Wedding Cake Traditions Explained

When you attend a wedding, perhaps the most gorgeous sight to behold after the bride and groom is their wedding cake. As it sits in the place of honour as the centrepiece for the reception area, you’re forced to think how and why such majestic culinary masterpieces came to take their modern form.

Legend has it that back in medieval times; buns were used instead of cakes during the cutting ceremony. But the underlying meaning behind the tradition remained the same. There are plenty of such old school wedding cake traditions that we practice more or less the same way. Care to find out? Read on below!

Closing the ceremony

Wedding cakes weren’t always meant to mark the close of a traditional wedding. According to ancient Roman tradition, a single-tiered wheat or barley cake would be broken over the bride’s head and she would eat the crumbs afterwards with the groom for good luck.

Later, sometime in the 17^th century, bride pies were introduced. These soon turned into bridal cakes, which were shared with close friends and family for prosperity and happiness. Today, high-end luxury wedding cakes have become a critical part of the closing ceremony.

White Cake

Historically, white icing was added to the cake for aesthetic purposes only. The icing was considered posh in the Victorian era because it was expensive and only the wealthy could afford it. Today, white-coloured cakes continue to mimic the symbolism for belonging to the finer factions of society but they also help draw attention to the bride’s dress.

Groom’s Cake

Back in the day, the bride and groom would cut their wedding cake for a second time so they can feed each other the slices. The romantic gesture soon evolved into the bride and groom having separate cakes to facilitate the ceremony. Contemporary groom’s cakes often use creative decoration pieces to highlight the groom’s interests and hobbies. 

Figurines

Cake toppers such as flowers have been part of wedding cakes for a long time. But around the 1950s, figurines became popular alternatives. The couple’s statuette symbolizes harmony, love, and togetherness. A modern version of this 1950’s tradition is to have the figurines made in sugar paste.

Cake Cutting

Cake cutting in the past was associated with the bride losing her virginity; hence she performed the task alone. Today, the cutting ceremony is more symbolic of the first task a couple accomplishes post-marriage. However, nowadays, couples rarely cut the entire cake and its tiers but leave the job to the catering service.

Preserving the Top Tier

Up until the last century, couples would traditionally conceive a child within the first year of their marriage so the top tier was saved until the child’s christening ceremony.

Today, many couples don’t have children for years and so the top tier of the cake is deep-frozen and consumed over the couple’s first wedding anniversary!

If you want to recreate a wedding tradition of your own, get in touch with The Quintessential Cake and have the best custom cakes western suburbs Chicago.

Pastry chef, Victoria provides the suburbs of Chicago with premium-quality designer cakes.