History of Wedding Cakes
The origin of the wedding cake can be traced back to ancient Rome (9th century BC - 5th century AD) where marital practices dictated that the cake must be smashed ceremonially over the bride's head. Fortunately, the kind of confection they were dumping was nothing like the wedding cake we know in today's day and age. The cake was actually a loaf of bread comprised mostly of barley, flour and salt. This act was not to knock the bride out, but rather to symbolize the breaking of the bride's virginal state, and to inspire fertility. This practice later extended to Northern Scotland, where an entire basket of oatcakes would be broken over the poor bride's crown.
The wedding cake customs next formulated in medieval Europe (5th century AD - 15th century AD) making it customary for each guest to bring small flour-based sweet foods as a wedding gift. Each cake was then stacked on top of one another over which the bride and groom would attempt to kiss. If they could accomplish this successfully, their marriage would be blessed with good fortune. This lovable practice is definitely a huge step up from the barbaric smashing of the cake.
In the early 16th century Henry VII came into power following the reign of King Edward. Realizing that the prior king had drained the royal treasury, Henry VII decided to restore funds through merciless taxations on the people. In order to execute this new plan, he decreed a law which limited the amount of sugar common folk were allowed to utilize in their wedding cakes.
A dish known as the bride's pie became increasingly popular between the 17th and 19th century. Contrary to the simple bread concoction, the bride's pie was filled with sweet breads, bacon, chestnuts, nutmeg, butter, oysters, and sliced dates. The name of the celebrated pies indicated the shift of the wedding focus to be more on the blushing bride and less on the domineering husband. The bride's pie was later replaced by the more satiable and sweet single-tiered plum cake.
The first multi-tiered wedding cake appeared in noble English weddings. The extravagant delicacies were reserved primarily for royalty in the beginning of the 19th century, based in large part on the fact that the cost of having one entailed fees that exceeded the common people's menial budget.
Around the mid 19th century, couples began preserving the top tier of their wedding cake for their first baby's christening. It was fairly common for couples to conceive their first child during the “honeymoon stage,” and thus, the saving of the top tier became a widely practiced ritual. Nowadays, the practice of this ritual has become nearly impossible as many married couples now wait years to start having a family. Instead, a slice is comonly saved for the couple's one year anniversary.
During Queen Victoria's reign, brides desired a white wedding cake based on two different rationale. One reason was that white denoted purity and innocence; the other being that the materials required to make a wedding cake were somewhat pricey, and thus, the whiter the cake the more profitable the family. Later on, ingredient regulations were appointed by imperial powers in order to monopolize the fancier confections for the royal families.
In the early 20th century, Great Britain was forced to enact another law restricting sugar use due to the economic losses incurred by WWII. This decrease in sugar provisions reduced the grandiose sizes of wedding cakes for a couple decades. Several years after this troubled period, more and more couples attained the ability of making use of the multi-layered wedding cakes, carrying the tradition all the way to present day America.
As you plan your wedding, it's a good idea to know the history of all of the wedding traditions that you're maintaining in your wedding. It's silly to go through the motions without really knowing the “why” behind it all. Having a better sense of the initial intention behind many of the wedding customs willonly make your wedding that much more significant and meaningful.
Wedding cakes have evolved drastically since their initial conception. Who knew that a simple loaf of barley bread would later become such an aesthetic delicacy? The transformation of the wedding cake didn't just happen overnight; it involved centuries of modifications and revisions carried out by various cultures in several countries. These changes, however, were for the best! Check out the wedding cake timeline and see the effort that went into streamlining one of the most important features of the nuptials.
