It's not about anything SF, but I was afraid this question had been forgotten. I've been to plenty of weddings, including my own, and never thought about why. I didn't know myself, and kept telling myself I'd have to look this up sometime. That sometime was today.taniyav wrote:What is the reason behind the wedding cake in a western wedding?
In a western style wedding, the couple is usually asked to cut the wedding cake. What's the meaning behind the wedding cake?
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punjabi matrimonial
A wedding cake itself started in Roman times as a wheat or barley loaf that was broken over the heads of the couple to symbolize fertility. Guests would scramble to get the broken pieces.
Later it became the tradition to make many small cakes and stack them on top of each other as high as one could (which, I presume, is where the tiered structure in modern cakes comes from). The couple would try to kiss over the top of the stack without knocking them over. Icing was added to the stack by bakers at some point during the reign of King Charles II of England, creating the modern version of the wedding cake.
I'm not aware of any new, special symbolism today other than to say it's just tradition, and hopefully tasty.
(Needing to know this kind of thing is what my friends refer to as "the obsessed writer in me".)
Nate
