The Weird History of the Groom’s Cake

If you’ve ever been to a wedding in the South you may have come across a groom’s cake. This is a separate confection from the main cake and is usually quite noticeable for its different shape or color to the wedding cake. There’s no doubt that it’s a fun part of the wedding and we’re not complaining about having 2 desserts instead of 1. However, the history behind this unusual cake is a bit wacky.

Some sources say that the groom’s cake tradition began in Victorian England and was brought to the US in the late 1800s. Wedding cakes were a custom in Europe for centuries, but the grand and over-the-top, tiered cake iced in white at Queen Victoria’s wedding to Prince Albert in 1840 cemented wedding cakes as part of regular weddings.

Yorkshire is the proposed site for the where the groom’s cake could have been invented, a souvenir of the wedding that guests were intended to take home with them after the nuptials and celebrations were completed.

The main wedding cake was preferred to be white like the bride’s dress (another tradition from Queen Victoria). White symbolized purity and was sometimes used for the flowers as well. Vanilla cake with royal icing (in honor of the Queen) was the new standard for increasingly elaborate weddings that aligned with the ceremony and decorum of the era. Groom’s cakes, on the other hand, are colorful and even at times unusual, which deviates from the traditional wedding cake aesthetic.

There are many sources that claim the custom for a groom’s cake originated in the US, in the South to be specific. Some even go so far as to name Texas as the place of origin. One source claims that a Texan bride wanted a fun flavor for her cake, but didn’t want to spoil the pure white looks of a vanilla cake and so ended up with 2 cakes, a bride cake and a groom cake, so she could enjoy both at her wedding.

Still other stories on the groom’s cake are that it was intended to be a gift for the bridesmaids as a thank you for the work of helping prepare and support the bride. A piece of cake and glass of wine would be given to each bridesmaid before they made their way to the church as a sort of pre-game before the ceremony.

Regardless of how it came to be there are some standards on groom’s cakes today. They typically are a fun flavor like fruit, red velvet, or chocolate. And they have have icing of bold colors, sometimes many colors all in one cake. The groom’s cake is served on a separate table so no one will confuse it for the wedding cake. And, the groom’s cake is usually in a shape that reflects one or more of the groom’s interests.

Here is where the weird history continues today. These cakes can be made to look like animals, TVs, sports arenas, cars, robots, golf courses, and a thousand other things. The decorations on some of these cakes would rival the greatest creation on Is It Cake?.