The tradition of a wedding cake goes back to Roman times when a cake of a meal was crumbled over the bride's head to provide good luck. The wedding cake symbolizes good fortune and fertility. It also brings good luck to everyone who eats it. The wedding cake should be made with an abundance of good quality ingredients to symbolize a long-lasting, rich, and happy marriage.
The bride cuts the first slice of cake to provide good fortune in the marriage. Nowadays, her groom helps in this task to ensure that he shares good fortune. This also shows they will share all their worldly goods in the future.
There are a number of pleasant traditions surrounding the wedding cake. One is that the bride puts aside a slice of cake to ensure that her husband remains faithful. A tier of the cake can be put aside for later use as a christening cake. This ensures future children. Any unmarried women at the wedding should take a piece of cake home with them and place it under their pillows. This may produce dreams in which they see their future partners.
A gorgeous wedding cake is often the centerpiece of a wedding and it typically sits in a place of honor at the reception. This carefully planned confection is a longstanding tradition dating back to Roman and Medieval times.
Back then, a stack of buns was used instead of a multi-level culinary masterpiece, but the symbolism was generally the same. Over the centuries, there have been many traditions created surrounding the cake, and it still remains an important aspect of any wedding.
It's important to take the time to plan a cake that reflects the couple and keep in mind all the various customs created around wedding cakes.
The History And Meaning Of Wedding Cakes
The first wedding cakes were actually the result of traditions to encourage the bride's fertility. According to Emily Lael Aumiller, the owner of Lael Cakes, "In Roman times, grains of wheat represented fertility and were thrown at the newly married to ensure fruitfulness." Similar traditions involving loaves of grain were used in Ancient Greece to promote prosperity and fertility. As weddings evolved, "the wheat was eventually baked into cakes."
Those Roman and Greek wheat cakes morphed into the more traditional cakes we see today. "Over the years, as a sign of prosperity, families began to stack the cakes," Aumiller says. Of course, some couples forgo the wedding cake, pairing a cutting cake with alternative desserts like "mini caramel apples, chocolate tarts, coconut macarons, and shortbread cookies," to name a few.
However, a wedding cake remains a staple at most modern-day weddings. It's not uncommon for newlyweds to preserve the top tier of their wedding cake for their one-year anniversary. This tradition also goes along with the notion of spreading good luck and prosperity.
Cutting The Cake
Along with the first dance and bouquet toss, this charming tradition is one of those photo opportunities that graces every wedding album. The cake cutting represents the first activity done as a couple, although historically the bride did this act alone to symbolize the loss of her virginity.
Cake cutting became a more complicated process as cakes became multi-tiered and the number of guests reached the hundreds. These days, the bride requires the groom's assistance, and usually, they do not cut the entire cake up, but instead leave that duty to the caterer.
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