When it comes to wedding cakes, like everything else, they have evolved.
Initially two types of cake were introduced into the modern wedding. One,
considered the groom’s cake, was a rich fruit cake; the other, a light cake
mixture heavily decorated with icing and sugar ornaments, belonged to the
bride.
While normally either one or the other is used, in some countries both
make their appearance at the same reception. The bride’s cake, which is
unlikely to keep well, is eaten at the reception, while the groom’s cake is
kept for the first wedding anniversary. In Australia, as in England, the
wedding cake is a combination of both. From the groom’s cake comes the rich,
fruit mixture, from the bride’s the decoration and ornamentation.
Wedding cakes are shaped into squares, circles, hearts, wedding bells or
horseshoes. For a large gathering a number of tiers are used each supported on
decorative plastic or ceramic holders shaped as pillars, doves or bells. Even
wine glasses, tipped up-side down, are used as supports for the various tiers.
The tiers are placed on top of each other in decreasing sizes. Some
couples prefer to place each cake directly on top of the other, each layer
supported by its own hidden platform. Those who like to get away from the
pyramid shape have three individual cake stands of varying heights for each
cake. Another arrangement is to have two cakes placed side by side on one
level, with the third on top of them both. Others still arrange their cakes as
stepping stones leading to an interesting top piece.
While Elvis Presley, for example, had a six-tier wedding cake, for most people a three-tiered cake has become a standard. The first,
and largest tier is cut up and distributed at the wedding reception, the second
layer is used by the bride’s mother to send to absent guests, while the third
is stored by the bride and groom for their first anniversary. Alternatively, a
couple may decide to store the largest layer and use only a small portion of it
for each of their subsequent anniversaries. For storage purposes the cake is
either placed in the freezer or wrapped up loosely and placed in an air-tight
container.
A slice of the Queen
and Prince
Philip's wedding cake was sold at auction, 68 years after the couple got
married. The fruit cake is wrapped in its original baking parchment and is
still edible thanks to its high alcohol content.
A theme wedding is likely to influence the decoration, and even the
shape of a cake. As well as, or instead of such decorations as hearts, flowers,
cupids, horseshoes and love knots, the cake will be decorated with symbols of
couple’s hobbies, sport or profession. The Wedding Cake with which the current Queen Elizabeth celebrated her wedding was not
only 2.74 m tall, but was decorated with plaques modelled in sugar depicting
various castles in which the queen resides, as well as figures illustrating the
sporting activities of both the bride and groom.
The four-tier cake was made with dried fruit from
Australia and preserved with rum and brandy from South Africa.
Imitation cricket bat and ball enhanced the cake of a famous English
cricketer while a patriotic Irish couple decorated theirs with harps and
shamrocks. Even policemen show sentiment on their wedding day by covering their
cake with coloured sugar police badges.
Some wedding cakes are not only decorated in a non-traditional manner,
but are conceived in a wholly unique way. An unusual wedding venue resulted in a wedding cake being baked in the
shape of the building where the wedding took place; while an American
politician had his wedding-cake made as a life-sized portrait of himself. The
cost of the cake can go from one extreme to the other, one couple enhancing
theirs with 14 carat gold decoration, the other creating a simple pyramid by
stacking couple of dozen doughnuts one on top of another.
Currently revived is the old tradition of dropping a number of
lucky-charms into the cake mixture. Going as far back as the wedding of QueenVictoria, into whose cake seven lucky charms were baked, charms come in the shape
of hearts, coins, thimbles, rings, buttons and even wish bones.
Check out the different ways you can Celebrate your Wedding and how to begin planning your Wedding Day.
Check out the different ways you can Celebrate your Wedding and how to begin planning your Wedding Day.
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