The History of Wedding Cake
Inspirationz | Magnolia Bake & Cake
Weddings are just crammed with tradition, regardless of your culture or religion. The wedding cake is just one of the elements of this special day that bears its own historical and cultural references, and has stood the test of time.
Lena Cruz | Aphrodite Cakes & Confections
Some wedding traditions associated with the wedding cake have, fortunately, been done away with over the years. One example of these is the breaking of the entire wedding cake over the head of the bride, symbolising the husband’s new dominance over his wife and the imminent loss of her pure state (in a sexual sense). However, what has remained of this tradition (which began some 2 000 years ago) is that the guests would dive for the crumbs and chunks of the cake that landed on the floor. Thus began the tradition of sharing the cake with each of the wedding guests.
Another historical tradition was to pile cakes or breads on top of one another and get the couple to kiss over the pile, without knocking it over. This is likely the origin of the pyramid shape and tiered structure of the traditional wedding cake.
Before the Victorian era, refined sugar was very hard to come by. But, white icing could only be made from the whitest (i.e. refined) sugar. Therefore, a white cake was actually more of a statement regarding the affluence of the family than the purity of the bride. In many other cultures, though, white does represent purity or celebration.
For more history of the wedding cake, read our Cut the Cake article. All the gorgeous wedding cakes in this post were done by our service partners.
The Secret Ingredient | Cakes by Henno
