Wedding cake with pillar supports, 2009. A wedding cake is the cake for men cake served at wedding receptions following dinner. Wedding cakes come in a variety of sizes, depending on the number of guests the cake will serve.
Modern pastry chefs and cake designers use various ingredients and tools to create a cake that usually reflects the personalities of the couple. The first wedding cakes were probably made in ancient Greece. The contemporary wedding cake has grown out of several different ethnic traditions. One of the first traditions began in Ancient Rome, where a cake of wheat or barley was broken over the bride’s head to bring good fortune to the couple. During the 16th century to the 17th century, the “bride’s pie” was served at most weddings. Different from the modern sweet wedding cake, bride pie is savoury.
Bride pie is a pie with pastry crust and filled an assortment of oysters, lamb testicles, pine kernels, cocks’ combs from Robert May’s 1685 recipe. In the 17th century, two cakes were made, one for the bride and one for the groom. The groom’s cake would die out and the bride’s cake became the main cake for the event. When the two cakes were served together, the groom’s cake was typically the darker colored, rich fruit cake and generally much smaller than the bride’s cake. Wedding cake was originally a luxury item, and a sign of celebration and social status. The bigger the cake, the higher the social standing. Wedding cakes in England and early America were traditionally fruit cakes, often topped with marzipan and icing with tiers.