The Cake

Our Cake!!!
The picture at the left is the general style of cake we're having. This is a marvelous seven-tier affair. The three-tier cake in the center sits atop a fountain; stairways lead down from the lower tiers to smaller two tier cakes.

Don't let the picture fool you, though. This cake can be monstrously huge or far more modest, and we'll be leaning toward the more modest and less monstrous end of things. The decorations on the cake will be different than in the picture as well, so there's no ruined surprises here.

Origin
The origin of the wedding cake are unsure. Throughout history, sweets have been served at wedding celebrations. Records from ancient Rome show such sweets at wedding, and large cakes (believed to be fruitcakes) were served at weddings during Medieval times through the Renaissance.

Cutting
Historically, cakes were cut with ceremonial knives or even swords. A very old tradition had the bride cut the cake and serve all the portions to the family of the groom as a symbolic transfer of her household labor from her own family to her husband's. In modern tradition, the bride and the groom cut the first piece together, both of them holding the knife. The bride and groom then split the first piece and feed it to each other, usually attempting to mash the cake into each others' faces, often with the begging of the guests. The feeding to each other bit is a symbol of the new family and the commitment to each other.

Our view: We don't think we'll be using a sword, and we aren't going to have Elaine symbolically transfer her household labor to my family. We will cut it together, though. Elaine is absolutely against stuffing cake into each others' faces. David is trying very hard to not shove cake in Elaine's face, and hopes the begging of the guests won't cause him to lose control of himself and frost her nose.

Saving
A piece of the cake, often the cake topper, is traditionally frozen and then eaten on the first anniversary. Some bakeries will make a fresh, small cake on the first anniversary for the couple.

Type of Cake
The types of wedding cakes are varied; everything has been done, from flat cakes to multi-tiered cakes to gingerbreads to everything else. We're still undecided on what our cake will look like. For the longest time we simply didn't want to have any cake at all. We even played around with bizarre ideas concerning wedding puddings and such. Then we decided that we'd have a decidedly different cake and settled on a big wedding gingerbread. Now we're back to thinking along traditional lines. Whatever we decide, we'll post it here.

Our Cake Topper
We have the cake topper; that's it in the picture. "The rich, sculptured crafting of this romantic design is prefect for a wedding keepsake. White. Resin. Height: 5 1/2 in. Base 5 x 3 in." At least, that's what the Wilton.com Web site says about it! We like this for a number of reasons:

First, it's white. Colored wedding toppers tend to look goofy and silly, sort of like cartoons. Plus, most of them that seem any good at all tend to have a blond groom with a dark-haired bride or both with light hair. We don't expect the topper to look exactly like us, but something reasonably close would be nice.

Second, it's elegant! It's even called "Elegance Figurine." The design, style, pose, the way she is flourishing her dress with her hand, how they're holding each other... they do look like they're really enjoying it, don't they?

Third, it's made of resin. Ceramic breaks and chips easy, while resin is far more resistant. We don't want it ever getting broken if we can help it.

Fourth, it comes with a display case, so that after the wedding it is protected while being displayed.

Who's Doing Our Cake?
Frank's Bake Shop and Catering has been a staple in Bangor for what seems like eternity. Located on State Street across from Miller Drug. our cake will be in the hands of the find cake masters there.