The History of the not so humble Wedding Cakes.
by Essex Wedding Cakes.

The wedding cake has been very much part of the marriage ceremony ever since the medieval times. Originally the cakes were made of wheat which was treated as a symbol of fertility and prosperity. As a relic of once performed fertility rites, this ‘wedding cake’ would have been thrown at the bride – imagine doing that in present days !

Around 1900 years ago the Romans began baking wheat and salt into a small cake for eating. During the ceremony the bridegroom would eat part of a loaf of this barley bread and then would break the rest over his bride’s head (nice touch). This was read as a sign of good fortune and a blessing for a long life and children. The guests would attempt to obtain a crumb for themselves as they also believed they would then share in the good fortune and future prosperity of the couple (these days you may get a slice to take home).
It was only when the children born to the couple whose marriage had been celebrated this way, that they could qualify for high office in the Roman culture. Not only did the wedding cake give good fortune to the couple, it also insured a bright future for their unborn children. History also tells us that breaking the bread symbolized the breaking of the bride’s virginal state (!) and the dominance of the groom over her (nice wedding guests the Romans).
As the wedding cake evolved and transformed into the larger, more modern version, it became impractical to break the cake over the bride’s head without ruining her day.
The tradition disappeared fairly quickly thankfully, although there were still reports up in Scotland, as late as the 19th century, of breaking an oatcake over the bride’s head. It was also reported that in Northern Scotland, so called “friends” of the bride would put a napkin over her head and then proceed to tip a basket of bread over her! (why? who knows.)

In Medieval England, the wedding cakes were described as a bread being a flour-based food without sweetening. This bread was included in many celebratory feasts, not just at weddings.
No accounts describe a special type of wedding cake appearing at wedding ceremonies. There were stories of a old custom involving stacking small buns in a pile in front of the newlywed couple. Stacked as high as possible, the idea being to make it as difficult for the newlyweds to kiss one another over the top. If the bride and bridegroom were able to kiss over the stack of buns, it was thought to symbolize a lifetime of prosperity. Eventually, the idea of stacking the buns neatly and frosting them together was adopted as an easier option.
History states that later in the 1660’s during the reign of King Charles II, a chef from France visited London and was disgusted by the cake-piling ritual. The chef, who was passing through England, noticed the inconvenience of piling smaller cakes into a pile and came up with the idea of constructing them into a solid stacking system. This earliest tiered wedding cake used short-cut sticks to separate it’s layers.
Such an elaborate style wedding cake needed to be prepared days in advance, and because of the lack of modern refrigeration or plastic wrapping, the wedding cake was frosted in lard (sounds nice) to keep it from drying out. The lard was then scraped off just before serving (thankfully).
In later years, sugar was added to improve the taste of the lard and it allowed the lard to be left on the wedding cake as a kind of decorative icing (sugar and lard = yummy ancient wedding cake).

In the 17th Century a popular dish for weddings became the Bride’s Pie, this meant the wedding cake took yet another course correction.
The bride’s pie was filled with sweet breads, a mince pie, or may have been merely a mutton pie.
A main ‘ingredient’ was a glass ring (flavorsome!). An old adage claimed that the lady who found the ring would be the next to be married (assuming she didn’t choke to death on it first).
These pies being made into the main centerpiece at less affluent ceremonies.
The name “Bride cakes” emphasized that the bride was the focal point of the wedding (as opposed to what, we’re not sure?). Many other wedding terms also were given the prefix of “bride”, such as the bride bed, bridegroom and bridesmaid. The wedding cake became really popular around the late 19th century, and the eating of the bride pie (or “death by glass ring” as we call it) disappeared.

Early wedding cakes were simple single-tiered plum cakes, with a few variations. There was also a great tradition around the 17th century of sleeping with a piece of wedding cake beneath your pillow which quite probably forms the basis for the tradition of giving cake as a gift.
Legend has it that sleepers will dream of their future spouses if a piece of wedding cake is under their pillow (either that or wake up with it in your hair and all over your bed).
In the late 18th century this notion led to the interesting tradition in which brides would pass tiny crumbs of their wedding cake through their wedding ring and then distribute them to wedding guests who could, in turn, place them under the their pillows (to be lost forever no doubt).
The custom was halted when brides began to get superstitious about removing their rings after the wedding ceremony.

How about the white wedding cake…?

I guess most people think the wedding cake should be white.
White has always denoted purity, and it relates to the white wedding cake icing that first appeared way back in Victorian times. Another way in which the white wedding cake relates to the symbol of purity, has its basis in the fact it was originally referred to as the bride’s cake. This not only highlighted the bride as the focal figure of the wedding, but it also created a visual link between the bride and the cake. These days, that link is further strengthened by more brides having a contemporary wedding cake coordinated with their wedding dress colour, even if it’s not white. Prior to Victorian times, the wedding cake was also white, but not because of the symbolism. The ingredients were difficult to source, especially those required for icing. White icing required only the finest refined sugar, so the whiter the cake was, the more affluent the families appeared. A white wedding cake became an big symbol of affluence.

Cutting of the wedding cake…

The wedding cake takes center stage in the traditional cutting of the cake ceremony, symbolically the first task that bride and bridegroom perform jointly as the new husband and wife.
The first piece of wedding cake is cut by the bride with the “help” of the groom, usually with his hand over hers. This task originally was exclusively the bride’s. It was the bride who cut the wedding cake for sharing out with her guests.
Distributing pieces of wedding cake to your wedding guests is a part of that tradition from the Romans when guests clamored for the crumbs. As numbers of wedding party guests grew, as did the size of the wedding cake, making the sharing out process impossible for the bride to do on her own.
Because the icing had to be hard enough to support the wedding cake’s own weight, wedding cake cutting became much more difficult with the early multi-tiered cakes. This made cutting the wedding cake a new joint project for husband and wife. After the cake cutting ceremony, the couple then proceed to feed one other from first slice. This provides yet another piece of symbolism, the mutual commitment of bride and bridegroom to provide for one another (ah!).

The big multi tiered wedding cake…

The once simple wedding cake has truly evolved into today’s multi-tiered extravaganza. The multi-tiered wedding cake was once reserved for English royalty. Even for the nobility, the first multi-tiered wedding cake was actually real in appearance only. Their upper layers were “fakes” made of spun sugar.
Once the issue of stopping the upper layers from collapsing into the lower layers was solved, a real multi-tiered wedding cake could be made. Pillars used as decoration existed long before the multi-tiered wedding cake appeared, therfore it was a natural progression for cake bakers to start using the pillars as a way to support the upper tiers.
To prevent the pillars from sinking into the bottom tier of the cake, icing was hardened to provide the needed support. There are some brides today who save the top layer of their multi-tiered cake. Couples may freeze their wedding cake with the intention of sharing it on their first wedding anniversary. This tradition stems from the late 19th century when a grand cake was baked for christenings.
It was assumed that a christening would happen shortly after the wedding ceremony, so the two ceremonies were often linked, as were the cakes. With the modern wedding cake becoming more fancy and elaborate, the christening cake soon took a back seat to the wedding cake.
When three-tiered cakes became very popular, the top tier was often left over. A subsequent christening became the perfect opportunity to finish the wedding cake.
Wedding couples could then logically rationalize the need for all three tiers – the bottom tier was used for the reception, the middle tier used for distributing amongst friends and the top tier remained for the christening.
As the length of time between the weddings and the christenings widened, the two events became disassociated, and the reason for saving the top tier of the wedding cake changed.
Regardless of the reason, when the bride and groom finally gets around to eating the top tier, it serves as a lovely reminder of their very special day.

For more wedding articles visit Essex Wedding Cakes.