A Wedding Cake

Last year today, my grandparents celebrated their 50th anniversary. As the story goes, my grandfather could only take one day away from the army base, so the wedding was simple and modest--they didn't invite friends or relatives and they didn't have a cake. That's why, 50 years later, we asked our grandparents to go through the motions again (at least with the cake, pictured below). Today, instead of finding a recipe to prepare, I am going to dive into the history of the wedding cake, in honor of my grandparents 51st wedding anniversary!

The tradition associated with wedding cakes has always interested me. It is said that a wedding cake represents luck and fertility--some say the more tiers on the cake, the more luck and fertility in a marriage. But in the past and in other cultures, a tiered wedding cake was not always standard. For example, during the Roman era, loaves of bread were broken over the couples' heads to bring luck to the marriage. In the middle ages, biscuits were brought to the wedding by guests, instead of the symbolic loaf of bread. And in 17th century France, wheat rolls were iced with sugar and stacked upon each other, which was the beginning of what we know as the traditional wedding cake.

I assume that each family has their own traditions associated with weddings and wedding cakes. Some believe that each guest at the wedding must eat the cake, lest they bring bad luck to the new couple and themselves. Furthermore, a single woman may benefit from keeping a bit of the cake under her pillow at night--the superstition states that you will dream of your husband-to-be if you do so. Sound crazy? How about the superstition that the bride should keep some of her wedding cake frozen to ensure that her husband is faithful? Sometimes, whole tiers of the cake were saved in the freezer until the baptism of the first child, when it was consumed in celebration.

Interested in learning more about food superstitions like those about the wedding cake? Check out a book like A Dictionary of Superstitions (Oxford Reference) or  the Encyclopedia of Superstitions by Richard Webster. 

Happy adventuring, and happy anniversary to my grandparents!