One of the most common
answers that bridal gown consultants get when they ask “What would you like to
look like on your wedding day?” is “A princess.” Most brides want to feel like
royalty on the day they say “I do” to their future husband; they want their guests
and attendees to think their wedding was the best they’ve seen. But it’s not
just the bride that has to be regal, it’s the entire ceremony and reception.
And while the bride may be the symbol of magnificence during the ceremony, the
reception is ruled by the wedding cake. Indeed, the wedding cake has become the
most important detail of a wedding besides the bride and groom. The cake sets
the tone for the wedding, whether it be grand and opulent, simple and sweet, or
fun and full of personality. In order to retain the elegance of a decadent
affair fitting a princess, the bride should look through the history of royal
weddings and draw inspiration from those styles into her own vision. From the
first wedding cakes dating back to the 16th century to the most
modern cakes of today, the bride could easily take note of the traditions and
trends of these desserts and incorporate elements into her own wedding cake for
a regal touch.
Even before the wedding cake came into existence, sugar “subtleties,”
or sugar sculptures, were popular during the reign of Henry VIII. The bakers constructed
these desserts from ground down Persian sugar and reformed the powder into
grandiose sculptures, such as animals, castles, boats, etc.; these sculptures
were then painted using vegetable colors and covered in edible 24 karat gold (Royal Wedding Cakes). They were truly edible
art. The sugar subtleties were seen as a sign of wealth and grandeur. They
would be served at feasts, special occasions, and royal gatherings to really
show off the magnificence of the empire. However, it wasn’t until 50 years
after the Tudors, during the reign of the Stuarts, that the wedding cake as we
know it came into being, and this is because of the invention of the cake tin (Royal Wedding Cakes). But these cakes
were rather thick and heavy compared to what we now enjoy. They were filled
with exotic fruits and nuts all the way from the Mediterranean in order to wow
the court (Royal Wedding Cakes) (fig.
1). These sweet additions were meant to symbolize fertility and prosperity. This
trend was taken from the Middle Ages, where wedding guests would eat and toss
cake at the bride for good luck. In place of modern rice that we throw today,
during the Middle Ages, it was tradition for pieces of cake, were broken of the
bride’s head and tossed at the happy couple for hopes of a child and a happy marriage
– the first example of confetti. It is said that at one of Lucrezia Borgia’s
weddings, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, “[…] over two hundred and sixty
pounds of ‘confetti’ were consumed at the banquet […]” (Wilson 69). Also,
instead of catching the bouquet, guests would take home a slice of cake, place
it under their pillow, and supposedly dream of their future husband/wife. A
bride today looking for brilliant centerpieces or cake toppers might be
influenced by the extravagant sugar sculptures from the Tudor era; or for a
simpler, rustic wedding, she might be influenced by the sweet fruit-and-nut-filled
cakes from the Stuart era. The bride could also save parts of her cake as
confetti to be thrown instead of rice; or give out slices of cake in boxes to
be taken home by her guests in place of wedding favors.
Fig. 1. 17th
Century Wedding Cake. Wedding Sevens.
Still,
if either of these trends don’t strike her fancy, she might choose the Georgian
age. It is in this reign that wedding cakes stayed pretty much the same, if not
a little lighter, however they did set a very popular trend still used today –
tiers. In this time, wedding cakes began to get a little more ornate, but most
of all they became vertical. There is a story about a French chef who came over
to England in the 18th century and designed the first tiered wedding
cake from admiring the steeple of St. Bride’s Church on Fleet Street in London
(fig. 2). This steeple has a look of stacked
layers of white stone, each layer decreasing in width as the tiers get higher. This
type of cake would today be most akin to Jaqueline Onassis and John F.
Kennedy’s wedding cake - a very simple, understated white 5 tiered wedding cake,
standing around 2 feet. A bride looking for a very clean look to her wedding
should take note of the Georgian cakes, as they are refined and uncluttered.
And as far as extravagance begining to take hold in history,
the most popular wedding cake trend we find today comes from the Victorian era,
with the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert. This was the first globaly
publicized wedding where pictures of the Queen’s cake was viewed worldwide; it
is noted that, “This media frenzy set the standard for all subsequent royal
weddings during the Victorian period—and there were quite a number, as all of
Victoria and Albert’s nine children married” (Allen 464). In fact, “[…] her
chef was the first to put a model of a happy couple on top of the cake, in the
way that we see today” (Royal Wedding
Cakes) (fig. 3); and it is also for the first time that we see white icing
on a wedding cake to symbolize purity and to show that the best British sugar
had been used. It should also be said that it is because of Queen Victoria that
we get the tradition of the white wedding dress. Before her wedding day to
Prince Albert, monarchs were normally dressed in gold, silver, red, or another
bold color. It is also in the Victorian era where wedding cakes took on a much
lighter quality with hardened sugar icing to support tiers. The cakes are shown
to be much more ornate and graceful, with more sugar flowers and elegant piping.
For the bride going for a more classic but romantic feel, she can do no wrong
with the Victorian style cakes. These wedding cake styles really envoke a
sweetness and innocence into the wedding reception, rather than something
overly-gaudy and ostentatious that might suggest otherwise.
Fig.
2. St. Bride’s Church Steeple. Hidden
London. 
Fig. 3. Queen
Victoria’s Cake. Victoriana Magazine
However, it isn’t until the royal weddings of the 20th century that wedding cakes take on different forms. It is in this era where we find many smaller cakes, even though there’s always one which is the centerpiece. These wedding cakes are the most decadent, and the higher, the better. The current Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth II, had a wedding cake that was nine feet tall and weighed five hundred pounds. Along with the smaller sister cakes, pieces were sent as wedding favors to guests (in the grand tradition of the Middle Ages) and to bakers in Australia that sent some of the ingredients (Wilson 72). This paramount cake is perhaps the best example of a royal wedding cake; it was tall, covered in delicate sugar lace volumetric embellishments, and displayed the royal crest of the United Kingdom (fig. 4). This prime example of a royal wedding cake would be the perfect inspiration for the glamorous bride. Or, take Grace Kelly’s cake when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco; her cake was just as white and tall, but with miniature sugar cupids and castles encircling and holding up the layers, and, of course, a crown on top. These cakes were really meant to show off the magnificence of the monarch’s wedding, and any bride hoping to feel like a princess needs only to see these lavish cakes to draw inspiration for her own.
Fig.
4. Queen Elizabeth II’s Wedding Cake. People
Magazine.Today, modern brides are sticking to similar wedding cake trends and adding their own twists. Most commonly seen in 2014 have been the colorful cake, the naked cake, the vintage cake, and the statement cake (Solaru). The colorful cake is a bold cake that strays from the normal white Victorian icing; these cakes are most like the Tudor sugar subtleties that were very colorful and often decorated with gold adornments. Modern brides are using this color trend and adding geometric patterns as well, like stacked chevrons. The naked cake is made up of tiered loaves of cake with a sweetened icing separating the layers but none on the outside; these cakes are most like the Stuart cakes where a sugar icing was used only on the top of the cake, with the cake showing through. This trend has been very popular this year for the natural, whimsical wedding. The vintage cake is a classic white or pale color cake most of the time with edible lace, simple piping or ribbons surrounding the tiers, and sugar flowers; these cakes are most like the Victorian cakes where white icing was key and romance was the main theme. Vintage cakes are classically decorative, charming, and enchanting. Finally, the statement cake is a statuesque cake that is garnished with fine details, but most importantly – tall; these cakes are most like the 20th century royal brides, such as H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II or Grace Kelly. The glamorous bride of this year have really gone for mimicking this style because it is the most grand and spectacular.
It
is with these fine examples of other royal weddings that the bride of today can
find the prefect wedding cake for her desired princess feel. The princess bride
of today may be inspired by the extravagant sugar sculptures from the Tudor era,
the exotic cake confetti from the Stuart era, the simply classic tiers from the
Georgian era, the ornate white icing from the Victorian era, or the grandiose
ornamentation of the 20th century. In order to have the perfect
wedding, the couple needs the perfect wedding cake. For a royal wedding feel to
be achieved, the wedding cake must have a certain magnificence and “by looking
to the past it can therefore be used as a pointer […]” (Charsley 233). A
princess bride should look to past monarchs for inspiration when planning her
own wedding. For the bride to feel like a princess on her wedding day, she must
become a princess, and that includes having a royal wedding cake.
Works
Cited
17th Century Wedding
Cake. Digital image. Wedding Sevens. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Allen, Emily.
"Culinary Exhibition: Victorian Wedding Cakes and Royal Spectacle." Victorian
Studies 45.3 (2003): 457-84. EBSCO.
Indiana University Press. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Charsley, Simon.
"The Wedding Cake: History and Meanings." Folklore 99.2
(1988): 232-41.
JSTOR.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Queen Elizabeth II's
Wedding Cake. Digital image. People. Time, Inc., 23 Apr. 2011. Web. 22 Oct.
2014.
Queen Victoria's Wedding
Cake. Digital image. Queen Victoria. Victoriana Magazine,
n.d.
Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Royal Wedding Cakes: A
History. Perf. Marc Meltonville. YouTube. YouTube,
27 Apr. 2011.
Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Solaru, Elizabeth.
"Top Wedding Cake Trends for 2014." Elizabeth's Cake Emporium.
N.p., 20
Jan.
2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
St. Bride's Church
Steeple. Digital image. Hidden London. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Wilson, Carol.
"Wedding Cake: A Slice of History." Gastronomica: The Journal of
Critical
Food Studies
5.2 (2005): 69-72. JSTOR. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
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