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Wedding cakes have always been a big part of wedding celebrations ever since the first multi tiered cakes were prepared in 17th century France. However, the elaborately decorated cakes reached their height of popularity in the 19th century, also known as the Victorian Era after Queen Victoria of England.
In the 19th century, wedding cakes were all everyone would talk about when it came to marriages. Though it is a common misperception that Victorian wedding cakes tend to be intimidating structures towering over people, the truth is Victorian wedding cakes are heavily based on fruits and are usually wider than taller. However, it is true that these cakes are intricately decorated.
Modern day Victorian Wedding Cake Designs
Modern day Victorian wedding cakes, however, are in fact, tall and multi tiered. Since dough has considerably reduced in price since the 1800s', a change has been observed in the ingredients of the cake as well, which shifted from being fruit based to more pastry based.
Still, some aspects have remained the same. For instance, Victorian wedding cakes would heavily utilize long strings of sugar paste pearls for decorative purposes. And when you talk about modern Victorian wedding cakes, the long strings of pearls are the first things which come to mind as those are still used as hanging décor on different tiers.
Yet another way of decorating Victorian wedding cakes is by tying ornamental laces around the base of the tiers. You could also place dainty white and pink roses on the surface of each tier to give the wedding cake that simple old world charm. Placing a Victorian vase at the top of the tiered cake, filled with white roses, lilies, and tulips, is another easy method to have your wedding cake give off a classy Victorian feel.
Lace Wedding Cakes
Lace plays a major role when it comes to decorating Victorian wedding cakes. Back then, a major inspiration for wedding cake designs happened to be lace patterns as lace was the dominant fabric worn by women. It is for that reason that when you leaf through Victorian wedding cake pictures, you will see an abundance of lace like patterns modeled from sugar paste or butter cream icing. There’s nothing as cozy and quaint as lace patterns apparently, which is why "Victorian" is synonymous with "lace" when it comes to wedding cake designs. Which is probably why, whenever you ask a baker to decorate a simple wedding cakes "Victorian-style", more often than not you will receive a cake which is done up with royal icing and sporting detailed lace patterns.
Charms under the Victorian Wedding Cake
In the Victorian Era, it was a popular tradition to take tiny charms, usually made of silver, tie them at the ends of long ribbons, and place them underneath the wedding cake, with only the ends of the ribbons showing from under the cake border icing. The bridesmaids were then expected to find the ends of the ribbons and pull at them, removing the charms from under the cake- one charm for one bridesmaid. The charm the bridesmaid got was believed to affect her future in some way e.g. If she pulled out a heart shaped charm, it meant she would find true love soon, if she pulled out a "sun charm", it meant she would have immense happiness for the rest of her life while a "dog charm" represented the arrival of an extremely loyal friend or faithful lover et cetera.
If you want to add a little bit of the charm and class of days gone by, then yes, Victorian wedding cakes are the way to go- be they decked with lace patterns, elegant flowers, sugar paste pearl strings, or charms tied on ribbons (or all of the above).