Top Tier Tradition

      There are many wedding traditions that couples part take in without even considering why it is we do them. Ever wonder why couples save their top tier of their wedding cake to eat on their one year anniversary? The answer might actually surprise you. 

      Tiered wedding cake have been the norm since the 19th century and couples began saving their top tier all the way back then. It was almost a guarantee that the newlyweds would give birth to their first child about a year after their wedding day.  Instead of buying another cake couples would serve their top tier of their wedding cake at their baby's christening. Even Queen Elizabeth II did this with her first born. Today the tradition has been slightly modified as many couples are not having children right away or at all. So couples began having it on their first anniversary as a good luck tradition. There is even a company these days that will wrap, store and ship your top tier for you. 

      Now you might also be wondering what year old wedding cake taste like. We find depending on the flavor and if the proper steps have been taken- frozen year old cake can actually be pretty good! Don't believe me? Take it from this Cake Boutique Customer that emailed us after her October wedding anniversary! 

Time to Eat That One-Year-Old Cake

Tale of a Newlywed Couple Surviving the Obligatory Anniversary Wedding Cake Bite

So… the old adage is for newlyweds to celebrate their first year of marriage by eating a slice of their wedding cake. That’s right, it is apparently good luck to eat year-old cake. Congratulations, you made it one year! Now eat some baked goods that have been around for 365 days.

Coming from a very traditional Sicilian family, I’m not one to break any superstition that may potentially result in “bad luck” in any way (I think I’m still paying for a broken mirror from 2011). Therefore, the day after our wedding, we took home our leftover cake the venue wrapped for us, and shoved it in our freezer – its new home for the next year. 

On our honeymoon, I told my new husband that we would be eating the cake a year from now…his face looked concerned, “How will that taste?, Will we get sick? Do we have to do it?” His solution? Buy a nice bottle of wine while we were in Napa Valley on our honeymoon with the goal of drinking it on our first anniversary to wash down the cake.

A year went by and the day came to celebrate our first year of marriage…with cake that had survived our marriage as long as we had so far. Yum…. I had been warned by my mother that the wedding cake her and my father ate on their first anniversary was “not great at all, but you just need to take one bite! You have to!” (again the Sicilian superstitious roots running strong here).

 The afternoon of our anniversary, I unwrapped both the slices

the venue saved us, to survey the goods. Surprisingly, both pieces still looked delicious! I let them thaw for about 4 hours and stole a swipe of frosting…still creamy and decadent! That night, my husband and I got our forks ready, piled on some cake, and clinked them together to cheers.

It. Was. YUMMY! I’m not talking, “hmm-that’s-pretty-good-for-a-year-old-cake” yummy, I mean “wow, that’s good cake”. So much so, that I took WAY more than the obligatory “one bite”. Needless to say, that delicious bottle of Napa Cabernet was not necessary to mask the taste (although still appreciated – like Hallie says in The Parent Trap, “I’m partial to the California grape”). The flavors of the cake were still rich and delicious, just as on our wedding day. After we were done, we made sure to save my most favorite part of our wedding cake, the “hidden Mickey”, which we wrapped up and hope to save forever.

So for any Cake Boutique brides, be EXCITED for your first anniversary. For a lot of reasons, of course, but mostly because you can look forward to some pretty delicious cake! I am so grateful to The Cake Boutique for making quality products that not only “wow” guests and taste phenomenal, but stand the test of time and make anniversaries for newlyweds even more enjoyable…and lucky, apparently…at least I hope.