Quote Originally Posted by paulhenry View Post
My mother used to make wedding cakes as a additional income...
The Mrs. and I do that, too.
...it was not unusual to have the cake baked at least 6 months in advance, but only marizpaned and iced shortly before the wedding itself.
I've never had fruitcake at a wedding here in the US ofA. We use pound, sponge, carrot, red velvet, various chocolate and a few other cakes, but I don't know of anyone who has served fruitcake.
...there was also the tradition of keeping the small top tier for the christening cake of the first child...
In my country, the tradition is to keep the top tier and eat it on the couple's first anniversary.[/quote]
I can can remember big wall cupboards from my childhood with lots of diffferent fruit cakes in all sorts of sizes with labels for many diffferent families.
That must have been a sweet-smelling kitchen!