Looking at the Wedding Cakes Through Tradition

A wedding is never complete without the traditional wedding cake. The cake, usually a large multi-tiered or layered one decorated heavily with icing is sliced and eaten by the couple first, then served to the guests at the wedding reception. These cakes may be made of chiffon or chocolate - which a lot of people love. But did you know that the serving of the wedding cake never started out this way? The wedding cake has come a long way from its humble and wacky beginnings.

It may be surprising for most people, but originally, wedding cakes weren't baked for eating. They were actually thrown at the bride. This developed out of the many traditions regarding fertility that surrounded a wedding. Wedding cakes didn't really start out as your moist chocolate cake. Wheat was the first cake component, beginning with the Roman Empire. These cakes or loaves weren't eaten, still. They were broken over the bride's head by the groom, still for fertility reasons; and the guests had to eat the crumbs that fell on the floor for good luck. Wedding loaves evolved into sweet buns during the middle Ages. These mini sweet buns were usually brought by the guests as gifts to the bride and groom. At the end of the wedding, these mini sweet buns were all piled up, and the newly wedded couple had to kiss over the pile. The higher the pile was, the more prosperous the couple supposedly became.

Finally, after years of weird traditions somebody decided to change the way wedding cakes were served at weddings. One day, an anonymous French chef during the 16^th century happened to visit England and found the cake wedding cake traditions appalling. The chef baked up something that still looked like the pile of buns (thus, the present wedding cake is still multi - tiered) and decorated it with a lot of icing.

Nowadays, wedding cakes are no longer associated with fertility, but have taken the symbolism of the first sweet meal shared together as man and wife. There are still a lot of traditions that come with the slicing and eating of the cake, although not as appalling as their ancient counterparts. The wedding cake is cut right after dinner or luncheon and is eaten by the couple first. This symbolizes their willingness to share a household together. The slicing of the cake should be done with the groom's right hand over the right hand of the bride. Before the cake is served to the whole reception, the bride slices pieces for her parents, and the groom should do the same for his.

One other wedding tradition is that the top layer of the wedding cake should be fruit cake. This way, the top layer can be saved and eaten by the couple during their first anniversary. It may not taste great a year later, but most couples do that for tradition's sake!

You may want to have your own wedding traditions and may want to decorate your cake according to what you want to have symbolized. You can have fresh flowers or luscious fruits to decorate your cakes. Or you can head back to your family's roots and have a wedding cake that reflects your national wedding tradition. You may opt to follow these wedding cake traditions, or make your own - but most importantly, it's what the symbolism of the cake that's most important.