Women Love Chocolate and Men Love Cake

First of all I would like to say that my brother was the one who titled this post. So if it doesn't make sense I'm sorry but I couldn't think of anything to title it.

Secondly I would like to brag about my sister a little. She is a a pastry chef and has been hired recently to make a cake for a 25th anniversary for some friends of ours. While she was frosting the cake we got into a discussion about groom's cakes and how they started and all the traditions surrounding groom's cakes.

Ok, here we go. Groom's cakes. No one really knows when groom's cakes came about or how or if any of the recorded histories of the groom's cake are true. I will tell you several histories and traditions, you can decide which one you like the most.

Groom's cakes were supposedly started in the 18th century. However they were for SURE made during the early 1900s. (As far as we know, haha!) The groom's cake was always a dark colored cake such as a fruit cake or a chocolate cake in contrast of the traditional white bride's cake.

Some say the groom's cakes was served at the receptions to the guests with wine for toasting.

Another story says that the grooms cake was on top of the bride's cake and no one ate it on the wedding day. Rather it was put into a container that was filled with brandy and preserved for the one year anniversary of the bride and groom's consumption. This makes sense to me seeing as how many couples to this day save the top of their cake so they can eat it together on their first anniversary.

Yet another history says that all the single women or just the bridesmaids were given a piece of the groom's cake wrapped in paper so they could place it under their pillow the night of the wedding in hopes they would dream of their future husband that night.

Still another story says that the groom's cake was wrapped in a box and tied with fancy ribbon and given to the guests as they left as party favors. I personally like this tradition, it's very fancy and classy in my opinion and when I get married I may just have to do this.

No matter the tradition almost every writing of the history of groom's cake, I read, agreed that the groom's cake sat on a separate table from the bride's cake and was in no way to look as wonderful as the bride's cake, and should traditional not be white. Of course the story of the groom's cake sitting on top of the bride's cake is a different matter entirely.

If anyone knows any other stories of the origin and traditions of groom's cakes I would love to know.

I know this is not a groom's cake but the picture was just so cute!

So one last thing before I sign off for the night, since we're on the topics of wedding and food and traditions. Another tradition that I want to have at my own wedding is an old tradition that replaces the bouquet toss. This tradition is the "bride's pie". All the single women at the wedding reception would be served a slice of the bride's pie. Hidden in the pie would be a single glass ring. The lucky girl to get the piece of pie with the glass ring would be the next lucky lady to get married.