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Texas ISD School Guide
Texas ISD School Guide







Short Stories for Teachers

Origin of Anniversary Cakes
By:Maureen Katemopoulos

The history of wedding and anniversary cakes can be traced back to the Roman Empire (509 to 27 B.C.). Of course, the appearance and substance of these types of cakes have changed markedly since then. It was the tradition in Roman times, for wheat cakes to be broken over the head of the bride for luck, and for the bride and groom to partake first, and the guests to scramble thereafter for the remaining crumbs. Fortunately, those traditions belong to the distant past. Roman cakes can be considered the earliest ancestors of wedding and anniversary cakes as we know them today.

Early Ingredients
Technically, a first anniversary cake is an offshoot of the wedding cake of which it was once a part, following the tradition of saving the top tier for a year. But to go back to the beginning, in Roman times, wedding cakes were made from wheat flour, salt and water. Some of the earliest wedding and anniversary cakes in Britain were flat, round and filled with fruit and nuts which were symbols of fertility. Today's wedding and anniversary cakes are baked according to the wishes of the wedding couple, ranging from pound cake to fresh fruit. The original anniversary cake has evolved to become an annual feature at anniversary celebrations, usually inscribed with the anniversary year and the names of the couple.

Christening To Anniversary
Some accounts say that during the 19th century, it was the custom to serve a christening cake following the birth of the first child. The idea of preserving the top tier of the wedding cake apparently grew out of this practice. It was a practical tradition that assumed the birth of the first child not long after the wedding. Gradually though, the gap of time between the wedding and the birth of the firstborn widened. At this point, the christening cake deferred to the concept of an anniversary cake that celebrated the wedding itself, and not a christening.

French Connection
Decorated wedding and anniversary cakes owe their origin in part to French bakers of the mid-19th century, when elaborately-decorated sweets were placed on the menu as desserts. This fashionable practice soon spread throughout Europe. Around 1840, the advent of baking powder, baking soda and temperature-controlled ovens paved the way for the forerunners of today's most sophisticated wedding and anniversary cakes.

Expensive Icing
An interesting sidebar to the origin of wedding and anniversary cakes involves the icing. The ingredients to make white icing were once very expensive and difficult to obtain. As a result, wedding cakes with the whitest icing were considered to reflect the affluence of the bride's family, who had spared no expense in the creation of the cake.

First Anniversary
It remains the custom for couples to keep the top tier of a wedding cake for their first anniversary celebration. Some suggest that the top tier should be made separately, of fruitcake or of cheesecake, so that it will still taste good after one year in the freezer. The top tier should be carefully wrapped up airtight so that when the wrapping is removed after a year, the cake will still be in good, edible condition.






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