Wedding Cakes - What do you want to say?

Wedding Cakes are sensational, memorable and meaningful.  Steeped in traditions millennia old, each bride has the choice of following one of the many traditions and rituals of brides before or setting out on a bold new path to create her own statement and showcase a personality that speaks out for something bold.

In Roman times, the bride would take a loaf of bread and break it over the brides head (in pieces, not like a baseball bat!), with each crumb signifying the blessings of fertility, wealth, health and happiness.  With the change of baking capabilities and the arrival of sweeteners and sugar during the Renaissance, the form of the modern cake took shape, though it took Queen Victoria to bring about the revolution in wedding cakes that we still follow today.  What was that?  Queen Victoria popularized the All White Wedding with the white tiered wedding cake we know today.

Photo of the wedding cake of Queen Elizabeth II

What we would not recognize in America, however, is that most British wedding cakes are fruit cakes!  Remember the tradition of saving the top layer?  That is also British.   The top, smallest layer was originally saved because it would be eaten at the christening of the child from this union, which would usually be within the first year!  And a fruit cake is perfect to keep – and actually improve – with time.  Do you think that tradition has gone away?  No, because at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, will have two cakes – one to be at the choosing of the bride and groom, and the second – a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake decorated with cream and white icing - that will be created by designer Fiona Cairns, a cake-maker to the stars (http://www.fionacairns.com). 

Modern Wedding Cake

So, at your wedding, what statement will you make?  What does your cake say about the Bride and Groom at the beginning of their lives together?