decorate at, but busy mums sometimes just don’t have the time.

Buying pre-made Christmas cakes

Buying a Christmas cake already made from your local supermarket is probably the easiest and quickest option. Although the choice is limited and the cakes small where more time is spent on the packaging rather than the cake, and it is always worth checking the ingredients list for E numbers and shelf live preserving additions as they are not usually made fresh.

Buying from a baker or specialist cake shop such as Leigh Cakes gives you more control over design and ingredients and are made fresh on the premises not in some where house somewhere up the M1

Pros and cons

1. Saves you time
2. Cheap
3. Hidden ingredients
4. Lack of choice

Baking your own Christmas Cake

Baking and decorating your own Christmas cake is not difficult when following cook book recipes or old family ones, and you can tailor your Christmas cake to fit your dietary needs, and although baking and decorating your own cake takes more time it does give you satisfaction and if your children help you will have a cake to remember.

Pros and cons

1. Takes time
2. Makes a mess
3. Not cheap
4. Can control the ingredients
5. Satisfaction

Whilst local shops will have most ingredients to bake your Christmas cake, specialist cake shops such as Leigh Cakes will carry marzipan's, icing ribbons and Christmas decorations for you to make that perfect cake

HAPPY BAKING!

Thinking of buying your Wedding Cake from a supermarket?

So you are thinking of purchasing your cake from a supermarket? Most supermarkets do wedding cakes, but there range is limited to a basic range with very little colour options, and are sold to you by staff who do not make cakes and have no experience of cake making and what actually goes into making a cake.

The customers are presented in a very nice glossy leaflet or book though, which the big supermarket chain has spend thousands producing, but do you really get the personal touch also do not forget with the right marketing strategy and…..money thrown into producing a booklet I am sure that you can make any cake look good on paper! But will it really look as nice in practice?

Generally the cakes they produce are a lot thinner than cakes made in a bakery or the cakes we make (Wedding Cakes) also the pillars they supply are often not the right ones which involve cutting to size, and they are defiantly no cheaper that a local cake specialist like us Leigh Cakes where the choice is endless with all the colours imaginable and made to your exact specifications, a choice of fillings and delivered to your venue!

Thinking of buying your Wedding Cake from a bakers?

Buying direct from your local baker is a good option but again choice and availability may be an issue, not many bakers employ full time decorators, and bakers often make cakes at the end of there shift or they may only have one part time cake decorator, who may take two weeks holiday, be sick or is unable to work during school holidays due commitments at home.

Buying from your Local Cake Specialist

Local cake specialists shops such as ourselves (Leigh Cakes) are normally family run and offer that personal service and are the best choice to go for your cakes as they specialise in that area only, you want to make sure your wedding cake is in good hands don’t you?

The largest wedding cake supplier in the Essex, UK

Having been making cakes for the wholesale sector for the past 15 years and not getting the credit that we deserve for all of those thousands of cakes that we’ve made, thought it about time we did some advertising to the retail market, so the Wedding Guide was duly summoned (a must have booklet for all brides).

Did you know that last year 6400 brides registered in Essex to get married and Leigh Cakes produced 1200 Wedding Cakes within Essex with 800 to the wholesale market, i.e. bakers and caterers and around 400 through showroom in Eastwood, which totals around 18.75% of the market we also produced some 16,000 birthday cakes and celebration cakes making us the largest cake bakers in Essex.

We are sure you or a member of your family could well have had one of our cakes without knowing it, our team of experts can recreate any cake at a fraction of the cost.

We produce high quantities of cakes which we guarantee are to a very high standard. The quantity does not affect the quality.