Wedding Cakes In History

Wedding cakes have varied throughout the years, and in recent years they have grown more simplistic yet elegant. We thought it would be fun to chat about how the wedding cake has transformed throughout the years to give you some inspiration for your own unique wedding cake! Let’s start in the 1800’s. 

Queen Victoria’s Wedding: 1840

The cake stood 14 inches, 10 foot diameter in circumference and weighed about 300 lbs. It was incredibly detailed, with the couple on top and it even includes her dog in the details! Queen Victoria’s tastes ended up changing weddings forever! Previously brides wore red robes to their wedding’s, however Queen Victoria had other plans and unveiled her stunning bright white gown covered in lace for the world to see. Changing weddings to what we know them as today!

Wedding Cake 1910’s

Very simple but elegant one tier cake. It has very minimal design but adding flowers on top gives it a more natural look.

Wedding Cake 1920’s

There is more frosting used on a cake to add to the detail, and the cake topper becomes more lavish while sticking with the flower theme.

Wedding Cake 1930’s

There is less detail in the frosting, however the figurines are more important. They begin to add plastic/metal figurines as a cake topper.

Wedding Cake 1940’s

The wedding topper becomes more extravagant while the frosting catches up. The frosting is now colored and horseshoes are symbolic for good luck. This is also where we start to see the tiers become more elevated. While with the shortage of supplies during the war of this time, elevating the cake made it appear bigger.

Wedding Cake 1950’s

This is where we start to see flatter tiers, but more of them. The frosted flowers are important as well because they now exhibit more colors along with intricate designs along the tiers.

Wedding Cake 1960’s 

The tiers become more extravagant and father apart.

Wedding Cake 1970’s

The tiers become shorter in diameter but taller in height. As well as the space in between the tiers become taller as well. They start using other decor as a topper, but it still represents a wedding. Bright colors begin to take shape with the times and which styles are trending. Hence the yellow flowers at the bottom, “flower power”.

Wedding Cake 1980’s

These cakes start to take more of a shape as an actual building. While it has many tiers, they still and more cake on either side of the middle pieces. Bright colors like this blue were very popular, along with figurines that aren’t human-like, but an animal that represents the male and female. Dove was the popular choice since most weddings are held in churches and they were thought to be a symbol of peace and purity.

Wedding Cake 1990’s

At this time, different shaped wedding cakes were popular (Hence the square tiers). They also leaned towards more neutral/darker colors while keeping with the mostly white cake.

Wedding Cake 2000’s

It was a more daring time, people love to stand out and adding black to a wedding cake is the way to go. Wearing black to a wedding was almost as bad as wearing white to a wedding if you aren’t the bride. Also cupcakes were a huge thing. People loved the idea of handing out cupcakes and less work of them having to cut the cake for all their guests.

Wedding Cake 2010’s

The 2010’s were a time for inspiration and breaking new ground on decorating cakes. Abstract and realism were a popular theme. The most important thing was having BRIGHT colors, even if it didn’t make a lot  of sense. It’s art. 

Modern Day Wedding Cakes

Wedding Cake 2020

These days, wedding cakes are more simple and elegant. There is also the theme of using real flowers. They actually remind me of the cake from 1916. It gives a very minimalist vibe while still looking beautiful.