Wedding Cake Toppers: What's The Deal?

Wedding cake toppers are small statues or figurines that adorn the tops of wedding cakes. They can be made from a variety of materials, including gum paste, wax, marzipan, chalkware, sugar paste, and celluloid. While they are often considered frivolous or extraneous, wedding cake toppers carry a wealth of symbolism and meaning. They can represent good luck, fertility, purity, and unity, with popular motifs such as doves, horseshoes, and flowers. The first wedding cake toppers emerged in the 19th century, with European aristocrats and royals setting the trend for elaborate high-rise cakes adorned with sugar sculptures. Over time, these elaborate cakes inspired more affordable and mass-produced versions, with removable toppers that could be kept as mementos. Today, wedding cake toppers continue to be a popular way to personalise and decorate wedding cakes, with couples often choosing toppers that reflect their personalities and themes of their weddings.

Cake toppers can be symbolic or iconic

Wedding cake toppers, also known as cake statues, can be symbolic or iconic. Symbolic toppers rely on imagery that reflects societal conventions of love, prosperity, and good fortune. These include cherubs, flowers, clasped hands, horseshoes, bridal slippers, doves, and wedding bands. Iconic toppers, on the other hand, resemble or bear a likeness to the married couple, representing their union. They often depict Eurocentric, heteronormative ideals of married life, with straight, stiff postures and a gendered height difference.

The first wedding cake toppers emerged in the 19th century, with "high-rise" cakes adorned with sugar sculptures and other opulent decorations. These were initially only available to the wealthy. By the 1880s, removable toppers like cupids, joined hands, and bridal slippers became popular, followed by the introduction of a removable bride and groom topper in 1892. As mass production techniques evolved, decorative cake toppers became more accessible to the emerging middle class, and by the late 1890s, the United States became a leading producer of bride and groom cake toppers.

Today, cake toppers continue to be a popular way to personalise and decorate wedding cakes. Couples may choose traditional symbolic or iconic toppers or opt for more unique designs that reflect their personalities and interests. Some couples even opt for skeleton-themed toppers for Halloween-themed weddings or other creative variations. While the symbolism and traditions associated with cake toppers persist, modern toppers also reflect a diverse range of couples and relationships, moving beyond the heteronormative ideals of the past.

They can be made from unstable materials like gum paste or wax

Wedding cake toppers are often made from unstable materials like gum paste, wax, marzipan, celluloid, and chalkware. These materials are delicate and prone to deterioration, which can make it challenging to preserve and collect them as keepsakes or collectibles.

Gum paste, also known as sugar paste, is a sugar-based modelling material commonly used in cake decorating and sugarcraft. It is pliable and can be moulded, rolled, or cut into various shapes, making it ideal for creating intricate details and decorations for wedding cakes. However, gum paste is sensitive to moisture and can soften or dissolve if exposed to humidity or liquids.

Wax is another material used in wedding cake toppers, although it is less common. Wax can be moulded and shaped, but it has a low melting point and can be fragile, making it challenging to work with and preserve.

Marzipan, a confectionery made from sugar and almond meal, is sometimes used for wedding cake toppers. It can be moulded and shaped but needs to be dried properly to achieve a firm consistency. Celluloid, an early type of plastic, and chalkware, a type of ceramic material, are other materials that have been used historically for wedding cake toppers.

The use of these unstable materials adds to the unique charm and value of wedding cake toppers. They represent a moment in time and carry sentimental value for the couple. Despite their delicate nature, these materials can be carefully crafted and decorated to create beautiful and personalised wedding cake toppers that become cherished mementos of the special day.

They are often kept as keepsakes

Wedding cake toppers are often kept as keepsakes. These decorative figurines are usually modelled after the married couple, bearing a likeness in scale and material to cheap, mass-produced divine beings. They are often made from materials such as sugar, gum paste, wax, marzipan, celluloid, chalkware, fabric, plastic, wood, or acrylic paint.

The tradition of keeping wedding cake toppers as mementos dates back to the 19th century. Initially, only the wealthy could afford cakes with elaborate decorations due to the high cost of sugar work. However, with advancements in mass production techniques, decorative cake toppers became more accessible to the emergent middle class. By the late 1890s, the United States became a leading producer of bride and groom cake toppers, which were often made in moulds.

Today, wedding cake toppers continue to be popular collectibles, with some people even altering them to reflect aged appearances or personalising them to match the couple's skin tone and hair colour. These keepsakes serve as a reminder of the wedding day and can be displayed as decorative ornaments in the home.

They can be personalised

Wedding cake toppers can be personalised to reflect the couple's personalities and interests. For example, couples who are fans of Halloween opted for a Gothic Couple Statue, featuring a bride and groom skeleton wearing skull motifs and funeral clothes typical of the late 19th century. Another couple chose a cake topper featuring a bride and groom skeleton in a traditional black tux and white dress.

In the early 20th century, couples would personalise their cake toppers by changing the hair colour of the figurines to match their own, or by using fabric from the bride's wedding dress for the bride figurine's outfit. In the 1940s, some couples or bakers painted the standard white cake topper figurines with dark skin tones, reflecting a yearning for something beyond the limited scope of the dominant norms of the time.

Today, there are many options for personalising wedding cake toppers, including adding fabric flowers at the figurines' feet, placing the couple inside a cast sugar egg, or surrounding them with beach-themed souvenirs.

They can be used for themed weddings

Wedding cake toppers can be used to great effect for themed weddings. For example, a couple who hosted a Halloween-themed wedding used a skeleton bride and groom statue as their cake topper. The Gothic style of the statues, featuring skulls and funeral clothes, matched the Victorian Gothic theme of the wedding.

The history of wedding cake toppers dates back to 19th-century marriage rituals, with the trend of "high-rise" cakes decorated with sugar sculptures set by royalty, aristocrats, and wealthy Europeans as early as 1840. By the 1890s, these cakes were adorned with flowers, symbols of love, and the soon-to-be-popular bride and groom cake toppers.

Today, wedding cake toppers can be personalised to resemble the couple, their personalities, and their interests. For instance, Barbie, Troll doll, and Disney character cake toppers can be used for a playful touch, while interracial cake toppers can represent an interracial couple.

The choice of a wedding cake topper can be a creative act of self-fashioning and world-making, allowing couples to express their personalities and interests through the decorative elements of their wedding cake.

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