The wedding cake has a cultural background dating back to ancient Rome from where it is assumed to have originated. It has been influenced by the religious and social aspects of Western food Culture. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the visual meaning of the royal family’s wedding cakes in the days of Queen Victoria. The appearance of the royal wedding cakes in the Victorian period had four implications.
The first was spectacle. People were astonished by the cake’s unprecedented enormousness and they realized the extent of Britain’s wealth and power. Second, the cakes were a means of ascertaining the names and nationalities of the bridal couple. Third, these cakes were decorated with ancient mythological symbols, and it was considered prestigious to be able to understand them. This is an example of the popularity of neoclassicism in Europe. Last, the cakes symbolized the purity of the bride based on Christian doctrines. The royal family’s wedding cakes had a greatly influenced Britain and other countries through newspapers and other mass media.
