This paper traces the history of wedding cakes from their origins in ancient Roman tradition through medieval England and into the twentieth century, examining how the form and symbolism of the wedding cake evolved over centuries. It surveys cultural customs in Scotland and America, profiles notable cake designers including Duff Goldman and Colette Peters, and discusses the development of key decorating techniques such as royal icing and floral ornamentation. Drawing primarily on the work of Patricia Caplan and Simon Charlsey, the paper shows how the wedding cake became both a practical ritual object and a product of centuries of creative and commercial innovation.
Wedding cakes have evolved considerably over time, shaped by cultural traditions, celebrated cake designers, and innovations in decorating technique.
The origination of the wedding cake is generally accepted to lie in the Roman tradition. Each guest at the wedding brought a small cake, and the cakes were then stacked on the table "in levels and layers" (Caplan, 1997). If the bride and groom could manage to kiss over the top of the stacked cakes, it was said to bring good luck.
Although the wedding cake is generally agreed to have originated in ancient Rome, Mrs. Elizabeth Raffald — the housekeeper in an aristocratic household in Cheshire in 1763 — is credited with having published the first wedding cake recipe. According to Patricia Caplan's Food, Health and Identity (1997), Raffald married the head gardener, moved to Manchester, and set up a confectioner's shop in Market Place.
In 1769, Raffald published The Experienced English Housekeeper, which contained instructions on "How to Make a Bride Cake" (Caplan, 1997). This was described as "an explicit exercise in product differentiation: a rich fruit cake, original in including a large quantity of candied citrus fruits arranged in layers" (Caplan, 1997). The cake's icing was further distinguished as Raffald instructed the reader "to put on a layer of almond icing and then to cover this with a layer of ordinary white icing" (Caplan, 1997).
Caplan (1997) regards this as the nearest "the wedding cake came to being an invention rather than a gradual construction," and notes that Mrs. Raffald "provides a pragmatic starting point for a process which really did not have one." Caplan elaborates that Raffald's contribution "represents a moment only in the building together of a series of elements which were themselves products of experimentation over a period of centuries. The oldest was some kind of bread, or cake appearing in marriage festivities; then it was the use of a rich, spiced, dried-fruit mixture; then that it should be iced, eventually using Elizabeth Raffald's double-icing; then that cakes of declining size should be piled up and combined into a single cake; then that its decoration should be icing piped in a characteristic style… finally that the tiers should be separated by pillars and should match" (Caplan, 1997).
It was late in the nineteenth century that "the shape of royal cakes began to be taken up for the commercial product by piling cakes of declining size one on another" (Caplan, 1997). The standard form of decoration at this time was "piped white 'royal' icing" (Caplan, 1997). Learn more about the history of wedding cakes on Wikipedia.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the commercial cake "achieved a distinctly architectural appearance by raising the tiers on pillars. Looked at retrospectively, it can be seen that each new successful development was locked into place by subsequent developments. Once pillars separated the tiers, the style of decoration treating each tier as a miniature of the one below it helped fix the separation of tiers" (Caplan, 1997). This was what Caplan (1997) called "the Edwardian form, the classic British wedding cake which was to last through most of the rest of the century." This cake form was copied throughout the world, as was the white wedding dress (Caplan, 1997).
Simon Charlsey (n.d.) writes that each wedding cake "has therefore to be understood as representing past cultural creativity as the material for future creation." From a contemporary perspective, the wedding cake appears "as a single, timeless 'thing' within the taken-for-granted repertoire of a particular culture, yet it is the product of a complex, contingent and continuing history" (Charlsey, n.d.).
Charlsey further observes that the part the wedding cake plays "in a major rite of contemporary life is known to all; yet rationales of any kind are rare. It makes sense to all involved with it; yet whether it has meaning of any kind is commonly doubted" (n.d.). While the wedding cake might be considered food, it is not consumed for its nutritional value or even for the enjoyment of eating. At the same time, the wedding cake is "expensive, but not a luxury; indeed it is a practical necessity for most of the three-quarters of a million people, in Britain alone, who get married each year" (Charlsey, n.d.).
In the Scottish wedding tradition, the wedding cake features edible ornaments referred to as "favours." The top decoration and the favours are removed from the cake and distributed by the bride and bridesmaids to the women guests.
The American approach to the wedding cake closely resembles the British custom in that the cake serves primarily as a prop in the wedding ceremony. As Charlsey explains, the standard series of wedding photographs includes "the cutting of the cake," taken after the ceremony and just before the couple and their guests are released by the photographer to begin the reception (n.d.). The cake is placed on a table and the couple is given a large knife, generally one with a silver handle. The bride and groom hold the knife together, its blade "resting on the icing of the bottom tier," while both look at the camera rather than actually cutting (Charlsey, n.d.). Only after this ritual does the actual cutting occur. The bottom tier is taken away to be cut and "reappears in tiny portions for consumption by the company" (Charlsey, n.d.).
"Profiles of Goldman, Peters, and international designers"
"Icing styles, color, and floral ornament history"
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.