So you're about to spend a lot of money on your wedding cake do you really know why you even have a wedding cake and where the tradition comes from? Sadly it's not just to give the guests something nice to ear. The tradition of the wedding he can be traced back to Roman times but the cake itself wouldn't be the same as you see on the wedding these days.
These original Roman wedding cakes weren't so much for eating. The tradition then was to smash the cake over the head of the groom. The cake was made of seeds, wheat rye and other natural ingredients and if it broke showered the groom in these ingredients. This was seen a sign of virility, so the groom will be fertile on the wedding night.
Much later on, Wedding Cakes made an appearance on English soil, again in a much different guise. This time the pastry chefs would stack rolls of cake high and the Bride and Groom had to see if they could kiss each other over the top. It was very popular at the time and spread to France with the Croquembouche which is still very much in fashion today.
The earliest sweet wedding cake was the Banbury cake made in the mid 17th Century. The white colouring of cakes came about in Victorian times with the white icing supposedly as a sign of purity and matching the colour of Queen Victoria's wedding dress.
Cakes were also seen as sign of status with the larger the cake the higher the status. Many artificial devices have been used to increase the size of cake but the first ever recorded fully edible cake was that of the Duke of Albany in 1882.
The most recent chance to cake design was in the 1950's when people started adding cake toppers either with words, or decapitations of the Bride and Groom. So there you have it. That's why the modern wedding has a cake, just make sure you don't smash yours over the Groom's head, he's gonna look a bit silly covered in fruit cake and icing sugar.
Andy P