What's the deal with saving cake?

UberBiz

I've seen this in a lot of places and posts, that the couple saves the top tier, or two pieces of the wedding cake and freezes it... for what?... first anniversary?... I kinda get the sentiment, but I'm pretty positive cake in the freezer wouldn't be able to last a whole year! (I'd give in and eat it like, a week later, haha!). Is there any other significance to this besides reliving the wedding day?

Annas2013

It's pretty common here.  And if you wrap it correctly, it stores somewhat well.  We decided what we'd do when we went to our cake tasting/appointment a few weeks ago.

Our baker is making us a small cake on our one year anniversary with the same flavor and filling from our wedding cake.  That worked better for us than saving a whole tier.  

GoodLuckBear14

We ate ours a few months after the wedding.  Our baker made an anniversary cake for us for our first anniversary.

[Deleted User]

I don't get it either, OP.  Definitely going to skip it, given that I can't cook my freezer space is too packed with micro meals to take up precious space on a cake for 1 year.

fizzylemonade

Maybe it's an English thing where the top layer is usually fruit cake, which is stored and used as the first baby's Christening cake. I like the idea of saving it for the first anniversary though.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We didn't save it that long. I thought it would be gross, too. No reason to do it. Plus, you spend extra money because you can't serve the top tier at your wedding, you know? You end up paying for extra servings.

artbyallie

Ours survived being frozen a year. If it's wrapped properly and never thawed and refrozen, it should be fine. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but frankly it was the only chance we got to actually eat our cake beyond the two bites we got at the reception.

DeannaCW

Historically it was saved to be the first child's christening cake, but since more people are delaying children, it sorta got switched over to 1st anniversary.

Personally I don't think we'll do it, heard too many stories of the cake coming out bad and not tasting very good when it was eaten.

HobokensFury

Mine is currently sitting in the downstairs freezer waiting to be eaten in 8 months.

DramaGeek

Ditto Stage and Allie.  Ours was well wrapped and in my parents' freezer.  It was delicious 1 year later - and I'm glad we had it because it was the only cake we got, other than the bite we fed each other!

Summer2011Bride

We just ate our top tier last week for our anniversary and it was still absolutely delicious! Like others said, if you wrap it and freeze it properly, it should still taste good one year later.

Riss91

We took home the top tier and ate it the next morning. Then I had our baker make us the same cake for our first anniversary.

UberBiz

Hold on, you mean to say NONE of you had time to sit at eat a piece of cake!? By gods, I am going to plop my butt in a chair and have the biggest piece out of everyone. I'm gonna have my cake and EAT it, too!

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_whats-the-deal-with-saving-cake?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:845c25af-4365-4dc1-a706-9d1671e98912Post:8ecac538-363f-4b6f-9e6a-c1eee00e7794">Re: What's the deal with saving cake?</a>:
[QUOTE]We took home the top tier and ate it the next morning. Then I had our baker make us the same cake for our first anniversary.
Posted by Riss91[/QUOTE]
^^This sounds reasonable to me. I just know frozen cake in the freezer would get eaten before the year was up!

artbyallie

Good luck with that, Uber. You'll be pulled a million different directions on the wedding day and everyone wants to talk to you, take pictures, etc. We were literally too busy to sit down at all. We got maybe two bites of lunch and a bite of cake. Thank God we had dinner at the Melting Pot later that evening, because we were starving.

pretzelgrrl

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_whats-the-deal-with-saving-cake?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:845c25af-4365-4dc1-a706-9d1671e98912Post:6b9bf514-e699-4633-89c9-15edac35a65d">Re: What's the deal with saving cake?</a>:
[QUOTE]Hold on, you mean to say NONE of you had time to sit at eat a piece of cake!? By gods, I am going to plop my butt in a chair and have the biggest piece out of everyone. I'm gonna have my cake and EAT it, too! In Response to Re: What's the deal with saving cake? : ^^This sounds reasonable to me. I just know frozen cake in the freezer would get eaten before the year was up!
Posted by UberBiz[/QUOTE]
I totally agree with you! I had my salad, half of my dinner (ate too many appetizers to eat all of my dinner) and all of my cake at my wedding :)  So it can be done....the rest of the night went as a blur but I got to eat

NOLAbridealmost

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_whats-the-deal-with-saving-cake?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:845c25af-4365-4dc1-a706-9d1671e98912Post:47431425-d229-4c81-9cbb-71bd20c2c3cc">Re: What's the deal with saving cake?</a>:
[QUOTE]Good luck with that, Uber. You'll be pulled a million different directions on the wedding day and everyone wants to talk to you, take pictures, etc. We were literally too busy to sit down at all. We got maybe two bites of lunch and a bite of cake. Thank God we had dinner at the Melting Pot later that evening, because we were starving.
Posted by artbyallie[/QUOTE]

<div>LOVE!  Did you go to MP in your dress?  That sounds like so much fun</div>

Lisa50

We did not have a small top layer to save.  Our baker offered to make a small cake for our first anniversary; we didn't take her up on it ... yet.  Thanks for the reminder!

2012FutureMrsB

Ours is taking up a ton of valuable space in our small freezer. DH asked me a couple weeks ago if we really need to save it for our 1st anniversary. I said I don't think it really matters I suppose b/c it's only a tradition, and we can certainly create our own "traditions" haha. So we decided we're going to eat it on our 2 month anniversary, which is coming up in less than two weeks. Of course, it may not make it that long, haha!

Kristin789

This, exactly:

Ours survived being frozen a year. If it's wrapped properly and never thawed and refrozen, it should be fine. You don't have to do it if you don't want to, but frankly it was the only chance we got to actually eat our cake beyond the two bites we got at the reception.

artbyallie

NOLA, I didn't go out in my dress, though that would have been awesome. I had to go ahead and change after the reception since we drove about an hour and a half to our wedding night hotel before dinner and left from there the next morning to go on our honeymoon.

WalkersFurMama

We won't be saving any cake from our wedding. We live 11 hours away from my hometown where the wedding is, and know I will not be wanting to try and get cake back home safely. We'll probably order a small cake in the same flavor from a local bakery where we live, or plan to be in MI around our anniv. and get one then. 

mrskristinyc

We're getting married in Indiana, and we live in NYC, soooooo.... I don't think there's going to be an easy way to get the top layer to our apartment (especially since we're doing the honeymoon right after....). We'll just get Magnolia or something on our anniversary.

Kristin4911

Our baker asked us if we were going to save the top tier, I wasn't planning on it, but then she told us she was going to gift it to us if so, so we said absolutely then!

augurey

Ditto on the first anniversary; as long as it is stored properly, it will be just fine on the first anniversary.

FI and I aren't doing this. First of all because it would cost extra (and our budget is already tight). Second, I figured I could make us a fresh cake for our anniversary which would be special for us both.

bluedragonfly22

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_whats-the-deal-with-saving-cake?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:845c25af-4365-4dc1-a706-9d1671e98912Post:6b9bf514-e699-4633-89c9-15edac35a65d">Re: What's the deal with saving cake?</a>:
[QUOTE]Hold on, you mean to say NONE of you had time to sit at eat a piece of cake!? By gods, I am going to plop my butt in a chair and have the biggest piece out of everyone. I'm gonna have my cake and EAT it, too!
Posted by UberBiz[/QUOTE]

I second that! You bet your butt I'm going to eat my dinner and my cake. I'm a small frame and have to eat every 2-3 hours otherwise I start wilting, so if people can either eat when I'm eating for wait for me to be done lol!

I've heard awful stories of the cake tasting awful a year later, although I'm sure it would be fine if done right. M & I won't be doing this however, I'll just bake us a cake on our anniversary :)

whitney37354

We saved the top tier of our cake for the first anniversary & it was delish, even after one year in the freezer.  If I were getting married again, I probably wouldn't save the tier, but serve it, to save on costs of the cake!

Peledreamsofrain

The wedding cake is a fertility tradition that stems from the British Isles.  It used to be that the bride would stand in place while either grain was dumped onto her head, or a loaf of bread was broken over her head.  It was thought that the fertility of the grain would be bestowed upon her.

Needless to say, said brides were less than happy with all the stuff in their hair, and the tradition developed into a cake that the couple ate on the night of the wedding, thus bestowing fertility and the hopes of immediate conception

The point of saving the cake is that a year is roughly the amount of time the bride was expected to have produced her first child, and be back in condition to conceive a second.  Hence you haul out that good old fertility cake again for round two.

pmg1989

I'm totally eating my cake as well. I will still go around and visit people...I will just have to bring my plate of cake with me! No way am I going to drop that much money on cake, just to have two bites.  Also planning on saving the top tier...just polled my mom on that this morning.  From what she could remember, their cake was fine, just a bit on the dry side. It's worth trying!