The centrepiece of most post-vow-making receptions, wedding cakes are a powerful symbol of sharing love with one’s friends, family or perhaps those co-workers you have to invite. But sometimes the scale of these works of art is incredible we’re talking the sort of cake that takes 750 eggs! Here are five wedding cakes that towered over the happy couple.
Kim Kardashian had seven tiers of white cake
It won’t shock you to learn that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 2014 wedding had a bit of lairiness to it. On the cake front, they served up a 2.1 m, seven-tier ziggurat of white cake with white icing and fruit layers, crafted by Tuscan caterers Galateo Ricevimenti. Apparently it cost the couple US$6685 (A$8786), which seems fairly restrained for them, actually. It took three people to carry, which sounds more like it.
A royal cake takes a Commonwealth to build
Obviously if you’re having a royal wedding, you need a cake fit for a king and queen... well, a prince consort. Unfortunately for the future Queen Elizabeth II, Britain was still in the midst of post-war rationing when her nuptials were announced, leading to concerns over the ingredients for her cake. Fortunately, the Commonwealth chipped in to help, which meant flour from Canada, sugar from Barbados and rum from Jamaica (it was a fruitcake). In Australia, the Girl Guides put their shoulders to the wheel in order to help a former alumnus of the organisation – those doughty scouts collected a jaw-dropping seven crates of ingredients and sent them off to the Mother Country. In the end, Princess Elizabeth and the then Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten’scake was .
This year, the royal cake came to life again, when the patisserie team at Le Cordon Bleu London took on the challenge of for the documentary The People’s Royal Wedding (SBS, 8.40pm Tuesday December 12) They used 27 kilograms of butter, 24 kilograms of sugar, 750 eggs and three litres of rum.
The chefs from Cordon Bleu with their royal cake creation (© Oxford Films & Television Ltd / Patrick Acum) Source: © Oxford Films & Television Ltd / Patrick Acum
Jordan’s royals put their cake to the sword
Of course, royals from all around the world are renowned for their enormous cakes. In 1993, Jordan’s King Abdullah celebrated his marriage to Queen Rania with a multi-tiered, doily-laden rectangular structure that towered above the couple. And in this case, they weren’t content to cut the cake with the usual ribbon-decorated knife – these newly weds with an actual sword!
Indonesia takes the cake (sorry)
Nine tiers, seven metres: it makes your Coles mud cake look a bit sad by comparison. is an Indonesian business that specialises in crafting edible fairytale castles. You don’t have to be a celeb to order one of these architectural wonders, but you will have to pay many thousands of dollars, order a month or so in advance and be prepared to eat something that’s had 9200 working hours spent in its creation. Seriously though, if you’re already ordered your wedding cake.
The biggest cake in the world has no bride
It may be exciting to hold the , but much like a tree falling in the woods, is it really a wedding cake if there’s no wedding? Philosophical semantics that probably didn’t worry the team at Hotel and Casino in America, who showed off their 6.818-tonne dessert at a bridal show in 2004.
The People’s Royal Wedding (Tuesday 12 December, 8.40pm on SBS) celebrates the 70th anniversary of The Queen and Prince Philip’s marriage in 1947, looking at how a battered post-war Britain pulled off the wedding off the century against the odds.
