Let them eat cake!

I am particularly fond of the dessert portion of any meal and our wedding was no exception.  My husband and I are extreme chocoholics and that was certainly reflected in our decadent chocolate wedding cake with chocolate ganache:

Yes that is indeed a huge pile of Lindt truffles (milk & dark chocolate) on the top…delish! Needless to say our top tier didn’t have a shot of seeing our one year anniversary…it didn’t last more than a week after the wedding!

While we went with a pretty traditional American style wedding cake, there are all kinds of interpretations of cake and traditions pertaining to dessert at weddings around the globe.

Let’s take a look at what they are enjoying around the world…

France

The croquembouch is the traditional French dessert served at weddings.  The word comes from the French saying “croque en bouche” or “crunch in mouth.”  It consists of choux pastry puffs filled with vanilla pastry cream which are stacked into a cone shape then drizzled with caramel.  Once it hardens the caramel acts as a “glue” to hold everything together.  Often the cakes are then decorated with candied almonds, flowers, ribbons or chocolate.

Germany

The Germans are serious about wedding cake.  The traditional Baumkuchen or “Tree Cake” requires a rotating spit not to mention a wealth of patience to complete.  The idea is that a very thin layer of batter is brushed onto the spit and allowed to cook golden brown at which time the process is repeated over and over again until you get something that looks like this:

The result?!  When you cut into the cake it looks very similar to the rings that you would find were you to cut down a tree and look at the cross section left behind.

Norway

The traditional cake of our Norwegian counterparts is the Kransekake.  This creation is primarily almonds, sugar and egg whites and is most often seen with the ring design shown below.

Sweden

Spettekaka is the wedding cake of choice for those in the Scania region of Sweden.  It is a combination of eggs, potato flour and sugar which is cooked over an open fire resulting in a very dry outcome.  To preserve the dry dessert it is wrapped until just moments before serving.  A hacksaw blade is typically used to cut into the creation-a seemingly odd tool for a cake.  A standard knife (or too much pressure with the blade) will actually cause the cake to crumble and break so the person doing the cutting needs a certain level of finesse!

Now that we have seen what they are eating around the world, for my next Traditions and Trivia post I will explore the history of the wedding cake and how it got it’s big break…stay tuned!