Medieval wedding cake: Bride’s Pie

I've written about the evolution of the wedding cake tradition and how it started back in Roman times as a loaf of hearty bread broken over the bride's head, but today I want to take a look back to the medieval kitchen to another dish served as a precursor to the wedding cake we enjoy today -- the Bride's Pie.

Medieval wedding cake

If you’re thinking of a medieval theme for your wedding, it might be fun to consider a Bride’s Pie instead of a wedding cake, although I have to say your guests will really have to be as into acting out the medieval scenario as you are, or at the least have an adventuresome culinary spirit. The earliest recipe I could find for “Bride’s Pye” dates back to the Middle Ages and is found in the The Accomplisht Cook. The book is written in old English and terms and cuts of meat have changed since it was written, but I just had to include the original recipe for my readers in order to accentuate how much things have changed.

Medieval Kitchen

Before you read the recipe, let me offer a warning. It’s not a sweet dessert-type dish but a savory pie recipe and back then nothing went to waste. For instance, when the recipe calls for “sweet-breads” of veal, it is talking about the thymus or the pancreas from veal. Cock-combs are an edible flower. Most of the rest of the ingredients you'll recognize.

Medieval wedding cake was known as Bride's Pie

 

Bride’s pie recipe 1685

To make an extraordinary Pie, or a Bride Pye of several Compounds, being several distinct Pies on one bottom. Provide cock-stones and combs, or lamb-stones, and sweet-breads of veal, a little set in hot water and cut to pieces; also two or three ox-pallats blanch’t and slic’t, a pint of oysters, slic’t dates, a handful of pine kernels, a little quantity of broom buds, pickles, some fine interlarded bacon slic’t; nine or ten chestnuts rosted and blanch season them with salt, nutmeg, and some large mace, and close it up with some butter. For the caudle, beat up some butter, with three yolks of eggs, some white or claret wine, the juyce of a lemon or two; cut up the lid, and pour on the lear, shaking it well together; then lay on the meat, slic’t lemon, and pickled barberries, and cover it again, let these ingredients be put in the moddle or scollops of the Pye.

If you’re not quite adventuresome enough to go with this authentic recipe, you can always go with

Medieval wedding cake topper

 

the savory pie recipe of your choice. And to make this custom your own, why not eat it as the main dish and still enjoy a traditional wedding cake with a medieval wedding cake topper for dessert with your guests. It will still be a special way to make your wedding celebration unique and delicious.

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Ideas for a medieval wedding theme

Whether you’re a fantasy fan or a Middle Ages history buff, a medieval wedding theme offers a fun way to bring a special-to-you unique touch to your wedding. Of course, you’ll have to put aside the fact that most marriages in the middle ages were arranged and just use traditions linked to customs that work for today. The good news is there are plenty of them.

Medieval wedding traditions still practiced today

Medieval wedding traditions still practiced today include wedding vows (much of the same wording is still utilized today), the bride still stands on the left and groom on the right (a tradition tied to the history of the best man), the ring exchange and the fact that the ring is still placed on the fourth finger of the left hand – all these are basically the same as during the Middle Ages. And then there is the large feast and a time for music and dancing following the wedding ceremony.

This foundation of rituals gives brides and grooms plenty to work with, and if you’re a creative couple, the following medieval wedding practices can provide the artistic fodder needed to make your day original and special. Think medieval wedding decorations, a venue such as a castle wedding, dressing in period clothing, and coming up with a medieval menu for your feast.

Peasant weddings were often held in a barn or outdoors.

Medieval marriage facts

The first question to ask yourself is: Do you want a peasant marriage from the middle ages or something more like the marriage of a noble or even a royal? Here's what you need to know:

• Peasant marriage in the middle ages: Peasant women had the most freedom when it came to marriage because those of the lower class were free to marry for love though many took place more because of need. You see, because they were poor, peasants were often needed to help with family work. As a result, they often married later and the ceremony was simple and they held their feast in a barn or outdoors.
• Medieval royal wedding traditions: While royal weddings in the Middle Ages were filled with pomp they were most often political in nature and never amounted to more than that for the bride and groom.
• Noble marriage in the middle ages: Nobel marriages were for the most part more of a contract than a celebration as we think of a wedding today. Husbands and wife were often promised at birth and didn’t even know each other. Weddings could take place once the girl reached puberty and it was common for nobility to hold a wedding ball.

Medieval wedding decorations

In Medieval times, tapestries decorated the walls. A raised table would be located at one end of the hall to seat the lord and his family plus any distinguished guests. On the main floor, two tables seated the rest of the guests who were seated on stools on only one side of the table so they could see the lord. 

 

The medieval wedding feast

The medieval wedding feast included family and friends. The menu offered things like fruit, soup or stew, roasts, tarts and other pastries including pies. The meal often ended with cracker-like wafers, cheese, and candied fruits. The couple drank wine and were entertained with love songs and poems performed by minstrels. (Picture a DJ dressed as a minstrel.) The medieval wedding cake was nothing like what we have today, so if you want to do something medieval, you’d serve an unsweetened loaf of bread. And you might even crumble it over the head of the bride and let guests gather up crumbs for good luck. Here are a few other historical facts that could make things memorable:

• Forks hadn’t been invented yet, so no forks and guests were required to bring their own spoon and knife and stoup to drink from. These drinking vessels were commonly crafted of wood or clay.
• 3-7 courses would be served but back then each course could include a mix of appetizers, main courses or desserts.
• Guests were numbered in groups (called a “mess”) of 2-6 people who would “share” the food set before them.
• Between courses as the tables were cleared, guests were provided with entertainment. Think jugglers, musicians, court jester.

Medieval Celebrations: How to Plan Holidays, Weddings, and Feasts with Recipes, Customs and Costumes

Medieval wedding game

For fun, instead of clinking glasses, in medieval times guests stacked buns as high as they could in front of the newlyweds. Back then, the belief was that this brought prosperity IF the bride and groom could kiss each other while standing on opposite sides of the stack.

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From Bread to Tiered Cakes: The Fascinating History of Wedding Cakes

(Updated December 2025)

Wedding cakes are a centerpiece of modern weddings, but their history stretches back centuries. From humble loaves of bread to elaborate tiered confections, the evolution of wedding cakes is steeped in tradition, superstition, and symbolism. 

Karavay (bride bread) is still a Russian tradition.

Roman and Medieval Beginnings: Bread for Good Luck

Before sweet cakes became the norm, weddings were celebrated with unsweetened bread. In Roman times, bread was broken over the bride’s head during the ceremony to encourage fertility. Guests would scramble for crumbs, hoping for their own share of good luck.

In medieval Europe, this bread evolved into the Bride’s Pie, a mincemeat or mutton pie sometimes containing a hidden glass ring. The lucky finder was believed to be the next to marry. These early wedding foods emphasized luck, fertility, and social customs rather than sweetness.

The First Sweet Cakes: 17th–18th Century

By the 17th century, sweetened cakes appeared. Known as Bride’s Cakes, these were often simple flat plum cakes. Guests rarely ate them at the reception; instead, portions were saved for future celebrations, such as the bride’s anniversary.

During this era, two cakes were common: the bride’s cake (served to bridesmaids) and the groom’s cake (often rich fruitcake eaten by men). Customs like sleeping with cake under a pillow to dream of one’s future spouse were widespread.

The first sweet wedding cake was a flat one-tier plum cake.

Victorian Innovations: White Cakes and Tiered Designs

The 19th century brought dramatic changes. Queen Victoria popularized white icing when she married Prince Albert in 1840, establishing a symbol of purity that remains today. Wedding cakes began to take on tiered designs, sometimes with multiple layers for guests to admire.

Victorian traditions also included:

• Groom’s Cake: Rich, dark fruitcake often boxed for single guests.

• Bride’s Cake: Simple pound cake with white icing for the bridesmaids.

• Cake Pull: Ribbons with charms placed under the cake for guests to pull, predicting fortunes

“It's a great cake. A bride-cake. Mine!”

In Victorian times, the wedding cake as we know it today became popular. It was at this time that the first white wedding cakes covered in white icing appeared. By this time, white had become the color that represented purity. However, they weren't called wedding cakes. Instead, they were known as the "bride's cake" with the bride elevated as the focal figure at the wedding. Charles Dickens' used this term in Great Expectations, which was written in 1861, when describing Miss Havisham's wedding cake.

Modern Wedding Cakes

Today, wedding cakes come in endless flavors, colors, and designs. Couples can choose multi-tiered masterpieces, personalized themes, or simple single-tier cakes. While the superstition of lucky crumbs may have faded, cutting the cake together still symbolizes a couple’s unity and shared future.

From bread thrown over the bride to elaborate tiered confections, the wedding cake has evolved into both a culinary delight and a cherished tradition. Whether you prefer classic white icing or a modern creation, the history behind the cake adds depth and meaning to every celebration.

 
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