THE WEDDING CAKE

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The  tradition of sharing a cake at weddings is thousands of years old. It has only  been the past few centuries that the wedding cake has become so  elaborate.

A confection of one kind or another has been the symbol of fertility and  abundance throughout the ages.  In ancient Greece the bride and groom jointly  partook of a sesame cake during the wedding banquet, in hope of assuring a  fruitful union.  Today the bride cuts the cake with a fancy silver knife tied  with a ribbon and the new couple share the first slice together.  The early  Greeks did extend this ritual a bit further, after the feast their was a  procession to the grooms house.  Once there, the guests showered the bride with  an abundance of dates, nuts, figs and other fruits...all symbols of prosperity  and fertility.  It was many centuries later the French pastry makers put an end  to this tradition.

In early Rome, the tradition was an offering of a honey cake made to Jupiter, which was partly eaten by the bride and groom.  After the ceremony, the guests enjoyed a banquet, very similar to our custom today.  During the festivities small cakes were broken over the head of the bride.  Each cake carried good wishes for a fruitful marriage.

For more than 1500 years brides were “hit” by well-wishers with an assortment of foodstuffs!  Cakes, fruit and grain were all considered acceptable, other materials were also common.  During the 13th century a statute was passed in one medieval city that disallowed the throwing of “paper cuttings, sawdust, street sweepings and other impurities” at wedding.

Throughout the Middle Ages the wedding ceremony was to be a high-spirited occasion.  In the hope of assuring good fortune and fertility both the bride and groom were met with a hail of small cakes on their return to the home of the bride after the religious ceremony.

In Elizabethan England the celebration associated with the exchange of marriage vows continued to be lively, frequently boisterous.  Immediately after leaving the church, wine was provided to keep the guests exhilarated and a cake carried by bridesmaids in the procession was consumed with some relish on the way to the brides home.  Once home, the bride and groom, according to ancient custom, were the targets of a volley of small cakes.  A few cakes, however, were put to other use.  Hopeful maidens saved the little confections and later placed them under their pillows to “sleep on” and to induce pleasant dreams in which a suitor would appear.  Others passed a piece of the cake through the new brides ring as a symbol of good luck.

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