historyWikipedia16th–17th century · England
The wedding cake began as a savory bride's pie, and the first fully edible one came in 1882
The wedding cake began as a savory pie. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the bride's pie at most weddings was filled with oysters, lamb testicles, pine kernels and cocks' combs, according to a 1685 recipe by Robert May. Guests were expected to eat a piece, and a glass ring hidden inside foretold who would marry next. Over time two cakes appeared, a rich dark groom's cake and a bride's cake, and the bride's cake won out. Early 18th-century bride cakes were plum cakes with white icing, a sign of purity and wealth because refined sugar was costly. Victorian icing became known as royal icing after Queen Victoria used it, and the modern tiered cake came with the 1882 wedding of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, whose cake was the first to be fully edible.
Early wedding cakes were dense fruit or pound cakes that could be stored and shared. White icing needed refined sugar, which was expensive until the 19th century, so a white cake signaled wealth. Tiers were made by stacking separately baked layers with hard icing, and later dowels were added inside the cake to carry the weight.
The wedding cake is a record of changing tastes, status and technology: a savory dish turned into a sugar display of wealth. Its tiers still reflect the old idea that a grander cake signals a grander family.
Luxury foods have often moved from display of status to everyday items as sugar and refining became cheaper. Sugar sculpture and elaborate dessert towers were once markers of rank in European courts. Modern wedding cakes keep the tiers, but their meaning has shifted from social standing to tradition.
Queen Victoria's use of white icing on her cake gave the style the name royal icing.
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