The group text was sent out earlier in the month by a friend of mine, "Ladies, are you free on the 15th for a little lunch, Rosary, and help box up the wedding cake?" This friend is the lady who leads the monthly Rosary; the prayer group began when she was having difficulty conceiving and now, we were being asked to help with the wedding cake for her older daughter! What a blessing! I responded, "Only if we get to sample the cake!" and she replied, "Yes!" LOL!
This morning, I put away the dried laundry from yesterday and loaded the dishwasher to run it later. Then, I picked up friend R and came home to wait for friend F and cousin P. I was giving them a ride to the rosary gathering and helping with the wedding cake. We left a few minutes after 11:30 a.m. and arrived at the prayer gathering a little after 12:30 p.m.
The Sri Lankan custom is to serve pieces of individually wrapped and/or boxed cake to the guests at weddings. This is the wedding cake my friend was referring to in her text. There is usually a big, fancy, tiered cake, as well, which is cut by the bridal couple, but pieces of the individually wrapped/boxed cake are also served to each guest. Usually, these small cakes are pieces of "rich cake", which is a fruit cake with a marzipan topping, very similar to Christmas cake. However, my friend's daughter doesn't like rich cake (neither does my daughter), so my friend made Love Cake (which, as many of you know is my daughter's favorite cake, too).
So, after the Rosary was recited and lunch was eaten, we all gathered at the big dining table to process the cake. My friend had made three huge trays of love cake, earlier. Today, she cut the pieces; each tray made 100 pieces, I believe. Each square piece of cake was individually wrapped in pre-cut pieces of cellophane-like plastic my friend had purchased, inserted into a small plastic bag (meant to keep the cake from drying out) and sealed, and then, inserted into small square boxes which had been hand stamped by one of the ladies, along with a bag of candied almonds. We had an assembly line going - two of us wrapping the cake, two others inserting them into the bags, another one assembling the boxes, someone else putting the cake and almonds into the boxes, another one taking the finished boxes to another table, and so on. We stopped after the first two hundred and fifty pieces were assembled to have a break for tea and coffee (and to sample the cake - all the edges that were trimmed off!)
It was 4:30 p.m. by then and I was starting to get tired and I had an hour-long drive home. So, I, and my cousin and friends who rode with me, took our leave and set off. There were still three other ladies who stayed back to help my friend with the rest of the cake. I dropped friend R off at her apartment and came home, and friend F, who had parked her car at my house drove off and my cousin P, who lives across the street from me, walked back to her house. I called my daughter, returned my neighbor T's call, and took a 3-hour nap! I was so tired!
As a result, I didn't go to the pharmacy to pick up my medication refill that was ready, didn't water the front garden, or sew the sari blouse! I am glad I have tomorrow off from work - I will go to the pharmacy, water the front garden, and sew my blouse, tomorrow. I am now running the dishwasher and will wash my tea cups and a few other items by hand.
Today, I am grateful for:
- Being able to help my friend with boxing up her daughter's wedding cake
- Being able to attend the monthly prayer gathering
- A safe drive there and back!
- Being able to give rides to my cousin and friends
- Naps!
How was your Sunday?
oh I remember helping relatives wrap wedding cakes! I love wedding cake, but without the icing. :)
ReplyDeleteI spent my Sunday watching the soccer game. :)
Nil, my daughter, too, prefers it without the icing; as for me, the icing is the best part! Ah, yes, the soccer game. I'm afraid I forgot all about it!
DeleteI like the tradition of giving out the cake and almonds in boxes at the wedding. It seems to simplify a lot of things. However, what do they do with the big tiered cake?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, the big tiered cake was, actually, a cardboard structure that was decorated with icing! At my own wedding, it was a much smaller cake, but an actual cake and it was presumably served to the guests after dinner (my groom and I had to leave before the dinner was served at what was considered to have been an auspicious time - we had our dinner at the hotel where we spent the night!). Very often, the wrapped pieces of cake are taken home, to be eaten later.
DeleteI don't know if it's still done, but back when I was growing up, people in France were still giving out sugar-coated almonds in small bundles or in boxes printed with the name of the person(s) being celebrated, along with the date, for such occasions as baptisms, births and weddings. They looked so pretty but then they were so disappointing because I found the almonds so bitter! So I would suck the coating and then spit out the almonds, lol.
ReplyDeleteThe cake wrapping sounds like a neat tradition but also exhausting. No wonder you needed a nap! it was very nice of all of you to help your friend, though. Does the mother of the bride typically do this or is it something that you can contract out from the cake maker?
In Sri Lanka, one can order the little wedding cakes by the piece and specify if they are to be wrapped or boxed, etc. Over here, too, there are a few people who will make the wedding cakes and charge by the piece. But they mostly make the fruit cake version, although, I suppose they will make Love Cake, as well, if requested. But, it will cost about $3.00 a piece (or more; I really don't know the current prices). And, if you want 300 pieces, like my friend does, then, you are looking at almost $1,000 (with the cost of the boxes, added). Making the cake at home with the help of family and friends is much less expensive.
DeleteI've told my daughter, when it is her turn to marry, she is to elope! :D
Oh I remember receiving little boxes of wedding cake at family weddings when I was small. I don't recall it happening in recent years though.
ReplyDeleteThat's so interesting! I always thought it was a Sri Lankan custom, although, I suppose the whole tradition of fruit cake with marzipan, etc., was probably brought over by the British (we were a British Crown Colony for some 130+ years).
DeleteI love the idea of wrapped cake, but it does not happen around here.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot of work for something that will be torn open, eaten, and tossed (the wrappings). But it does make a nice presentation. My friend was saying her daughter wanted to insert a note into each box (it would have been easier if the notes had been ready at the time we boxed the cake - we could have inserted them as we went) and she was going to fix a sprig of rosemary on top of the box! I must try to remember to take a picture of the finished product on the day.
DeleteYou are a very good friend to help with all that. It sounds like a beautiful tradition but also a lot of work. No wonder you were so tired.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure to help this particular friend with such a happy job. But, the drive tired me out! Not to mention the heat.
DeleteWedding cakes were always rich fruit cakes with icing when I was younger and mine was no exception. My mother baked it, and together we iced and decorated the three layers. In those days it was customary to mail a small box with a piece of wedding cake to those who could not come to the wedding, especially if they had sent a gift. Nowadays fruit cakes are rare, as young people don't seem to enjoy them, and sponge cakes with cream are more popular. I guess what matters in the end is that the couple and guests enjoy the wedding day and that the subsequent marriage is the important part.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right, Bushlady. What matters is that the couple and guests enjoy the wedding and the marriage is successful. :)
DeleteI remember going to weddings in my younger days where each guest was given a wrapped small piece of the dense fruit cake with marzipan icing. As a young unmarried woman, I was instructed to put it under my pillow that night to sleep on it. I would dream of the man I would marry. HA. I had forgotten about that. I did not have a wedding myself because my husband and I eloped. By the time my daughter got married, she wanted nothing to do with the cake cutting, tossing the bouquet, or the garter. Cake was served at the end of the meal at her reception, but it was not put on display. Funny how some traditions hang on and others are lost by the wayside.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to read that others have the tradition of giving wrapped or boxed pieces of fruit cake at weddings! I had no idea!
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