Have your wedding cake and eat it...

When you are in the process of planning your dream wedding, cutting the cake is a very important feature of the day. In most cultures a wedding cake represents fruitfulness and fertility and is said to bring good luck to all that eat it; this is why the guests unable to attend the wedding are sent a small slice.

Superstition has, for many years, dictated that wedding cakes should consist of a number of tiers. This is reflected in the familiar design that is said to be based on the unusual shape of the spire of St Brides Church in the city of London.

Key to your perfect cake is finding the correct cake designer and maker for you. They should not only take into account any ideas you may wish to include, but also give you some guidance as to styles that will work best for your wedding day. When choosing the type of cake, consider features of the day such as the theme of the wedding, colour schemes, venue, and the wedding dress and the flowers of the bride's bouquet.

Ideally an early meeting with your chosen cake designer should be made well in advance of the event. Most importantly ensure and verify the quality of their workmanship before paying any deposit and placing your order. Quite early on in discussions your cake maker will require to know how many people are to be catered for. Another consideration is if the top tier of the wedding cake is to be kept for the Christening of the first child, or the first anniversary. If you are having a particularly lavish wedding, with a large number of people to feed, additional cutting cake may be required; this can be baked and iced at the same time, then kept in the background for serving with the main cake. Alternatively if you are having a more exclusive reception, and do not require a surplus of cake, it is possible to decorate dummy cakes to make up the desired size.

Many of the decorations on the wedding cake have their own symbolism for instance doves bring harmony, bells drive away evil spirits, cupids bring love, orange blossom brings luck and symbolises purity and is also a traditional ingredient for love potions. While white roses symbolise virginity, and horseshoes are for fertility and good luck.

On the day of the wedding, family and those close to the Bride and Groom will be particularly busy with last minute arrangements. I would therefore suggest you ask your chosen cake maker to deliver and set up the cake on the day - you will find very few volunteers willing to take responsibility for this work of art.

When arranging the reception, ensure there will a sturdy and stable table on which to display the cake, which, depending on size, can be a considerable weight, suitable lighting, and that there is an appropriate background as many a good photograph has been spoilt by a intrusive red fire extinguisher or the like in the background.

Traditionally the bride must cut the first slice with the help of her husband or she will remain childless. Cutting the wedding cake is usually one of the last formalities of the wedding and the first task that a couple will share. The right hand of the groom goes over the right hand of the bride and they then cut the cake together. The cake is then usually taken away to be cut up and served, but in years gone by it was tradition for the first slice to be fed by the groom to his bride, after which the bride serves her husband.

It is said the unmarried guests who place a piece of wedding cake under their pillow before sleeping will increase their prospects of finding a partner, and bridesmaids who do likewise will dream of their future husbands and therefore continue with many of these wonderful traditions.

The author, Kerry Goodrum, runs Cakes by Appointment in Chelmsford, Essex.
For further details or to dicuss your wedding cake requirements, please e-mail Kerry.