Cake Tradition's

Cakes play an important role in the reception at the wedding. They are a matter of personal taste, tradition and status all rolled, or should I say baked all in one. I believe you should consider a lot of different aspects when you choose the wedding cake. To me though I think wedding cake traditions can also add depth and personalization to parts of your ceremony.

The different traditions behind cakes, covers just as many countries and superstitions as there are cake styles. We all come from areas of different tradition. For example, I am British. It is all about fruitcake, heavy royal icing, marzipan and dragees. We do not have to sleep with cake under our pillows any more to wish us luck and prosperity in finding mates. We also do not have to worry about breaking cake over beautifully coifed bridal hair.

Here are a couple of traditions and ideas that I love. The Groom's cake, started as a fruitcake, which was a small square or rectangle cake. This was decorated in marzipan and placed beside the wedding cake. The cake was later cut and packaged for the guests to take home. If the single women slept with the small piece of cake under their pillows they would apparently dream of their future husbands. Today's groom cakes can be any shape, size or style of cake. This tradition is celebrated largely in the Southern part of the US, but is slowly being discovered everywhere else.

The cutter cake; has essentially the same meaning as the groom's cake. The difference is instead of being cut at the wedding, it is cut and wrapped previously. The cake is cut in small rectangle pieces and wrapped, usually in light foil. Then a small paper lace doily is wrapped around that. Then the small package is tied with a colored ribbon. The bride and groom fill the cake pieces into a basket and walk throughout the whole wedding party, giving blessings and handing out the small morsels of cake. This is a great tradition. It allows everyone at the wedding party to have a level of contact with the bride and groom.

One of my favorite romantic traditions; is not one that you share with the wedding reception guests, but yourselves. Save the smaller top layer of your cake, carefully protected in the freezer, and eat it on your first wedding anniversary. I love this tradition; it is the ultimate in romance. As well as one I personally took part in, and advice my brides to do as well.

This is just a small sampling of the many traditions out there, involving cakes and weddings. Maybe you can create some of your own and share them with all of us in the forum, or at least come on over and say hi. This is Sandra Sable signing off for now, until next time. Lets talk weddings.