The Tradition of The Wedding Cake: From Confetti to Confectionery

Did you know…

In 1st Century B.C. Rome, the wedding cake was not eaten by the bride. It was thrown at her! Wheat, which was known as a fertility and prosperity symbol, was one of the earliest grains to ceremoniously shower new brides and unmarried young women would scramble for it  to ensure their own betrothals.

Early bakers began baking wedding wheat into small sweet cakes to be eaten, not thrown. The cakes were crumbled over the brides head (a custom known as confarreatio, or eating together) and the couple were required to eat a portion of the crumbs. In England the crumbs were washed down with a special ale called bryd ealu or “brides ale” which evolved into the word bridal. Wedding guests who loathed to abandon the fun of pelting the bride with wheat confetti often tossed the cakes.

As time went on throughout the British Isles, the custom became piling cakes and breads into an enormous heap. In the 1660’s during the reign of King Charles II, a French chef appalled with the haphazard manner in which the British stacked baked goods conceived the idea of transforming the pile of haphazard baked goods into an iced multitiered cake sensation. Hence the modern wedding cake!