Why Do We Have Wedding Cakes?

Wedding cakes are usually served at wedding receptions following dinner, and were traditionally made to bring good luck to the guests and couple. In Medieval England, the cake was made as high as possible for the couple to kiss over without knocking it over and, if successful, the couple were guaranteed a long and prosperous life together.

This tradition evolved until, in the 19^th Century, wedding cakes came to represent wealth – more tiers equalled more wealth. This was further improved by the use of pillars (initially covered broomsticks) as only the wealthy could afford such a cake.

Stacked wedding cakes were first developed in the Victorian era, as the use of Royal Icing (developed for use on Queen Victoria’s wedding cake) provided a hard base on which to support the above tier. Today, stacked wedding cakes are further supported by the use of dowels which allows for a variety of coverings to be used.

Which Type of Wedding Cake?

In the UK, traditional wedding cakes are made from a rick fruit cake, although many modern cakes now consist of sponge. Modern cake designers can incorporate a variety of techniques to ensure the bride and groom’s personalities are reflected in their choice of cake. Wedding cakes can be made in a variety of flavours such as chocolate, vanilla or carrot.

The wedding cake tiers – usually between three and five tiers – are traditionally separated by pillars or more modernly stacked and a range of colours can also be used to highlight the bride and groom’s individual tastes and preferences.

The use of fondant icing allows the cake designers to cut designs, form shapes and colour. This also enables wedding cake toppers to vary from fresh or sugarpaste flowers to elaborate novelty decoration and models of the bride and groom themselves.

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A Brief History of Celebration Cakes And Birthday Cakes

Perhaps a reasonable place to begin is to consider where the tradition of celebration cakes has developed from.

A commonly posed question throughout many ages is: ‘What have the Ancient Egyptians done for us? Well, amongst other – some would argue important – things, they have given us cake, although what they called ‘cake’ wouldn’t be recognised as such today.

The first cakes bore a strong resemblance to bread, with honey being added to sweeten the dough and sometimes dried fruit and nuts being added by Roman bakers. The consumption of cake was dependent on how rich you were, with Celebration Cakes made from this sweetened dough frequently forming part of banquets.

Original celebration cakes were round and flat

In the 14^th Century, Chaucer describes special celebration cakes and recorded one made from 13kg of flour and containing butter, eggs, cream, spices, currants and honey. A key feature of celebration cakes – or kaka as was the ancient Norse term – were their shape; round and flat.

Several hundred years later in the 17^th Century the first cake tins (or hoops) were introduced to ensure the dough kept a neat round shape rather than the relaxed round shape achieved prior to this, by allowing the hand rounded dough to free form in the oven.

Many historians believe that the rounded shape was a reflection of the people’s beliefs and customs, and wanting the cake to be round like the moon or earth. At around the same time, the first icing was developed by pouring a boiled mixture of sugar, egg whites and flavourings onto the baked cake which was then returned to the oven to harden. On removing from the oven, this mixture hardened to form a sugary crust and it was not until the early 20^th Century that this crust was replaced by butter cream frostings.

The tradition of birthday cakes started in Germany

It is generally accepted that the tradition of Birthday Cakes started in Germany during the Middle Ages, when the sweetened bread was moulded to reflect a baby Jesus in a swaddling cloth to commemorate the birth of Jesus (whom they later ate!).

Later on, birthday cakes re-emerged as part of the Kinderfest (children’s party) celebration and included special birthday cakes referred to as Geburtstagstorten (birthday pies), which consisted of a round cake baked in layers. In today’s Western culture, people serve birthday cakes to a person celebrating their birthday, often decorated with the person’s name, a message of congratulations and candles that usually represent the recipients age.

To quote Bob Hope: You know you are getting old when the candles cost more than the cake!

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We Are Back In Business!

As many of you will know I have been unable to undertake any cake orders since the end of last year due to illness.

I am pleased and excited to report that I am now in the position to start creating cakes again and am accepting orders for the forthcoming weeks.

I am looking forward to welcoming back both previous and new customers and creating centrepieces for your celebrations.

Please keep an eye on our blog and Facebook pages for special offers in the next couple of weeks, including Mother’s Day cakes and a chocolate Easter surprise.

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The Benefits Of Buying Your Celebration Cake From Independent Cake Makers

A common thought and question often brought up in my conversations with people is why, when you can buy a cake from a supermarket for less than £10, do independent cakes makers charge significantly more for the same thing? My response is to reassure my customers that professionally produced, creative cakes, are in fact very different from the mass produced and decorated offerings that you may come across down your local supermarket aisle. By virtue of the huge scale of production that supermarkets are able to maintain, their costs are significantly lower than those of the independent cake makers. However, your cake won’t be personalised to your specification, and more importantly I believe that it won’t compare in taste to the cakes you will receive from many independent cake makers.

Affordable independent cake designers

Since forming my business several years ago, I remain very keen to offer a fair price for the creative cakes that I produce. This comes from my own experiences when looking around for my own wedding cake when planning my big day on a small budget. Some independent cake designers undoubtedly charge what can only be described as extortionate prices for their cakes – cupcakes that start from £4, ‘simple’ celebration cakes that start from £100 and wedding cakes that quite simply cost as much as the entire day itself, with a little bit added on when that magical word ‘wedding’ is spoken. Generally I would like to think – and reassure you – that this is not really the norm for independent cake makers, such as Inspired Cakes, and I personally never add a premium for undertaking a wedding, or other important, celebration cake.

The cost of producing professional and highly creative cakes

In today’s economic climate, we are all feeling the effects of prices being hiked in supermarkets. The same effect is happening within my extensive list of suppliers, who have themselves been forced to increase their prices. With reluctance this cost is ultimately passed down to the customer, although I have tried my very best to keep any price increases to the bear minimum, sometimes risking my own margins to do so. Where prices have increased I have tried to offset this with special offers and promotions through my website and via my Facebook and Twitter pages.

In addition to the ‘raw’ costs of producing highly professional creative cakes, such as ingredients and decoration, as a business, independent cake makers  also have to include costs like business insurance (public liability and product liability), internet usage, phone usage, utilities, delivery times, advertising costs and accountancy costs. This is without any account of the cake designers time, which not only includes the actual baking and decorating of the cake, but all administration tasks such as answering emails, researching cake designs and ensuring stock levels are maintained.  All rather boring but important none the less!

Many websites are quoted as saying:

“Good cake isn’t cheap, cheap cake isn’t good” – hopefully you will now agree with this statement as I do!

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