Wedding Cakes

Amy White
3-16-09
The Big Day
It’s your big day and you have been planning since you could remember. On your way to pick up the wedding cake you start to think about why it is so important to have an oversize cake at your wedding. You wonder when it started, and how did it get to become so popular. When you get to the bakery you ask the baker but he doesn’t know, so you ask friends, family and anyone who would listen but no one knows. So you drop it and have a great time, and after the wedding you start to look up information and you find answers to the questions you have.

This paper will cover different aspects of the wedding cake including, the origins, the cultural view, the symbolic meaning it holds, and the wedding cake that we know and love today. Many of the resources that were found agree about the development of the wedding cake and the origins in which it started.

"The wedding cake as we know it today - - with its successively smaller layers, supporting pillars, fancy frosting and festoons - - had its origins some hundred years later to honor Queen Victoria’s daughter" (Publisher Weekly). It is said that she also popularized the white wedding dress and the white cake that weighed 300 lbs (Eden Cakes). But, what was it like before Queen Victoria created this?

Many, many, many year’s earlier guest would bring their own cakes or breads to the wedding because a bride who made their own cake would be bonded for misfortune for the rest of the marriage (Eden Cakes). The earliest known society that did this was during Ancient Greece and the time of the Romans. They would use loaves of wheat bread, and which they broke pieces off over the bride and grooms head to symbolize luck and fertility which then was eaten by the single women to ensure their own betrothals (Cake Channel). This tradition is know now as the bouquet toss where the bride throws her bouquet of flowers behind her and the single women try to catch it.

In the Romans eyes wheat symbolized fertility and a bountiful harvest. Not only were the cakes made of wheat, they would throw grains of wheat at the bride and groom to ensure fertility to the new couple (Eden Cakes). The rice throwing tradition is still popular today at many weddings, however, now there are bubbles that can be blown or streamers that can be popped. This tradition is done after the ceremony has taken place and the couple are walking down the isle and out into the main street.

Leaving the Roman times and going into the Middle Ages some things changed. Rice throwing was still a big part of the wedding, but, instead of bread guest would bring sweet rolls or buns to the wedding. Instead of having the guest shower them with the crumbs they were expected to kiss over the big pile of rolls and buns. If they could do it without knocking the pile down they would be blessed with children. Soon to follow this tradition a French man decided that he was going to cover the cake with sugar, which caught on fast. This event made the first frosted and tiered wedding cake (Eden Cake).

In the 18th century came a new tradition that many couples still do. After the cake is served the couples keep the top tier for the first anniversary or at the baptism of their first child. Which ever one comes first the couple must be careful

During the 19th century butter-cream icing was invented. This was great and it replaced the boiled icing that was used in the past (Time Line). During this time a tradition was created where the bride and groom would cut the cake and feed it to each other. The groom would feed the bride first and visa versa. By feeding each other it symbolized strength in the marriage and a hope for fertility (Cake Channel).

So what about today? Well, back then everyone wanted the same boring old white cake because it symbolized something special in the marriage. Well, this is not no more! Know a bride can pick any shape, color, size, decorations, and she can even get cupcakes (Cake Channel). With this freedom the bride is able to express herself the way that she wants to on her big day.
With out these things happening and occur all around the world were would the wedding cake be today? Well in Japan the thought behind the wedding cake is a little different than anywhere else. During the Medieval times wedding cakes were thought of as inedible and a symbol of children and fertility. The bride would cut the cake using a sword and then leave it alone for the rest of the night. Instead of sharing a piece of cake the bride a groom shares Sake. With this, two "chamber ladies" carry in two separate containers full of Sake. Each container is decorated differently and represents something different. One of the chambers will stand for the women and the other for the man. From the two separate containers the Sake is poured into one class to unify the marriage and to create a bond between the two. Over time the Japanese have caught on to the Western ways of celebrating and they too sprinkled bread crumbs over the couples head, and the bride also puts a piece of the wedding cake in her pocket until the honeymoon is over (Walter, 1982).

There are many traditions and cultural aspects to the wedding cake, and the way that people act. However, the wedding cake has a meaning that seems to steam to every culture. This meaning is fertility and the hope that the couple will be blessed with children. When looking back it is easy to see that the wedding cake has grown from a simple form of wheat bread, to a beautiful tiered, decorated cake. But no matter what the culture is it will always hole a special spot in the wedding.

So when you go out to look for that perfect wedding cake think of the traditions in which the cake holds, the symbols in which it carries, and the way that it has grown into what we have known and loved.

















Work Citied
Walter, Edwards (1982)
Something Borrowed: Wedding Cakes as Symbols in Modern Japan.
American Ethnologist, 9(4); 699-711
Accessed: 3-10-09; www. Jstor.org/stable/644671
Publisher Weekly
Accessed: 3-10-09; http;// search.barnesandnoble.com/Wedding-Cakes-and- Cultural- History/Simon-R-Charsley/ 9780415026482#TABS
Accessed: 3-10-09; www. Edencakes.com/history-of-wedding-cakes/
History of Wedding Cakes
Accessed: 3-10-09;
http://www.cakechannel.com/history-of-wedding-cakes.html
About Cake
Food time line on Webcat.
www.foodtimeline.org