The wedding cake has always been important for the celebration of marriage. In Roman antiquity, bread was broken over the bride’s head, signifying good luck for the couple. As time passed, different foods replaced the bread and were stacked up, the happy couple waiting to lean over and kiss before dismantling and serving. The contents became scones and small cakes or pastries, sometimes even meat pies that were eaten as part of the meal. But the symbolism has remained much the same, that of fertility and good fortune, as the newlyweds ceremoniously cut the cake and share it before their guests.
Contemporary cakes are often not even edible, but simply disguised as cardboard or Styrofoam, elaborately decorated, and then carried into the kitchen where a simple cake is cut and served to unsuspecting guests. Traditionally, the top layer, often called the groom’s cake, is saved and eaten at a later date, or may be separated entirely. At some weddings, the cake consists of tiered cupcakes for easy serving, or is displayed on an elaborate dessert “sweet table” where guests can serve themselves.
During the Victorian era in Britain (1800s), royalty and the elite took wedding cake to a new level (literally) with sweet cake and white icing as a status symbol for the bride and groom, exemplified by the lavish display that it was served at the 1871 wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise, which took three months to complete. One has to wonder how well it kept for literally all that time and if it was still edible. Apparently yes, since years later pieces of the original were auctioned. One shopper described the texture as “firm,” no doubt an understatement. Although most royals favor a lavish yet somewhat traditional cake, elaborate reproductions of palaces and historic landmarks have been featured prominently at some elite children’s weddings.
No longer the traditional white cake or fruitcake (favored by the British), contemporary cakes have become artistic spectacles, with unique themes, sculptures, photographs and even replicas of the bride and groom themselves. They can be carrot cake, chocolate cake, or cheesecake, with colorful frosting and decorations of any flavor, and are often priced well above the price of the wedding dress. Specially trained pastry chefs compete on the Food Network and have their own businesses that create exclusively wedding cakes.
Possibly the most famous wedding cake in history belongs to the character Miss Havisham from the mythical novel by Charles Dickens High expectations. The abandoned spinster, left at the altar, spends the rest of her life in her bedroom in her wedding dress, the rotten wedding cake on display, covered in cobwebs. Although not as dramatic, here are some famous modern cakes that deserve a mention:
Actress Grace Kelly’s celebrated marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco featured a six-tiered wedding cake at their reception in 1956, and represented a three-dimensional replica of the Pink Palace of Monaco, their future new home.
When a radiant Elizabeth Taylor cut a five-tier white cake at her lavish first wedding to hotel heir Nicky Hilton in 1950, it was covered in traditional wedding bells, created by the pastry chef at the chichi Bel-Air Country Club in California. Just imagine the lucky bakers who were commissioned by Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Although the cakes got smaller and smaller with each subsequent marriage, they still had excellent repeat business from each of the two actresses.
At the 1947 royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth, soon to become Queen of England, the 500-pound fruitcake (a traditional British favorite) was 9 feet tall. It required 660 eggs, 300 pounds of nuts and dried fruit, and three and a half gallons of Navy rum. (And some of us complain when we get a measly two-pound fruitcake at Christmas.)
Prince Charles and Diana’s five-foot-tall cake was adorned with marzipan Windsor coats of arms and was so important to the royal celebration that a duplicate copy was made, in case of accident. (Something like “an heir and a spare”).
When Kennedy’s daughter, Eunice, married Sargent Shriver, she had to stand on a step ladder to cut the cake—she was very tall (which gives new meaning to the phrase “defend a wedding”).
Elvis Presley married Priscilla in 1967, where the wedding featured a large yellow cake, which was priced at $22,000, a staggering amount in 1967. Created by the pastry chef at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, it proudly proclaimed the layers of its masterpiece was filled with apricot jam and liqueur-flavored Bavarian cream, then glazed with fondant icing and topped with marzipan roses. Fit for a king.
Donald Trump and Melania’s cake cost $50,000 and could not be served to guests due to the amount of wiring used to keep it intact. The cake was reportedly an impressive seven-tiered work of art, weighing in at over 200 pounds and consisting of a yellow sponge cake flavored with orange zest, soaked in Grand Marnier, filled with buttercream and garnished with 2000 individually constructed sugar spun flowers. . (Author’s note: I don’t know anyone else, but it sounds so delicious I would have gladly picked up the wires and gobbled it up.)
Without a doubt, the simple wedding cake has become an art form, where creativity and ingenuity know no limits. If you can dream it up and absorb the cost, you’ll find a willing and talented baker to create it. In the words of a famous French royal: “Let them eat cake.” Indeed.