We explore the different Wedding Cakes used in different countries at Weddings. .
Black cake is offered served at Weddings in a number of Caribbean countries included Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad. Not to be confused with the Northern American Fruit Cake, the black cake is a boozy fruitcake cake made from a rich selection of dried fruits such as prunes, raisins and cherries that are soaked and aged for an extended period of time in copious amounts of rum and port. Traditionally the fruit is soaked at the start of the wedding engagement. The resultant cake is very moist and sticky with plump fruit with a spicy smell.
The black wedding cake is in fact black! The colour comes from a very dark sugar syrup which imparts its colour onto the cake batter. The long cooking time at a low temperatures helps the colouring significantly, when shorter methods are used the cake is often much lighter.
A traditional Bulgarian Wedding Cake includes honey in the recipe. Honey was integral to the Bulgarian Wedding Ceremony with bridge anointing the groom with honey exclaiming “Be fond of each other as the bees are fond of this honey.” Honey Cake is offered served with wine to the wedding couple, sometimes by the groom’s mother, to wish them a happy life together. Various cake recipes are used and cake decorations applied and all add honey while making the cake batter, we used a whole cup and it was delicious.
Ukrainian Wedding Cake is in fact made with a bread called “Korovai.” In true wedding style is generally made with 3-5 tiers and decorated in the wedding theme and traditionally with unleavened dough, marshmallow whip or meringue (just like we use for our macaroons). The bread stays with wedding couple from the start of their wedding and is finally served at the end of the day to all the guests. The ingredients are arguably less important than the ritual of making the bread – bad bread bad marriage!
The Lithuanian Wedding Cake is really unusual and is apply described by its name “šakotis” which translates as a tree with many branches. The cake batter is made with common cake ingredients and layered onto rotating spit in open fire or oven. It is frequently decorated with sweets and chocolate.