At Fairs we usually put on a fairly eye catching display which is exactly what it is suppose to be, to catch people's eye so they come over at least to have a look and two maybe a little chat too. We just know if we took along a table full of white cakes no one would come to see us.
We often get people saying "we want a traditional cake!", but when we ask people so what is a traditional cake they don't actually have an answer.
If you went by trends at the moment I would say a traditional cake is either a naked or semi naked sponge cake.
But to be honest there is really no such thing anymore as a traditional cake it really is what you want on your big day. From simple design, to something that has the real WOW factor when you walk in the room.
Talking to my dear departed grandmother she would tell me that during and after the war ingredients were still hard to get hold of and expensive they used to have a very small cake hidden under a cupboard box. The cupboard box was highly decorated with royal icing that was lifted off to reveal the tiny cake inside.
Then it became traditional to have a rich fruit cake, marzipan and elaborate royal icing decorations, which was a highly skilled job and still is today and you need the most steady of hands.
Fruit cake was used for structure and for the ease of how long it could be baked and decorated in advance, and people traditionally kept the top tier for their christening cakes of their first born child.
My own wedding cake was a team effort as we had a very low key, low budget wedding some 30 years back now as we were very young and not much money, but the best day ever, my nan was a professional baker and did my wedding cake, and it was what was then called a traditional cake, all fruit cake which had been baked a year in advance and constantly feed with brandy, and covered in yellow marzipan and royal icing, although absolutely beautiful to look at and the content was enough to make you feel over the limit, the icing was so hard we had to physically use a chisel and hammer to get into it when we got home and just posed for the photos, but it all added to the fun of the day.
Fruit cake was also good in structure and it enabled you to put tiers on top of each other creating the stacked effect without the cake collapsing on itself.
These days we don't have to worry about that cause we have dowels that take the weight of cakes and we have so many more mediums available to us that we can basically create anything we want to adorn your cake.
If we go right back wedding cakes were traditionally made of wheat which was a symbol of fertility and prosperity. This wedding cake would have been thrown at the bride, around 1900 years ago the Romans began baking with wheat and salt making small cakes.
I think you would agree that today's cakes have come along way since the Roman times and can you imagine throwing your wedding cake at the bride I think she might be a bit horrified.
So back to "I want a traditional cake" really think about what you do want and is it really traditional or it is something that reflects you as a couple, and if you want a simpler design but you don't see it on a display at a wedding fair it is fair to say that particular wedding cake designer could do it for you. Please do not judge your decision and overlook a cake maker just on what you see at wedding fairs, if nothing took your fancy or you didn't think it was your style that isn't a problem, as said the display is literally to draw people in and to show a level of skill and to try and make you think outside the box instead of following the lead of someone else.
Happy Wedding Cake Shopping, if you want any help or advise you know where to find us.
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