Wedding Cakes and Cultural History

Description

First published in 1992, Wedding Cakes and Cultural History is a unique contribution to the anthropology of food, tracing the fascinating history of wedding cakes, from late medieval feasts and rites, through the Victorian wedding breakfast and into the 1990s. Dr. Charsley maps the intricate creation of the wedding cake and explores its uses and meanings. He shows that the wedding cake provides a vivid illustration of the traditions and traditional values inherent in all foods and demonstrates the part that material culture plays in the process of change. Challenging in its ideas, yet approachable in style and subject matter, this book will be of great interest to students and teachers of anthropology, sociology and cultural studies. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Original Title Original Copyright Contents List of illustrations Foreword Preface Introduction Part I Preliminaries 1 The British wedding cake in the late twentieth century Cakes in weddings Their form and ranges of variation The changing trade in the 1980s Does a wedding cake mean anything? 2 How distinctive is the British cake? Europe America Australia Outwith the west Themes 3 Cultural creation: myth, history and language The Victorian myth of origin Cultural history and its problems Recipes as evidence 'Wedding cake' and 'bride cake': terms in language 4 When the wedding cake was not yet and might never have been Feasts, foods and subtleties Cake, great cakes and marriage rites Alternatives and their persistence Part II The making of the British wedding cake 5 Great cakes, plum(b) cakes and bride cakes Great cakes for weddings From great cakes to plum(b) cakes The bride cake Cakes for weddings and other festivities 6 Confectionery and icing Sugarpaste and the beginnings of confectionery Marchpanes The development of icing Double icing Marzipan Decoration and colour Piping: 'a new art form' 7 The rise of the Victorian cake and its successors Pièces montées Royal weddings and the high rising cake The trade and the three-tier standard Separating the tiers Colour, top pieces and other ornamentation Part III Users, uses and meanings 8 Uses and their evolution Cake-breaking Dreaming and divination Display Cutting the cake Keeping it for the christening Conclusion: uses and forms 9 Meanings and interpretation 10 Towards a theory of cultural change? Objects, custom and meanings Phenomena of cultural change Postscript Notes Bibliography Index