Bee-u-ti-ful groom's cake
by maggie valley club
Me: What kind of groom’s cake are y’all having?
Bride, groom and everybody at the engagement party table: Huh?
What? People get married without a groom’s cake? Seriously? The bride gets the venue she wants, the flowers she wants, the music she wants, the photographer (and the 18 million pictures) she wants, the wedding cake she wants, and so on, and the groom can’t even get a lousy chocolate sheet cake?
C’mon people!
Supposedly, in the tradition’s early days, the groom’s cake wasn’t eaten at the wedding. Slices were packaged and sent home with single girls who would put them under their pillows to induce dreams of their future husbands. Right. Like a Southern single lady with post-wedding blues is going to let a perfectly good slice of cake go to waste? Never gonna happen.
These days, the cakes are tailored toward the grooms tastes and/or interests. I’ve never actually witnessed first hand a cake shaped like a Lazy Boy recliner, TV remote, or bottle of Jack Daniels, but surely they exist. As far as flavors go, well, they don’t go far: nearly every groom’s cake I’ve encountered was chocolate.
Steel Magnolias: The movie that launched
a thousand red velvet armadillos
“Steel Magnolias” features the beat-all, end-all groom’s cake: an armadillo-shaped confection featuring a red velvet interior. Yum!
I think the groom’s cake is an excellent addition to any wedding reception (but then my motto is “the more cake, the merrier”). However, clearly, not all grooms ought to have free reign at the bakery, as evidenced by the ill-conceived collection posted on cakewrecks.com.
Did you have a groom’s cake at your wedding? What kind?
stuff southern people like 
I had no idea groom’s cakes were strictly a southern thing. In my family groom’s cakes are usually chocolate and the decorations pertain to the groom’s favorite football team. Of course I am from Texas . . .
That makes total sense…in Texas.
I married a woman from New York, and they were baffled by my insistence on a groom’s cake. Her parents had never heard of them, in spite of the fact that my father-in-law was a minister (ie they’d been to their share of weddings).
I’ve heard groom cakes are traditionally decorated with grapes or other fruit, suggesting potency. Mine was chocolate, but I don’t remember much more about it. I do remember “getting ugly” with a waiter–we’d been busy posing for photos, hot and drenched w/ sweat, and by the time we got to the reception they were out of clean glassware. Everyone else had their second mimosas, and we were parched. I grabbed the first waiter I saw and said “I’m the groom, and you’re going to bring my wife and I drinks right now!” He delivered, and I tipped nicely.
Yeah, you can’t leave folks parched at their own reception. That’s tacky!!
I didn’t realize that groom’s cakes were a particularly Southern thing either, you are not alone.
Hun, it’s not just single southern women who aren’t going to leave a slice of cake alone, it’s ALL single women. 😉 LOL~!
Touché! LOL.
I’m a California girl and had a groom’s cake at my very California wedding. 😉
Glad to know the groom’s cake is branching out. There’s no such thing as too much cake!
Great post! I learned about this the same way you did– my then-fiancé (from the Boston area) had no idea what I was talking about when I asked what he wanted for his groom’s cake! But he loved the idea and went with a red sox cake.
I hope he went for a red velvet Red Sox cake!
Just came across you site – love it. My husband – who’s from NJ and I (a Mississippi girl) had an interesting time planning our wedding. The whole wedding thing is different up there. He nor any of his family had ever heard of a groom’s cake. They also had never had daiquiris. We had a NO wedding.
I’m going to send your blog their way so maybe they’ll understand me better.
The husband is slowly converting to a southerner. He just got a big pickup truck with the tow package. He also owns a few camo hats and wears flip flops almost year ’round.
No daiquiri’s? What??
I’ve never been to a New Orleans weeding, but I imagine they’re heaps of fun, seeing as they’re probably the only folks on earth who can turn funerals into festive occasions.
If your husband’s sporting camo hats, he’s a goner for sure.
Never heard of it. I am thinking about a post on wedding cakes, and this link might be nice to add in.
I like the armadillo!
Thanks!
I’m a Texas transplant currently in Oregon. They’ve never heard of groom’s cakes up here either. My husband’s a pastor and when I first started helping him with weddings, I would ask about the groom’s cake and they would give me the funniest looks!
The thing I can’t understand is why don’t they just decide to do it once they know about it? I mean, it’s cake after all. Who wouldn’t want more cake? LOL!
Our groom’s cake was a cheesecake with a big chocolate monogram on the top and fruit for a topping, by the way!
Having one cake when you could have two is definitely something Southern People Don’t Like.
My friends did actually get a groom’s cake. He’s of Scandinavian descent, so they had some sort of traditional tower of cake featuring an abundance of marzipan. It was fan-tab-u-lous!
Wish I could have tasted your groom’s cake. Sounds delicious!