Wedding Cake
Short History of Wedding Cake Toppings & Wedding Cake Toppers by Rose Haller, Wedding Expert & Editor- www.WeddingCakeToppings.info and www.WeddingLDS.com
The History of Wedding Cake Toppings and Cake Toppers
The modern wedding cake is an out growth of wedding traditions dating back to the Roman Empire. Putting toppings on cakes ar wedding receptions, also called cake ornaments or cake toppers, are the outgrowth of a number of old traditions from around the world.
In the United States toppings, ornaments or toppers for cakes at weddings show up in the traditions of middle income and affluent American family’s even before the American Civil War (or for Southern families what they call “The War of Northern Aggression”) and grew in popularity to be common in the 1890’s.
Wedding Reception cake toppers or toppings were simple in the late 19th Century. The cake at the Wedding reception were often decorated with flowers or ornament such bells and small objects that related to the bride and groom. Wedding reception cake toppings were commonly handcrafted and made of frosting, gum paste, icing, or plaster of Paris by a professional wedding cake baker or a member of the bride’s or groom’s family.
Decorative Cake Toppers became more popular immediately after World War I. In the 1920’s, the High Society in the US went beyond using flowers, or cake toppings from the baker hands, and they eagerly adopted the use of putting bride and groom figurines on top of cakes.
Historically, there are two significant events in the United States which boosted the popularity and use of bridal cake toppers in the form of small figurines of the bride and groom atop the cake.
First, the well-known and highly respected American etiquette expert, Miss Emily Post, in her 1922 Best-Selling book clearly stated that the: “wedding cake is an essential of every wedding reception.” Emily Post further counseled and commented about the placement of the bride and groom figurines as a cake toppings specifically that “the wedding cake is almost always ordered from the caterer who delivers it shortly before the hour of the reception. It is usually in several tiers, beautifully decorated with white icing and topped by small figures of the bride and groom.”
Secondly, American businesses and retailers including the retail giant Sears, Roebuck & Company (now Sears Brands, LLC) began marketing and selling wedding cake toppings with bride and groom figurines for the top of the wedding cake.
Wedding cake toppers in the early 20th Century commonly or usually made of small figurines of the bride in wedding dress and groom in a tuxedo standing beside each other on a stand. Some brides and groom figures were depicted under an arch or a small gazebo.
In an informative Wedding Cake Toppers article entitled, “Bride and Groom Wedding Cake Toppers,” Robert Reed wrote in the June 2006 issue of The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, “In 1924 one U.S. wholesale catalog was offering an assortment of wax bride and groom wedding cake toppers. Selections included a hatless groom or a groom wearing a “high hat” or top hat. The bride meanwhile could come with or without a cloth veil. All of the bride and groom wax figures were about two inches tall. The catalog listing offered them as a couple, or in groups of 100 for wedding favors.”
Reed added the importance of the including of wedding cake topper in the 1927 mail order catalog form Sears, Roebuck and Company: “The idea of wedding toppers in general and bride and groom toppers in particular had expanded enough in 1927 for the Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog it include a whole page of wedding cake ornaments. The following year Slack Manufacturing offered bride and groom figures made of celluloid. The bride wore a paper dress and the groom wore a paper suit. Both figures were about two and a half inches tall.”
In the early 1900’s wedding cake toppers or cake toppings were made from glass, paper, or wood, and many of the toppers were handcrafted. Over time the popular wedding cake toppings (cake toppers) began to be manufactured or mass produced commercially in the United States, Europe and Asia.
The usual cake toppers traditionally featured a miniature bride and Groom Figurine. These miniature bride and groom figurines could come in a wide range of poses. During or immediately after War, the groom might be featured in a Military uniform from one of the various arms of the Military (Army & Army Air Corp, Navy, Air Force, Marines, or Coast Guard). Some grooms who were Policeman or Fireman might be shown as figurines in their uniform.
It has always been a long standing tradition that the bride and groom would remove and save the Cake Toppers or Cake Toppings as an important memento of the wedding ceremony and wedding reception. Tied in with the removal of the Cake Toppers or Cake Toppings is the removal, saving and freezing the top layer of the wedding cake for the bride and groom to thaw out and eat to celebrate their First Wedding Anniversary.
As time passed in the Twentieth Century the range and variety of wedding cake toppings expanded beyond solely using the bride and groom figurines as cake toppers to include a wide range of wedding cake toppings or ornaments. Some wedding couples choose instead of the cake toppers using a bride and groom dressed in a wedding gown and tux respectively, to choose to alternatively or additionally select such bridal cake toppings as: bows, cupids, cherubs, hearts, Love Birds, silver bells, or even a small framed picture of the wedding couple (maybe an engagement photo of the wedding couple).
As a side note, the terms wedding cake toppings, toppers, or wedding figurines are pretty much completely interchangeable. The term Cake Toppers usually refers to bride and groom figurines placed on top of the wedding cake that are made of Paper Mache, Plastic, Porcelain, Polymer Clay, or even high tech Thermoplastic. While wedding cake toppings, usually bride and groom figurines, made of out of shaped and colored icing may also be referred to as “icingtons.”
Exclusively for: WeddingCakeToppings.info
Copyright © 2010-2011 Rose Haller, WeddingCakeToppings.info & WeddingLDS.com (Both Divisions of Celestial Publishing -
Rose Haller, Chief Creative Officer & Editor-in-Chief).
All rights reserved.
About the Author
Rose Haller is & has been a Professional Wedding & Reception Planner for 30 years. Rose is a LDS Wedding Gown & Wedding Cake Expert. She is Editor-in-Chief/CCO (WeddingLDS.com , WeddingLDS.info & WeddingCakeToppings.info). She & her husband, Dr Howard Haller have 6 grown children & many grandchildren
“Wedding cake” from Man Stroke Woman
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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 7:21 am and is filed under Weddings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.