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Every Tuesday at 7:42 a.m. and 5:18 p.m., Tom Harte shares a few thoughts on food and shares recipes. A founder of “My Daddy’s Cheesecake,” a bakery/café in Cape Girardeau, a food columnist for The Southeast Missourian, and a cookbook author, he also blends his passion for food with his passion for classical music in his daily program, The Caffe Concerto.

Wedding Cake

The most dangerous food in the world is wedding cake, maintains an old American proverb. During the month of June, lots of people choose to live dangerously.

Contributing to the anxiety of June brides and grooms, is the fact that these days nothing about planing a wedding is a piece of cake -- not even the cake! Today's couples might even find themselves asking whether they want a cake at all.

Thus some newlyweds opt for tiramisu, creme brulee, or chocolate truffles. Croquembrouche, that classic tower of cream-puff's long tradition for special occasions in France, is also popular. More than a few couples have been inspired by it to request towers of Ding Dongs or KrispyKreme donuts instead.

Even couples not daring to depart from tradition by shedding the conventional tiers of joy, are likely to choose something other than a white cake with white icing as their first act together as husband and wife. Preferring instead: chocolate, carrot, or even cheesecake!

These trends are the latest in the evolution of a culinary custom that goes back to ancient Greece and Rome. Back then, the cake was made of wheat or barley and smashed over the bride's head! The resulting crumbs, eaten by the newlyweds, [are] tokens of good fortune. Over time, no doubt to the relief of new brides, the smashing evolved into mere crumbling. 

It turns out, that the first recorded recipe for a dish specifically designed to be eaten at a wedding was actually for pie. In the 17th century, it evolved into bride's cake and it was further refined in the 19th century to become the familiar three-tiered cake, said to have been modeled after the spire of St. Bride's Church in London.

Wedding cakes continue to evolve in the direction of greater grandiosity, making them big business today. Though, as the Joy of Cooking suggests, baking one at home can be a glorious undertaking. 

Tom Harte is a retired faculty member from Southeast Missouri State University where he was an award-winning teacher, a nationally recognized debate coach, and chair of the department of Speech Communication and Theatre.
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