Wedding cake
A cake cut by the couple at the reception, from the Roman bread of barley to the tiered cake of today.
Also: bride cake, groom's cake
The wedding cake is a cake served at the reception, with a long history behind it: Roman couples shared a loaf of barley bread, and medieval English guests brought small cakes to pile up in a heap, which the couple kissed over. The tiered white cake, iced with royal icing, became fashionable in nineteenth-century Britain. The couple cut the first slice together, and may feed each other. A fruit cake in Britain and the Caribbean, a croquembouche in France, a korovai in Ukraine and a layered sponge in the United States show the variety. The top tier may be saved for a first anniversary or a christening.