Forget what you thought you knew about wedding cakes—these sweet towers of sugar and sponge have a far stranger past than you’d expect.
The wedding cake, a centrepiece of modern marriage celebrations, is often seen as a **timeless tradition**. However, the towering, sugar-laden confections we know today have evolved significantly over time.
Instead of neatly sliced tiers of sponge and fondant, our ancestors celebrated weddings with **broken bread, meat-filled pies, and even barley loaves crumbled over the bride’s head**. The journey from those early customs to today’s intricately decorated wedding cakes is a fascinating mix of **superstition, status symbols, sugar trade, and royal influence**.
In ancient Greece, weddings weren’t about cake—they were about honey and barley. The Greeks believed that honey symbolised fertility and prosperity, so wedding feasts featured plakous, a type of honeyed bread sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Additionally, a tradition saw the groom breaking a loaf of barley bread over his new bride’s head to symbolise his dominance and ensure a fruitful marriage.
One of the biggest myths is that the Romans invented the wedding cake. While Romans did enjoy sweetened pastries, their marriage customs involved a wheat or barley cake broken over the bride’s head—not eaten. This practice, known as confarreatio, was a fertility ritual, not a dessert course.
Fast forward a few centuries, and we arrive in **Medieval England**, where wedding cakes still didn’t exist. Instead, the biggest part of a wedding feast was **“bride ale”**—a special beer brewed for the occasion.
Rather than cakes, couples and their guests feasted on **sweetened breads, spiced biscuits, and dried fruits**. Some weddings included a stack of small spiced buns, balanced precariously high. Legend says that if the bride and groom could successfully kiss over the pile without knocking it down, they’d enjoy a lifetime of happiness.
We can thank the French for this quirky tradition—centuries later, it would evolve into the croquembouche, France’s famous tower of caramel-glazed profiteroles.
The first thing resembling a wedding cake in Britain wasn’t a cake at all—it was **a meat pie**.
Bride pies were a common feature of 17th-century English weddings. These rich, spiced pies contained chicken, oysters, lamb’s testicles, and boiled egg yolks. Some even had **a hidden glass ring**—whoever found it was destined to be the next to marry.
On **10 February 1840**, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, and her wedding cake changed the game forever.
In the 21st century, wedding cakes have become **highly personalised works of edible art**. Trends like "naked cakes," "drip cakes," and hyper-realistic sugar flowers have dominated social media.
Additionally, dietary trends have shaped modern cakes—vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free wedding cakes are now widely available.
Roman weddings featured a fertility ritual where a barley or wheat biscuit was broken over the bride’s head for good fortune. These "cakes" were hard biscuits, not sweet cakes, and bore no resemblance to modern wedding cakes.
Honey and sesame cakes were given as offerings to deities during weddings. No distinct "wedding cake" tradition existed, but sweet bread offerings were common.
Feasts were common at weddings, but no specific cake tradition existed. Sweet bread or biscuits were sometimes served, but no records of elaborate cakes exist.
Stacking bread rolls or biscuits as a “cake” tradition emerges, possibly an early precursor to tiered cakes.
"Bride Ale" feasts included sweet spiced bread, sometimes shared among guests. No formal wedding cake existed— instead, sugared almonds, nuts, and dried fruit were given as wedding favours.
Bride pies become popular, replacing earlier bread-based customs. Some contained oysters, lamb’s testicles, or even live animals for entertainment.
Thomas Deloney’s The Pleasant History of John Winchcombe describes bride cakes in wedding processions.
Cakes begin appearing stacked rather than in pie form, marking the early concept of tiered cakes.
Price’s The Compleat Cook includes a spiced fruit cake recipe used for weddings.
"Bride Cakes" become standard, often rich fruitcakes soaked in alcohol.
Sugar becomes more widely available, leading to sugar-paste decorations. Early icing recipes appear but are thick and rough in texture.
Plum cakes (early fruitcakes) become the standard wedding cake style in England.
Queen Victoria’s pure white icing sets the standard for royal icing. Multi-tiered cakes become the ultimate wedding symbol.
Cakes begin featuring hand-piped decorations, sugar flowers, and intricate designs.
Guests begin taking slices home in decorated boxes.
Industrial advances allow mass production of ingredients, making cakes more accessible.
Bakeries begin offering pre-made wedding cakes. The term "wedding cake" fully replaces "bride cake."
Cakes become larger and more elaborate, inspired by Hollywood glamour.
Due to rationing, bakers create fake cardboard cakes with small edible sections.
Ingredients were flown in from across the Commonwealth due to post-war shortages.
Bakers introduce plastic support pillars, making taller cakes structurally possible.
The tradition of cutting the cake together becomes widespread.
The wedding industry expands, and bespoke cake designs gain popularity.
Couples start choosing flavours other than fruitcake, like chocolate and vanilla sponge.
The rise of "naked cakes," drip cakes, and buttercream finishes. Cupcake wedding towers briefly trend.
Cakes inspired by geometric patterns, metallic finishes, and watercolour effects emerge.
Opting for lemon elderflower sponge with Swiss buttercream, they break the traditional fruitcake rule.
Increasing dietary preferences lead to plant-based and allergen-friendly options.
Cakes are now personalised works of art, with couples opting for hand-painted cakes, floral textures, and sculptural elements.