In England around 1660 sugar novelties were first used as decorations
on cakes. This idea spread throughout Europe. English, French
and Italian pastry chefs began a slow experimentation to determine
how sugar icing could be improved. Ornaments could be moulded
and attached and colours introduced to create better examples
of culinary art.
In the 17th century the fine arts numbered five:
- Sculpture,
- Painting
- Poetry
- Music
- Architecture.
The cake decorator
is the only artist who ever managed to master four of these five
arts. The ability to play music was the only skill cake makers
had no use for.
People learnt to use there hands to mould shapes
and icing bags were developed for piping and each country began
to develop it’s own distinctive style of decoration along
with it’s own icing and cake recipes. The British style,
which had the greatest influence on wedding cake design, was
a heavy rich fruitcake.
Originally cake decorating in England was only practiced by
pastry chefs and competition was enormous with every chef wanting
to decorate a cake worthy of the kings table.
