Wedding Cake History
In many cultures, the centerpiece of the wedding feast or breakfast is the cake. Such cakes date back to Roman times when the couple would eat a cake made of flour, water and salt to ensure that they should never suffer poverty.
Gradually the cakes became richer, although it was not until the seventeenth century that ornamentation was added. The rich contents indicate the good things of life. The bride cuts the cake to insure fertility. Everyone must eat a piece to strengthen the fertility magic and pieces are sent to absent friends. An unmarried girl would pass a crumb of her piece of the cake through a wedding ring three times before putting it under her pillow. She would then dream of her own husband. A bride would keep a piece to ensure her husband remained faithful and a tier is often kept for the christening of her first child.
In earlier times, the cake plate was broken over the bride's head at the wedding as a symbol of her husband's authority and the numner of large fragments were said to indicate the number of children she would bear. - I don't think that that would go over today.
Gradually the cakes became richer, although it was not until the seventeenth century that ornamentation was added. The rich contents indicate the good things of life. The bride cuts the cake to insure fertility. Everyone must eat a piece to strengthen the fertility magic and pieces are sent to absent friends. An unmarried girl would pass a crumb of her piece of the cake through a wedding ring three times before putting it under her pillow. She would then dream of her own husband. A bride would keep a piece to ensure her husband remained faithful and a tier is often kept for the christening of her first child.
In earlier times, the cake plate was broken over the bride's head at the wedding as a symbol of her husband's authority and the numner of large fragments were said to indicate the number of children she would bear. - I don't think that that would go over today.
