The Wedding Cake: A Wedding Element Rife with Traditions
In the midst of all the preparations for a wedding, it is rare that the bride doesn't include plans for a beautiful wedding cake. The wedding cake is surrounded by traditions from many countries. It can even be the main focus of the reception after the wedding.
The idea of serving cake at a wedding dates back as far as the Roman Empire. In those days, however, the cake was usually an unsweetened wheat loaf; and instead of the bride offering slices of cake to her guests, the cake was broken over the bride's head by the groom! Perhaps this symbolized the dominance of the husband over the wife -- a concept that wouldn't be so popular today.
Cutting the wedding cake also has its traditions. One of the best-known is the cutting and eating of the first slice by the bridal couple. Cutting the cake together symbolizes the working partnership into which the two are entering; and feeding each other bites of cake symbolizes the support that each promises to provide for the other, for the rest of their lives.
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Although it used to be the custom for the bride actually to serve pieces of cake to the guests, as weddings became larger and cakes became bigger, it was impractical to continue doing this. A long-standing tradition has been that if a bridesmaid or other single young woman takes a piece of wedding cake home and sleeps with it under her pillow, she will dream of the man she will someday marry.
Even the time to cut the wedding cake is governed by traditions: if the wedding reception includes a luncheon or a dinner, the wedding cake should be cut just before the serving of dessert. However, if the wedding reception involves a tea or a cocktail party, the proper time to cut the cake is right after all the guests have arrived.
What kind of cake is traditional for a wedding? There are as many answers to that question as there are flavors of cake! White-frosted white cake has always been popular for wedding cake. Nowadays, though, brides are feeling less constrained to follow the rules, and many choose their favorite flavor and color instead.
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Sometimes the wedding cake will be colored to harmonize with or reflect the colors in the dresses of the attendants. Other times, the happy couple may choose to serve carrot cake, fruitcake, pound cake, spice cake, lemon cake, or even chocolate cake. Cake decorators and bakeries have had to learn to offer this wider selection of wedding cakes to meet the demands of modern brides.
At some weddings, the wedding cake is found to have a different flavor in each layer. Any color and flavor of icing you wish may be used. The decoration of a wedding cake is also a personal choice. The usual bridal couple atop the final tier of the cake now shares star billing with pairs of doves, wedding bells, or exquisitely-detailed flower sprays, all made from marzipan, fondant, or other sugarcraft.
