The story of wedding cake

Not until the late nineteenth century for the appearance imposing pieces mounted behind the ones we know today. Sugar, still a rare commodity at the time, was synonymous with happiness and prosperity for honeymooners who shared their dessert with their guests in a gesture of communion. Marriageable girls walked away festivities with a piece of the pie in the hope that it would bring them luck for future union.

Croquembouche of the cake

The Croque-en-bouche later called Croquembouche in one word, is a pastry imagined by French chef Antonin Carême (1783-1833). Originally, it is a pyramid of fruit, nuts or candied chestnuts assembled with caramel. This dessert was served first at the table of Prince Berthier. In the early twentieth century, caramel candied fruits were abandoned in favor of cream puffs for this so pleasant feeling soft and crunchy.

Pierre Lacam (1836-1902), pastry and ice shows of Charles III, Prince of Monaco, is inspired later Lent Croquembouches to create the cake, the wedding cake of choice! Impressive, majestic, the cake consists of superimposing several cakes or making a pastry building elaborate. It is often the highlight of a wedding reception as evidenced by this famous description extracted from Madame Bovary:

"We had been looking for a pastry chef in Yvetot for the tarts and sweets. Since it began in the country, he had taken a lot, and he brought himself, for dessert, a cake that made scream. At the base of all, it was a square of blue cardboard, representing a temple with porticoes, colonnades, and stucco statuettes all round in the niches constellations of gilt paper stars; then, the second stage was a dungeon of Savoy cake, surrounded by fortifications in candied angelic, almonds, raisins, orange segments, and finally on the upper deck, which was a green meadow where there were rocks with lakes jams and boats Écalles hazelnuts on a small Cupid, swaying in a chocolate swing whose two uprights ended by two natural rosebuds, by way of balls at the top . "- Gustave Flaubert, 1857.