The wedding cake: from spelt bread to tiers of sugar

Cutting the cake is one of the most photographed moments of any wedding. The couple hold the knife together, the guests applaud and the cake is shared among everyone. Behind this modern ritual lies an ancient history of breads, flatbreads and cakes which, in different ages and countries, have always had the same task: to make visible, through shared food, the union of two people and two families.

The bread of Roman spouses

In confarreatio, the oldest and most solemn form of Roman marriage, the couple offered Jupiter a cake of spelt, the panis farreus, in the presence of the pontifex maximus and the flamen of Jupiter. The shared grain united the couple under the protection of the gods. This form was reserved chiefly for patrician families and had already become rare by the late Republic.

A much-told tradition, about which the ancient sources say little, holds that in Rome a loaf or cake was broken over the bride's head as a wish for fertility, and the crumbs were then gathered up. Similar rites probably existed in many communities, since bread and seeds were everywhere symbols of abundance, but the details should be treated with caution.

The English bride cake

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England the bride cake and the bride pie became popular, rich in dried fruit, spices and sometimes meat. A folk custom had unmarried girls put a small piece of cake under their pillow, hoping to dream of their future husband. The cake was therefore also a small instrument of domestic divination, as well as a sign of celebration.

According to a much-repeated story, the tiered shape was inspired by the spire of St Bride's Church in Fleet Street, London, rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666. A baker's apprentice from Ludgate Hill, so the tale goes, copied its outline for his own wedding cake. It is a charming anecdote, but a difficult one to document.

Sugar, Victoria and tiers

In the nineteenth century the wedding cake became a spectacle. The one made for Queen Victoria's wedding in 1840 was enormous and decorated with sugar figures, and the hard white icing known as royal icing came to be associated with the elegance of royal weddings. The white of the icing, like that of the gown, symbolised both purity and wealth, since refined sugar was still an expensive product.

The fully edible multi-tiered cake took hold in the second half of the century, thanks to internal supports that allowed the upper levels to be held up. Elsewhere traditions differed: in France the croquembouche was preferred, a pyramid of choux buns bound with caramel, and in many Italian regions weddings were celebrated with local sweets, such as almond biscuits and small pastries.

From the panis farreus to the tiered cake, wedding food has always carried a meaning beyond taste. Sharing a loaf, a sweet or a cake with the guests turns the celebration into a common meal, in which each person receives a share of the couple's joy. It is perhaps the simplest and most enduring of wedding rites.