Many of your wedding reception traditions have a history behind it! The tradition of the wedding cake dates back to the Roman Empire. The custom was for the groom to break the cake over the bride’s head to symbolize the end of the bride’s virginity, guarantee fertility, and the beginning of her husband’s power over her. This was usually done with a loaf of bread as cakes weren’t created them. The guests would take part by taking a piece of the broken wedding cake in hopes they would also get good luck and fortune.
Wedding cakes started out white because brides in the early days, symbolized innocence, purity and virginity. During the Victorian days the bakers were faced with a challenge to make the icing white and that required fine sugar which very few people had the proper equipment to make that happen. It was known, the whiter the icing on the cake was the wealthier the family was.
Stacking the cake from large to small represented fertility. Couples would stack as many layers as they could to symbolize the number of children that they would have.
Today, we gather around the cake table to watch the couple make the first slice together, with their hands on top of each other. The bride and groom share a piece of cake before distributing it to their guests to symbolize their union and their promise to forever provide for each other.
To view more cake knife and server sets please visit promiseswest.com.
Diane
