Cake!

I need help with understanding an English wedding cake!

In America, the cake is the dessert course at a wedding.  I understand here you have a dessert course that is seperate from the cake.  So, is the cake a second dessert?  Or does it just look pretty in the room?  My partner says he's never eaten a piece of wedding cake at a wedding... but they have them... 

I'm confused.

I have been to 15+ weddings in the UK but they have all been very similar in terms of style.  A proper sit down, 3 course meal was offered with a dessert course that was not cake.  I have seen the cake handled in a variety of ways though.  Some were just decorative to the event but the bride/groom/family did something with it later.  Some were cut and left out for people to eat while dancing.  Some were cut to be sent home with those in attendance - in little boxes.  

I have to say, in all those I have attended, the cake was not a major part of the wedding.  I cannot remember a single UK wedding where I witnessed the cutting of the cake.  I am aware in one wedding the cake was cut in front of guests (I missed it) but it was literally just who was in the room at the time, not like a marked event.  In all of these as well, the cake was not an elaborate thing either. Very simplistic overall.

I haven't seen a lot of variation in types of weddings so others experiences may be different.

We had our cake as dessert! It was a lemon sponge (not the traditional British fruitcake) and we served it with fresh local strawberries and cream. It was lovely.

Our photographer was very into the whole cutting the cake pictures and he's British (as am I), so I think that's pretty normal.

Really, it's your wedding so you should do just as you want.

We had our dessert separate from the cake. I have seen this at a few US weddings as well.  In our wedding, we sent slices of cake home with the guests in little boxes. We had a small wedding, and afterwards went home and ate cake while we opened our gifts. (We left for the honeymoon the next morning.) Of course you can whatever you like.

We had dessert (a fancy bread & butter pudding thing - DH had picked it), and cake (with cake cutting) -- so two desserts, yay! 

That's really interesting, because in the region of the US I came from, I never once saw the cake shared out amongst the guests.  I mean, I've been to a lifetime of US weddings.  More than I could ever count and I can't remember a single one where the guests ate the actual cake.  In fact, many cakes now use styrofoam or rice crispie treats under several of the layers to cut down on costs since they won't be served anyway.  The bride and groom cut the cake and ate a bite, but nobody else did.

Each wedding I've gone to here, however, has cut up the cake and shared it with it's guests.  I've been looking at that as a more UK thing to actually eat the cake (although it's sometimes eaten later at home as others said). 

As others said though, do whatever you want.  It's your wedding, and different traditions from other places are becoming more and more prevalent in UK weddings anyway.

We had a three course dinner with desert

Then for cake we had a big cupcake, and lots of little cupcakes.
We cut the big cupcake and had a slice and people helped themselves to the little cupcake, we had boxes around as well so people took the leftover little cupcakes home

We went to a wedding recently and it was the same, desert, then later cake cutting, piece of cake handed around to those who weren't stuffed

We had a small wedding. We had a meal at a restaurant and dessert there as well. We then invited people back to my in-laws house for tea, coffee, wedding cake and nibbles. The cake had buttercream frosting sponge cake. I have pictures if you'd like to see it.

I've been to three UK weddings this year and one they served the cake immediately following the meal and had something else for evening guests. One they did the cake cutting after evening guests arrived and the other they did sponge cake after the meal and then fruit cake and cupcakes for evening guests.

We had a small fruitcake with out topper on and then a couple tiers of cupcakes. The cake cutting was before "breakfast" (dinner), after photos. Then we ate dinner which included a dessert. The fruitcake was cut and served with the buffet during the break in dancing, but it wasn't announced or made a big deal of. My FiL still asks why we never served the cake and we keep telling him it was served, he just didn't notice.

Traditionally wedding cakes were fruitcake covered with marzipan and topped with royal icing, and may have a number of tiers. The cake is very rich and moist, the icing can be hard enough to break your teeth on (!), and the top tier of the cake can be saved for quite a while, in an airtight tin, to use as a Christening cake!

Cutting the cake was always a big part of the reception at all the UK weddings I have been to (but we're talking quite a few years ago!) so things may have changed. Styles of cake have probably changed too!

Traditionally wedding cakes were fruitcake covered with marzipan and topped with royal icing, and may have a number of tiers. The cake is very rich and moist, the icing can be hard enough to break your teeth on (!), and the top tier of the cake can be saved for quite a while, in an airtight tin, to use as a Christening cake!

My friend's daughter got married very close to Christmas and they had tons of leftover cake, so they just served it as Christmas cake.  

We got our cake at Slattery's.  I wanted chocolate and it wasn't a problem.  I think Mrs. Robinson told me that when she asked for a chocolate wedding cake they said it was impossible!  However, at the time I was not aware of British icing being different than American icing.  I assumed whatever flavor it would be that it would be creamy smooth and yummy--always my favorite part of cake.  I was looking forward to it and imagine my disappointment on the day when I realized it was:

the icing can be hard enough to break your teeth on

Anyway the cake was just cut up and some people had a slice right then and a few took a slice home.  I don't even know what happened to the rest of it, but we certainly weren't going to save it for using it as a Christening cake or anything like that.

I think Mrs. Robinson told me that when she asked for a chocolate wedding cake they said it was impossible! 

Nope, it wasn't me!  We had a chocolate sponge cake with the yummy buttercream icing, decorated with summer fruits (it was August) - because I specified all that on my bakery order.  The baker said, 'Oh! That's very unusual!'  But I didn't understand why at the time.  Everyone at our wedding commented on how great the cake was (and again it didn't occur to me that it would ordinarily have been any different).  Only one grumpy old lady (friend of DH's family) complained about the piece taken to her that it wasn't 'right/traditional' -- and then I had to have someone explain to me whatever she was on about!  Lol!  And I hadn't the slightest idea why people would want to take away pieces of the cake - I mean chocolate sponge with buttercream icing (over distances & heat - it was actually hot that summer week!) isn't going to hold up like fruitcake would, but it never occurred to me that that's 'how it was done' and DH certainly did nothing to clue me in beforehand.  It didn't matter though - we loved our cake & the wedding guests loved it & that was that!

I should have warned you about the royal icing, Andee - sorry!

Nope, it wasn't me!  We had a chocolate sponge cake with the yummy buttercream icing, decorated with summer fruits (it was August) - because I specified all that on my bakery order.  The baker said, 'Oh! That's very unusual!'  But I didn't understand why at the time.  Everyone at our wedding commented on how great the cake was (and again it didn't occur to me that it would ordinarily have been any different).  Only one grumpy old lady (friend of DH's family) complained about the piece taken to her that it wasn't 'right/traditional' -- and then I had to have someone explain to me whatever she was on about!  Lol!  And I hadn't the slightest idea why people would want to take away pieces of the cake - I mean chocolate sponge with buttercream icing (over distances & heat - it was actually hot that summer week!) isn't going to hold up like fruitcake would, but it never occurred to me that that's 'how it was done' and DH certainly did nothing to clue me in beforehand.  It didn't matter though - we loved our cake & the wedding guests loved it & that was that!

I should have warned you about the royal icing, Andee - sorry!

Maybe it was mapleleafgirl then?  Yeah, royal icing is cr@p, no flavor, just hard as a rock and sickly sweet.  Your cake sounds perfect!

Now that you mention it, Andee, I am pretty sure it was MLG & the bakery they used somewhere down in Devon or Dorset.  They told her a chocolate wedding cake was impossible - lol!