Confetti evolved from centuries ago, where, with a marriage celebration, small biscuits were being broken over the bride's head as a symbol of fertility. This, together with the ancient Greek tradition of throwing nuts, grain and wheat, were the forerunners of what we know today as confetti.
The first example of bridal bouquets were in the medieval times, (approximately 15th & 16th centuries), where brides carried wheat stalks, and wheat was thrown at them.
At these medieval wedding feasts, dry biscuits were given to the wedding guests, which were later replaced by small spiced buns (these spiced biscuits & buns were the forerunners of modern fruit wedding cakes.
White icing was first introduced by french pastry cooks, during which time good luck symbols became popular, a tradition which still exists today in the form of figurines on wedding cakes.
Royal wedding cakes, of course, were in a class of their own. Queen Victoria's wedding cake was adorned with Britannia, 3 metres in circumference, while the cake done for Queen Elizabeth's wedding was 2.75 metres high.
In Austria and Germany a wedding cake would be a rich chocolate sponge cake, and consists of cream, chocolate, cognac, nougat and toasted vanilla. Marzipan is used for decoration together with sugar flowers or chocolate artwork.
The french wedding cake, the croquemboch, is a pyramid of custard-filled pastries, which is covered with a sticky almond base. Multi-coloured sugar almonds are placed inside this pyramid.
The Italian wedding cake, 'Dolce', is soaked in liqueur. This cake is often decorated with butter cream layers, toasted almonds and marinated or glazed cherries.
In Britain and Australia, a wedding cake would be as we know it in South Africa, a fruit cake with marzipan and icing.
In Luxembourg, a wedding cake is completely different to any other cake. This cake is dough baked on a rolling rod, and these rings are then glazed and stacked with the largest ring at the bottom and a crown made of almonds and sugar on the ring at the top.
Decoration on polish wedding cakes takes the form of the Temple of Hymen, the Greek god of marriage
Flowers adorn the tops of cakes in the Philippines, and are at least 6 tiers high.
Greek wedding cakes are often up to 8 tiers in height, and are linked with all kinds of ornaments such as pillars, bridges and stands. The cake is then decorated with a large amount of figurines.
In Macedonia, the baking of the wedding cake has to done in the last four days prior to the wedding, and a young boy, representing the husband would watch over the procedure, while a young girl would, when no-one was watching, drop a wedding ring into the dough. The person that found the ring in his / her cake, was said to be the next one to get married.
In Liberia, it was considered very important for the success of the marriage that a cake was thrown over the the groom's house's roof.
The American version of a wedding cake is in the form of a sponge cake, with butter icing and usually fresh flowers as decoration.
Going to Mexico, and these cakes tell the whole story of the bridal couple, with little figurines in detailed costumes, in life-like settings.
 

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