Groom's Cake - History

History

Groom’s cake is a tradition most popular in the southeastern United States that began during the Victorian era. During the Victorian era, the first groom’s cake was a very heavy and dense fruit cake that eventually became a flour cake, either white or chocolate. The tradition was to cut a piece of the cake and put it in a small box, and then give them to the unmarried women that attended the wedding. The cake was never eaten, but put under the pillow of the single woman giving them the hope that they would find a husband. Already in the 1890s, a choice of cake had already been established in America. In the 1890s, the groom’s cake was referred to as the “Lady Cake or Plain Bridegroom Cake”. This recipe was published in the “The British Baker" in 1897. In those days the cake was cut by the bridegroom and served with wine to the bridesmaids before going to the church. In England neither practice was met with success, but in the United States, especially in the southern part of the United States, the two cakes did become very popular with the bride's cake being light and the grooms' being dark. From the mid-century the two cakes have been described as follows: the bride's cake would be on the bottom, and the grooms' cake would be on the top. The bride and groom would cut the cake and then give pieces to each other to eat. It then would be served to the guest. The groom’s would be mounted above the bride's cake and saved for later to be eaten. Many different customs were used, by Southern Americans during that time period thee fruit cake,pound cake and chocolate cake. This tradition was around for many years even in the United States in the southern states. Most people don’t realize that the groom’s cake is not a southern tradition, but a British tradition that has been forgotten in England. It now continues to be a part of American wedding tradition. At the present time, the groom’s cake is no longer given to the single women to take with her and be put under her pillow in hopes to find a husband. Instead it has become a part of the wedding: either during the reception or the rehearsal dinner. In the southern part of the United States, the groom's cake is used for the bride to incorporate the groom into the wedding more instead of his feeling more of an ornament within the ceremony. Most grooms know that the wedding is for her and not for him, but some brides feel they need to change this feeling so that the wedding is for both of them and not just for her. For example, the bride might ask the groom what type of cake he would like, and his response might be a chocolate cake shaped like a football or a chocolate cake shaped like a baseball stadium. The groom's cake can take many different shapes, which is one of the reasons why it has become very popular with the groom. The wedding cake is the main focus of the conversation during the reception, but lately a second cake has appeared next to the wedding cake: the “groom’s cake”.