If you’re a sweets eater, for you the wedding cake is the main event when it comes to wedding festivities. Not only is it usually a gorgeous statement piece for photos, but it’s also a work of art in many ways. Your florist can add blooms to match your bridal bouquet or reception decorations, the colors incorporated (no, it doesn’t just have to be white) into the cake’s design can match that of the theme and even the structure of the cake can complement the reception location whether it be art deco or rustic chic.
Though the main wedding cake can wear many hats, there’s another tasty aspect that can bring in the couple’s personality and another sweet option for wedding guests – the groom’s cake. Though a more Southern tradition of late, many couples all over the country add a groom’s cake to bring some personality into the mix.
The groom’s cake was devised in Great Britain with origins dating to the 19th century. During that time, the wedding cake was considered “too feminine” for the groom and male wedding guests (God forbid). It was traditionally only served to the male guests during the reception and then once the wedding had concluded, pieces of the groom’s cake were wrapped up and given to the single female guests for them to take home and sleep with. (Yes, you read that correctly, they were to sleep with a piece of cake.) The idea was if the slice of groom’s cake was placed under the maiden’s pillow that she would dream of her future husband.
Lucky for single women everywhere (who we know are just so worried about how they will get a husband, but may not want to sleep with a piece of cake) the groom’s cake is now served to whomever, whenever. Much like the traditional wedding cake, the groom’s cake has become a sort of showstopper for many weddings, especially in the South.
People may say everything is bigger in Texas, but New Orleans weddings take the cake (pun intended) in this area. Local bakeries often highlight large-scale groom’s cakes based on local fare or popular pastimes – a shrimp po’boy sandwich, the Saints Super Bowl Ring and a large crawfish pot with garlic, corn and other fixins, to name a few.
Kelly here: I personally have attended a wedding with a groom’s cake in the shape of the Millennium Falcon from “Star Wars,” as well as fully decked-out camo hunting cake with edible ducks flying over the cake itself. My cousin even had his Great Dane dog, Mr. Bo Jangles, replicated in cake for his groom’s cake.
The groom’s cake also doesn’t have to be a cake at all. Typically, the groom’s cake offers guests another flavor of cake if the traditional almond wedding cake flavor isn’t their favorite. But, what if the groom himself doesn’t like wedding cake? Couples can opt for a king cake, cupcake tower or an assortment of pies in place of the cake.
No matter what form of groom’s cake you want, the options are endless and the sleeping requirements are no more.
