THE WEDDING CAKE
AN INTERESTING HISTORY. Nothing holds such thrill and mystery, such lore of love and motherhood, of all the wedding customs, as that of the bridal cake. This can be traced back to the wedding festivities of the early Saxon brides, who carried ears of wheat to the wedding; eating some themselves, and scattering some of the grain among their friends. In the course of time the grain became ground into flour. It was baked into thin biscuits. Later spices, eggs, and milk were added. Then the wheat grain became the bun, which as late as the seventeenth century graced the wedding table. This in turn grew into the wedding cakes that are made now.
It was in the strange superstition of primitive man that the idea of what we know as the wedding cake first took shape. To him the most wonderful thing in the world was the wonder of new life. The mystery of motherhood he could not account for except by thinking it was great magic bestowed on womankind by the gods. When he took a wife he strove by gifts of food, to prepare the gods to bestow on his bride this great and wonderful gift of motherhood. Now through all the centuries the wedding cake survives, a symbol of blessing for the bride, ana the gift of lifemaking.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1940, Page 8
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225THE WEDDING CAKE Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1940, Page 8
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