History of wedding cake toppers

If I say wedding cake topper, what do you picture? It might be a miniature bride and groom, wedding bells or some other similar ornamentation with a wedding theme. While the history of wedding cakes dates back to the Roman Empire, it was nothing like wedding cakes as we know them today. Instead they were unsweetened loaves of bread which were crumbled over the bride for good luck. And wedding cake toppers as we know them haven't been around all that long either. They became a growing trend with middle class and affluent American families before the American Civil War. By the 1890s, they were quite common.

Those original wedding cake toppers weren't anything extravagant. Cakes were decorated with things like flowers, bells, or other small objects related to the bride and groom. Often these toppers were handmade by a family member or a professional wedding cake baker using frosting, icing, or non-edible materials like plaster of Paris.

Wedding cake toppers popular after World War I

Decorative cake toppers grew more popular after World War I. It was in the Roaring 20s that High Society in the U.S. adopted the custom of using figurines of the bride and groom atop the wedding cake. Popularity of this tradition grew quickly after Emily Post, American etiquette expert, mentioned them in her 1922 best seller that said, "wedding cake is an essential of every wedding reception," and went on to comment on the placement of the bride and groom figurines in the description of a beautifully decorated cake. In the early 1900s wedding cake toppers were made from glass, paper, or wood until they started being commercially made.

First commercially made wedding cake toppers

Along with this, American retailers like Sears & Roebuck started to market and sell cake toppers showcasing a bride and groom. By 1924 you could find an assortment of two-inch tall bride and groom toppers made from wax and featuring differences like groom without a hat or wearing a top hat. The bride could be purchased without a veil or wearing a cloth veil. By 1927, the Sears catalog had an entire page devoted to wedding cake ornaments.

With their growing popularity, wedding cake toppers started to be mass produced commercially in the U.S., Europe and Asia. They were available in the usual bride and groom side-by-side pose along with a selection of alternative poses. And during or following the War, the groom was sometimes depicted wearing a military uniform. Along with this, groom figurines could also be purchased a wearing police or fireman uniform, too.

Sparkling Love Cake Topper

Aside from bride and groom figurines, today we have toppers like cupids, hearts, love birds and sometimes even a framed picture of the couple. The tradition of adding a decorative ornament topper to the wedding cake has been joined with the tradition of removing and saving the memento as well as freezing the top layer of the cake to be eaten by the bride and groom on their first anniversary.

 
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3 Victorian wedding cake traditions

In Victorian times, the wedding ceremony look very much like weddings today. Most often, it took place at the bride's parish church decorated with flower. Wedding bells rang out announcing the union, and the newlyweds signed the parish register. Queen Victoria started a new wedding cake tradition when she married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. The cake consisted of three tiers of English plum cake and it was big. While only 14 inches tall, is measured almost 10 feet across, and weighed 300 pounds. At this time the more refined and whiter sugars were still quite expensive. Only wealthy families could afford to decorate with pure white frosting and exhibited the wealth and the social status of the family. When Queen Victoria used white icing on her wedding cake it gained a new title, royal icing.

 

Aside from all the similarities, in Victorian times they celebrated weddings with three different cakes:

• groom’s cake
• the bride’s cake
• the wedding cake

They also celebrated a tradition known as the cake pull. 

 

Traditional groom’s cake

The groom's cake tradition originated in Victorian England. The earliest groom's cakes were dark, heavy fruitcakes made by the groomsmen and eaten by the groomsmen on the wedding day, with at least a portion saved to be sliced, boxed, and handed out to the single women in attendance. Those women slept with the cake under their pillows to help them dream of their future husbands.

Traditional bride’s cake

The bride’s cake was usually a simple pound cake with white icing which symbolized her virginity. This cake was served to the bridesmaids.

 

Wedding cake pull

The wedding cake pull originally known as the ribbon pull is a quaint bridesmaids' ritual dating back to the Victorian era. Back then it took place at the wedding reception; today it is usually part of the bridal shower. The bride attached tiny silver charms of fortune to ribbon (similar to the pudding cake charms once hidden in plum pudding at Christmas), and placed them under the wedding cake or between layers. Just before cutting the cake, her single friends were invited to pull one of the ribbons to learn their fortune. Historically, there were charms, each with their own meaning.

 

Wedding cake pull charms:

• Ring: indicates the next to get married
• Horseshoe or four-leaf clover: good luck
• Telephone: offering good news*
• Anchor: encouraging hope
• Heart: impending love
• Thimble or the button: the old maid
• The penny: poverty

 

*For those who might wonder about the phone charm in the Victorian era, I thought that I might mention that on January 14, 1878 Queen Victoria made the first publicly-witnessed long-distance phone call in the United Kingdom. 

 

Image credit:  Image by Dorothe from Pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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