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THE WEDDING CAKE as we know it goes back to the Roman Empire where cakes were actually barley bread. The groom would partially eat the loaf and then break the rest over the bride’s head. This symbolized his dominion over her, and the crumbs that fell to the floor symbolized good luck and fertility. It was good luck as well for the guests to eat the crumbs, and single women went after crumbs to ensure their own future marriages. The breaking of the bread over the bride’s head was phased out over time, though there were still reports into the 19th century that oatcakes were broken over bride’s heads in Scotland. In Northern Scotland, bridesmaids put a napkin over the bride’s head and poured a basket of bread over her to symbolize fertility and good fortune.

During the middle ages, cakes were simply flour-based breads or biscuits. It was the guests’ duty to each bring a small cake to the ceremony. The cakes were piled up on top of each other between the bride and groom. Should the bride and groom succeed in kissing over the pile, they would have good luck in their marriage. The small, bland cakes evolved into dense fruitcakes baked well in advance of the wedding and soaked in spirits for preservation.

Flowing out of this tradition came the bride’s pie, making its appearance in the 17th century. The pie was made of anything from mince meat to mutton to sweetbreads. For poorer families, this pie made up a centerpiece of the wedding meal. A main ingredient of any pie was a glass ring. The woman who found the ring would be the next to be married - a tradition replaced by the throwing of the bouquet today.

By the late 19th century, sugar was more widely available and the wedding cakes familiar to us began to take shape. The first known wedding confection cake appeared in 1859 and commemorated the marriage of one of Queen Victoria’s daughters. However, even with this cake, only the bottom layer was actual cake. The top tiered layers, which are reportedly inspired by the spire of the St Mary-le-Bow church in London or simply a throwback to the stacked cakes of yore, were made of spun sugar. Despite the fake upper layers, the Victorian era gave rise to the elaborately decorated cakes that we know today, with the flourishes of color, sugar and figures we’re used to seeing. It is even said that Queen Victoria herself had a cake weighing over 300 pounds!

Queen Victoria is also credited with popularizing white in a wedding to symbolize purity. White icing on wedding cakes became traditional during this time. Even before this specific symbolism, cakes were white simply because ingredients for the cakes were hard to come by, especially the sugar used in the icing. The whiter the sugar, the more refined, and therefore the more affluent the family appeared. So, the white wedding cake was originally a symbol of affluence rather than purity.

As the architecture of the cake evolved, the columns that traditionally decorated a royal cake became support columns for the upper tiers which could then be made of actual cake. Thus was born the tiered wedding cake. Often the columns were disguised broom handles serving as the true support for the weighty confections. The frosting of a cake has several possible origins. One possibility is that in the seventeenth century, a French pastry chef frosted the cake tower with sugar to ensure the buns kept their form. Another possibility is that because a lack of refrigeration would spoil the cake, a dense layer of sugar and fat would help preserve it as well as feed all the people attending the wedding.

As the tiered cake evolved, so did the symbolism behind it. Starting in the 17th century, it was thought that sleeping with a piece of cake under one’s pillow would help them dream of their future spouses. This idea led to the tradition of brides passing crumbs of their cake through their rings and distributing them to guests who could place the crumb under their pillow. This tradition tapered off after the superstition of never removing one’s wedding ring after the ceremony appeared.

At this time, the three tiered cake became traditional. The first layer is for the reception, the second layer for distributing to guests, and the third is saved for the anniversary, leading us to another popular tradition: freezing the top tier of the cake and sharing it on the couple’s first wedding anniversary. Another take on this tradition is that the tier is unfrozen and eaten at the christening of the first child. It was assumed that this event would happen soon after the wedding, so the event would share the cake from the wedding. However, as couples waited longer after marriage to have children, the notion of saving the top tier for the christening tapered off.

The wedding cake has a rich herstory, but luckily in this day and age, you can have whatever size, style and flavor of cake your wedded heart desires.

About The Author

Jaymi Heimbuch is the founder and editor of http://Girlistic.com and Girlistic Magazine, a free online quarterly feminist magazine and resource website.

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