There isn’t a time of year more rich in baked goods than late autumn. This week, kitchens across the country will be filled with the scent of apples, pumpkin spice, pecans, and more as families sit down to feast on Thanksgiving desserts.
But before you indulge in pies and other seasonal pastries, take a moment to celebrate a dessert that’s there for you all year round: cake. November 26 is National Cake Day — and while the origin of this holiday-of-sorts is lost to history, anyone with a sweet tooth can agree that cake is always worth celebrating. After all, cake is there for us during some of our most important celebrations; what’s a wedding or birthday without a slice or two?
Wedding cake, in particular, dates back millennia: The Romans would finish their ceremonies by breaking a wheat or barley cake over the bride’s head for good luck. In Medieval England, there were accounts of brides and grooms celebrating with sweet buns piled high into the air — if the happy couple were able to kiss over the top of the stack, it was said to bring good luck to their new family, according to the peer-reviewed food and culture journal Gastromica.
As with many Anglophone wedding traditions, however, the wedding cake as we now know it began to take shape during the reign of Queen Victoria. When Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Cotha in 1840, the couple’s wedding cake reportedly weighed more than 300 pounds and had busts of the queen and her future consort, according to official Royal Family records. It was also coated with white frosting, which subsequently became known as “royal icing” in the United Kingdom. The frosting was white both to symbolize virginity and also to brag about wealth. (Prior to modern sugar refinement practices, pure white frosting was exceptionally expensive, according to Gastromica.)
A piece of Victoria’s wedding cake was even preserved for posterity. In 2016, collector David Gainsborough Roberts sold the more-than-a-century old slice of cake for £1,500 ($1,884) at a Christie’s auction.
And while most of us can agree that a 184-year-old baked good is hardly the most appetizing thing in the world, the British royal family has certainly continued to produce some exceptionally delicious-looking wedding cakes. Click through to the desserts that Victoria’s descendants have had at their weddings — and, maybe, use it as inspiration before baking one yourself this week.
