Wedding Cake Traditions

The wedding cake has been an important part of the wedding celebration since Roman times when a thin wheat cake, representing bounty, was crumbled over the bride's head to ensure her fertility.

Nowadays we are much too civilized to crumble cake over the bride's head. Instead, the bride and groom cut the cake together and take beautiful photos...and then, in some cases, the groom lovingly smashes the cake in the glowing bride's face - not too civilized after all are we?

Anyway, two traditions have become standard in most wedding celebrations: cutting the cake and saving the cake top for the 1st anniversary.

Cutting The Cake

The cutting of the cake is a tradition that occurs during the reception. The bride and groom cut the cake together and the groom feeds a piece to the bride and then the bride feeds the groom. After this little ceremony, the guests are served.

When Do We Cut The Cake?

You should cut the cake just before dessert at a luncheon or dinner reception and just after the guests have been greeted at a tea or cocktail reception.

How Do We Cut The Cake?

The groom should place his right hand over the bride's right hand, and together you cut into the bottom layer.

How Do We Feed Each Other?

Please don't smash the cake into each other's faces. Instead, the groom should feed the bride her first bite and the bride should feed him. This taste of the first slice serves as a symbol of the bride and groom's willingness to share a household.

Who Gets Cake Next?

After the bride and groom have completed their cake cutting ceremony. The bride should cut pieces for her parents and serve them. The groom should follow by cutting pieces for his parents and then serving them. The rest of the cake is cut by the catering staff or friend designated in advance and served to all of the wedding guests. The supserstitious believe that it is bad luck for a guest to leave the reception without tasting the cake.

Saving The Cake Top

Another wedding cake tradition is to have the top layer of the cake made out of fruit cake. This layer is saved and frozen for the bride and groom to eat on their first anniversary. Many couples do this, but it really doesn't taste very good a year later. Oh well - it's tradition!

How Can We Keep It Fresh?

Seriously, no matter what you do, a one year old piece of cake is not going to taste good. If you just have to follow this tradition, your best bet will be to wrap the top of the cake very carefully so that it is airtight before you freeze it.

New Twists On This Tradition

Since this tradition is really a celebration of the first year of marriage, many brides have decided to celebrate a little differently. One of my friends decided to eat the cake top on her one month anniversary instead so that the cake would still taste decent - I think she just may have just been hungry... At any rate, you could always try this and make a small replica of your wedding cake on your one year anniversary.

Wedding Cake Under A Pillow?

A piece of the bride's cake under a single person's pillow will lead to " dreams of a future spouse", according to tradition. So, if you don't want to save the cake top, you could have the caterer pack slices in decorative boxes to send home with guests with small paper inserts describing the tradition. (My guess is that most single people don't know about this cake under the pillow tradition.)

 
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