Thank you all for your support and well wishes! We'll be gone for a couple weeks, but worry not, videos will still be posted :) I'll share wedding and vacation updates on Instagram @tastinghistorywithmaxmiller & Twitter: Tastinghistory1, and Jose's IG @worldagainstjose, so give us a follow 🌴🍹
This is a fruit cake, traditional for English weddings. However they need to be made 2 months in advance to be soaked in brandy week by week. My mother's cake in 1959 was 5 layers and my grandmother made it. 144 eggs and she brought it on the plane from Canada to Boston in 5 boxes, had to buy a seat just for the cake boxes. It fed 250 guests.
As an English guy with a big family, that has been to too many weddings, I can confirm that fruitcake has to be the most sill choice for a wedding cake. After eating a full wedding meal of finger food, starters, then mains, then a dessert, to then watch the cake cutting and be given a wedge of fruitcake… it’s far too heavy.
@@bigmoniesponge It’s a good example of something that tends to cost more than it tastes. If you want the aesthetics of caviar, use molecular gastronomy to make it with whatever flavour you want, and it’ll generally be a _lot_ cheaper.
@@joonapukarinen1153 Right? Honestly I kinda wish that had happened at mine lol I would have loved to see the tiny lady who was our pastor just haul off and suplex someone lmao
The icing is not there for "looks". It is there to seal the cake and preserve it. Very often, with a multiple-tier cake, the top was kept to be eaten at the Christening of the firstborn child.
Congratulations! My grandmother who, when asked how long she and Papaw had been married, once famously replied, “I can’t remember any more, but we’re on about our 10th bottle of Tabasco sauce.” I’m sure your own union will be equally enduring - and spicy.
My mom made this cake at Christmas. Half of the pint of brandy went in the batter and the other half was poured over the cake after it was baked. It was then wrapped up in wax paper and stored for Christmas.
Congratulations on your wedding! So thrilled for you. Side note: When teaching me how to cook, my granny taught me that the ingredients "dried fruit" doesn't really mean to add the fruit in dried. The are supposed to be soaked in water overnight barely covered or added to water, barely covered, and placed on a med/low heat for a hour (keep a watch on it to make sure the water doesn't get low). Then added to the recipe. This is one of the "just known" so was rarely added to recipes. Kinda like salt isn't added to old recipes.
I used to work in a fruitcake foundry and this is correct. We soaked the raisins in water before adding them to the batter. Otherwise they were too dry, they would suck all the moisture out of the batter and your fruitcake would come out hard as a brick.
@@mrdanforth3744 I am really enjoying the image of a "fruitcake foundry". Like a bunch of burly steelworkers, pouring molten iron/fruitcake into drop forges, steamwhistles blowing, sparks and slag flying everywhere...
My grandma would never soak the fruit in water overnite. Jamaicans soak it in primarily rum, though other spirits can be used, for a night, to a week, to months ahead.
"I have followed Max and tasting history for almost a year now. I can stay without a doubt that I've come to enjoy Max's humor and style. on a personal note I was going through a pretty tough time and I knew that every Tuesday I would find a moment of peace with tasting history. I've come to think of Max Miller as that person that would swoop in and take me away from my troubles for a little while. it's very easy to imagine that's how Jose and Max think of each other. I can't think of two people that respect honor and love each other more than Max and Jose. I know they shall be there for each other in tough times, in times of scarcity and times of plentifulness. I know they shall be there to rescue each other. TO THE HAPPY COUPLE! MAY THEIR MARRIAGE BE A PROSPEROUS ONE. CHEERS!
I got married 30 yrs ago and my cake weighed 54 kilos . It was divine and sublime . A dear family friend made it. Traditional fruit cake three tiers stacked on top of each other and hand made spring flowers . Honestly that was my favourite part of the whole wedding . The top tier was supposed to be kept in the freezer for my unborn sons christening . My father ate it . So our friend made one for my son only weighing 7 kilos lol
Stack cake I heard from my Grandma was the wedding cake for Rural Appalachia. Each guest(family) would make/bring a thin cake (like a pancake) and donate to build the wedding cake. Applebutter was spread between the layers.
Home cooked food is always going to be my choice over catered. Maybe that makes it a bit of a shotgun wedding but who gaf, I'd rather eat something simple and delicious than opulent and so-so.
That's a wonderful and interesting tradition! Great to revive, maybe for birthday cakes, if your friends happen to be good home bakers. A layer for each decade of life!
When my parents were still married, my mum had the top tier of their wedding cake displayed in our china cabinet. apparently it was styrofoam covered in some sort of faux icing. It makes sense honestly, to have the top tier or two be decorative. what tickles me is the entirely fake extravagant wedding cakes that have one single slice of real cake incorporated in for photographing the married couple cutting the cake.then they usually roll out a sheet cake that's much easier to slice up for 200 people
My wedding cake actually had an edible MIDDLE tier, which meant that the wide bottom section was styrofoam covered with plastic. The wedding planner told us to cut the bottom layer. Hilarity ensued for a few seconds as we both realized that we were scraping plastic, then looked at each other, then sort of agreed by newlywed telepathy to start poking the middle layer, found out it was actually cake, and cut into it. The wedding guests were presented with the REAL bottom tier which had actually been prepared separately for eating. Later on the hotel crew brought the middle tier cake to our room to eat. It was okay.
I can totally relate. I am a really messy cook, and I have to clean up after myself, or live with a kitchen that looks like a bomb just went off inside of it. Guess what I choose. (Yeah. Something in between obviously.)
When I rented a place for my wedding party, they ofered me a cardboard cake. I declined, it had dust on it for God's sake! No fake things at my wedding, no sir.
@@DogMason For a modern cake, most 3 or more tiered wedding cakes take 2 or 3 days, from bater, baking, icing and decoration and delivery. You can get a 2 hour cake from the grocery store, but it will be pre made and shipped in frozen, iced in store and you would have to deliver and set it up.
@@sandyclaws5247 I just can't reasonably see how it would take that long without making complex decorations. Every cake I have ever made takes only a couple hours at most even if its for around 30 people. The longest cake I have ever done is a danish wedding cake, a kransekage. (Note: they can get really big) It is a tough days work but still it takes a day. The complex shaping of the cake is what makes it tough. I think this might just be an effect of the wedding industry over charging and exaggerating costs. I could see myself doing an iced and decorated 3-4 tier cake in about 4-5 hours. Maybe modern wedding cakes have some secret thing that I wouldn't know as a frequent home baker.
@@DogMason it all needs time to set, trying to de pan a warm cake can make it fall apart, and it has to be cool to ice, then there's usually a couple of layers of icing before it can be decorated and each one has to cool or harden slightly. Depending on the amount of oven space and pans the baker may have to make the same 3 layers several times and washing the pan between layers. It's just something that can't be rushed. A room temperature cake will absolutely fall apart in transportation from bakery to venue.
This recipe calls for “sweet almonds,” because bitter almonds were also common in the 18th century. But any almonds you find for sale now will almost certainly be “sweet” almonds, unless otherwise specified.
I grew up next to a lady that made wedding cakes for a living. Since she did all the work in her house, she would bring over a bag full of the cake trimmings whenever she finished one.
I'd just like to say thank you. I started watching your videos because my best friend was enamored with your content and your positivity, creativity, and pokemon kept my interest. My best friend/roommate passed away from lymphoma in late March 2022 and I just saw this video pop up. So again, thank you. From both of us. And rest in peace, Kyriakos 'Ken' Alexopoulos 💗
I'm so happy for your wedding. If I could give 1 piece of advice: don't expect perfection. If you end up married to the right person at the end of the day, the wedding was a success. ♥️
We had so many wedding disasters! It was 55F and pouring for our wedding in the park. The shelter we had reserved had fireplaces at both ends, which helped, but the electricity was out; we had to rent a generator. The lady who was supposed to be making our cake thought it was *next* weekend, and a friend had to run to the nearest grocery store to have them ice a cake, write our names on it, and pipe on some scallops and a few flowers. With every new challenge, I kept saying to my mother, "Mom, I'm marrying the right guy; the rest is just a party." 26 years later, still happily married.
@@danacarpendersketoloworno2043 Weather was awful for my wedding and several guests couldn't make it (and we had a small guest list to begin with). I really didn't care for the way my hair and make-up were done (it was not at all what I asked for, but was rather done the way the people at my MIL's salon of choice thought it should be done, and she paid for it, so... whatever), there was an issue with the groom's suit that required a last minute rental to replace it, and we ended up with hardly any pictures (my sister took better photos than the actual photographer). What we ended up with was a really intimate reception where there was no rush and no need for a reception line, and it was nice and really suited us. It was nothing like the wedding I always thought I would have, but that's just a day, and the marriage is forever.
The concrete-like external icing also works as an airtight container, helping in preserving the cake at room temperature for a longer time. I usually discard royal icing and sugar paste as they are too sweet and do not taste wonderful to me, but they are very helpful from a structural and decorative point of view.
It also serves the purpose of protecting the cake from dust. We make a big Christmas cake that lasts well into January and sometimes February. Fruit cake keeps well but even under a cover the icing will slowly gather dust so we discard it. The best bit is the marzipan layer below it anyways.
I favour my home-made almond paste/marzipan, and a top layer of brandy buttercream - a bit like brandy sauce for a Christmas pudding but in buttercream form. The combination with a good moist well aged fruitcake is divine!
@@fedra76it here is the recipe I use, from the iconic Edmonds Cookbook (I'm from New Zealand 😅) BUTTER ICING FOR CHRISTMAS CAKE (will keep) 175gm (6oz) butter 500gm (1lb) icing sugar [confectioners sugar] 3 tablespoons wine or brandy 2 teaspoons essence of vanilla [vanilla extract] Cream butter with sifted icing sugar; add brandy or wine and vanilla. Beat well.
There used to be a tradition in England, when wedding cakes were still fruit cakes, that one layer would be kept to be used the next year for the first child's christening cake. Fruit cakes keep very well when liberally laced with brandy or rum. And my heartiest congratulations on your wedding. May you have many happy years together.
You know what: Having this many bowls in a way might be quite practical since more than one person would be in the kitchen and prepare the cake. So, every housemaid or cook or whatever could be taking care of one of those steps with one bowl at the same time. Probably works much faster this way :) Also: my best wishes for your upcoming wedding and all the happiness to you and your partner :)
Oh just hearing you say "It's my wedding!!!" really is a happy sound! Really made my day! Can't wait to follow up on on your wedding!!! We wish you and Jose the BEST!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰 In Sri Lanka, "Wedding cake" is still mostly this fruit cake. (Though most of us turned to soft sponge cakes of flavours we like) people have gigantic cake "structures" made with mainly styrofoam and there is a tiiiny section the couple can cut into. The guest are given separate individually wrapped cakes. Funny to see how our people still stick to Victorian trends 🤔
Huge congrats, Max, here's to you and Jose finally tying the knot (incidentally, my sister's also getting married on Sunday, so this weekend's gonna be really festive).
My parents’ wedding cake (1968) had a fruitcake as a top layer. They wrapped it well, froze it , and on their anniversary the baker took all the frosting off, refrosted it, and they ate it for dessert. They said it was quite good :) Congratulations you two, may you find endless joy in each other!
I've heard of a similar tradition, but instead of the anniversary, you ate the fruitcake lair to celebrate the birth of the first child. Which pre-birth control was generally expected to occur about a yearish after the wedding (though I assume couples that had some difficulty concieving would probably go ahead and eat the cake before it went bad even if the first kid hadn't actually been born yet. If my parents had done that the traditional way, that cake would have been dust since they got married when they were 26, and had me - the eldest/youngest/only child - when they were 44.)
The medieval stacked cakes sound sort of like a Overflødighedshorn, a Danish wedding cake. They look a bit like a stack of tiered cookies. My parents had one at their wedding.
This is the same recipe my mother and her sister would make every Christmas as a Christmas cake. Using natural English currents they would sit for hours individually de-stemming each one. When I came to the States and started using ready processed currents my mother was horrified.
People still do that? I always think when I read these old instructions of “wash your currants, carefully pick through for debris then dry before the fire” - thank goodness I can just buy them in a pack! I was also thinking “you know you can just buy the almond icing pre made right?”
@@fmcm7715 Homemade marzipan has such a wonderful taste, holy mother of god is it irritating and finicky when you have to hand crush the almonds. I used to be a student confectioner and vowed to never make marzipan again by hand!🤣
Congratulations, Max and José! You seem like such lovely and kind people, I'm legit feeling very happy for you sitting here a couple thousand miles away. 😂
Making Candied Citrus peel is fun, and you have the simple syrup for drinks. I put it in my coffee in place of sugar. Fun fact. The Iron Maiden didn't have any spikes in it, and was instead a sweat box.
Iron Maidens DID have spikes. I once saw a museum exhibit of medieval torture devices which included an iron maiden. Not only did the box have spikes poking inward, but the box had a variety of holes and fasteners in different places so the torturer could choose exactly where to position the spikes. Since condemned persons came in different shapes and sizes, it was necessary to adjust the spikes to allow for maximum alignment of the spikes over that particular person's sensitive parts.
@@fazdoll they were most likely added during the Victorian era to add to the viciousness of the look. You tell a gentle lady that she's looking at a heat box intended to be placed over a fire, and she may be interested. You add spikes to something, and tell her that it's intended to impale the victim slowly, and that courset gets to feeling a little binding, and next thing you know, that sweet lady is in your arms. Even then men were finding ways to touch women.
@@fazdoll the Rat cage was also fake. There is no documentation that a cage designed to hold rats against the victim, and chew their way through the victim to get away from a fire was ever actually used. The only tourter devices that are documented being used are the rack, the wheel, sleep deprivation, the log, and other devices that were used to cause fear and pain without a visible injury. The belief was a priest could not draw blood( internally didn't count). Sorry for the rant I did a bit of research on medieval torture for fun, and I proved my seventh grade history teacher wrong on so many things about tourter.
I got married 17 years ago, and darling Aussie step-grandmother made our wedding cake- a traditional fruit cake. Very old fashioned and traditional in Australia and England. Interestingly, in Chile (my country of birth and heritage), our cakes are sickeningly sweet sponges soaked in caramel, fruit, fruit juice, custard or jam & cream, topped in merengue icing. I prefer my Chilean sugary cakes, but the heritage and history behind the traditional fruit cake is very striking.
I remember my mom mentioning that the top tier of wedding cakes being a fruitcake that would be set aside and eaten by the couple on their first anniversary for good fortune. I believe my older sister mentioned that her fruitcake tier had gone rancid by her first anniversary (she was married in the 1970's) and had to be tossed. Interesting enough, the marriage was rocky and eventually ended in divorce.
My family is English, and that is what we did as well. The top layer was fruitcake that we ate the next year, fairly freezer burnt but still edible. The main cake was a lovely red velvet that never left the reception.
The top tier being fruit cake is a modern tradition but you have to take special care of it. The modern equivalent is to put the top tier in the freezer.
@@SimuLord Hot Damn! Finally a deep cut StrongBad reference about Marzipan. Trogdor Lives! On the actual baked marzipan, I bet it gives a lot of structure for more tiers or heavy decoration.
If you actually serve this at your wedding, John Townsend is going to show up with an armed party of frontier settlers and Iroquois and kidnap your cake.
"Christmas" flavor is most frequently achieved by the addition of cinnamon and ginger. Other common holiday-type spices like nutmeg, cloves, mace, and cardamom don't usually create this taste association unless combined with aforementioned two.
Squee aside, this is actually pretty close to most of the wedding cakes I’ve experienced in the UK- the hard outer icing, a layer of marzipan and then a moist yet crumbly fruitcake is still very much our go-to over here.
Also in Ireland. In recent years, lighter sponge cakes have become popular, but the three tiered fruitcake with marzipan and royal icing with complex sugar work was the standard wedding cake until quite recently. Also, Max is eating it incorrectly. The slice he cut is far too big for one person. The cake is too solid to be eaten with a fork. The proper way to serve a wedding cake is to cut it into bite sized columns, each with marzipan and royal icing on top. The bottom (largest) tier is supposed to be shared at the wedding reception, and some is reserved for each guest to take home in a little decorated gift box. The cake Max made should serve up to 50 people. The middle layer is supposed to be cut on the first wedding anniversary, and the top layer is the christening cake for the first baby.
Here is Brazil some couples have two different cakes to offer to their guests (since the cake they use for photos is usually a fake cake). They are usually both sponge cakes, but usually one is chocolate and one is fruity, so that everyone can chose the kind of cake they like better. I think this could be a good option for couples in the UK to keep the tradition but also shake it up a little bit if they want it.
I think these days it's not unusual to have a traditional fruit cake and a cake people actually like as well. If I get married no way is there going to be a fruitcake.
My mum in Scotland still makes fruit cakes like this for relatives weddings (her's is a lot darker and more moist and less crumbly....sorry). She covers them in marzipan and fondant icing. She also makes Dundee Cake (named after my hometown) which also has almond flour added. Instead of the marzipan and icing, the top is decorated with blanched almonds. I make a Dundee cake (iced or with the blanched almonds) every Thanksgiving season to help me feel closer to my family across the ocean. It's really expensive though! Like $70 of ingredients.
My cat loves when I watch this show? He nuzzles my phone, often out of my hand because he cuddles too hard. Also, this episode was a pure delight, congratulations!
Lucy Worsley did a whole recreation of Queen Victoria's wedding. The segment on the wedding cake and breakfast are amazing. If you think that your recipe was excessive then you'll lose you shit over this.
Me to my partner: “What a coincidence, tasting history is a wedding cake this week and we’re getting married on Sunday!” Me after opening the video: *shook* But also, congrats!! Hope you have a great wedding and have a lot of fun this weekend!
Other than the rose water, that's my Christmas cake recipe, but I use darker sugar.I soak the fruit for two days in the brandy and then let it mature before icing it for a good two months. (Feeding with extra brandy once a week, Prick it over with a cocktail stick to get the brandy in). I had someone who couldn't have almonds so we got a walnut marzipan, turned the first layer of icing a delicate shade of green in about 10 days.
I was thinking of Lucy Worsley's episode where they remade Queen Victoria's Wedding cake & it was mentioned because of the booze the cake could probably still be eaten today. Then she mentioned sometimes pieces come up for auction. Sometime, maybe Xmas/NewYears I want to make a small size cake.
Your Christmas cake sounds a lot like my grandmother's cake except that it would be brushed with lavish amounts of rum once a week. I often wish that I had a written copy of the recipe but it was all in her head.
wedding cakes here in Colombia are still usually fruit cakes. they are this heavy cake with prunes and raising all drowned in red wine and iced with white fondant. COngratulation on the Wedding! hope you 2 will be very happy.
I remember the moment I became truly positive I wasn't making a mistake getting married. Listening to just my fiancee's side of the phone conversation with the caterers for our reception: "What flavors of cake do you have available? ... ... Actually, white and yellow are colors." :D Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials!
@@robinthrush9672 Me too! We've celebrated our 31st anniversary last summer, and I'm still loving every minute! Oh, and our wedding cake ended up being a carrot cake with buttercream frosting. Yum!
Congratulations max, may all go smoothly as your icing. Side note: my great grandmother was a confectioner in Liverpool, and during the war when she made wedding cakes, she took a train journey to the country and picked flowers. Then she candied them, primroses were very popular and my mum remembers helping her in the back kitchen to make them and dry them on a big black Victorian stove
I was married in England in 1970. The cake was a dark fruitcake and you needed a jackhammer for the icing. The top was kept for the first anniversary or baby christening.
@@kbc163 we saved ours for his mother who was in the States when we got married. My husband was in the military stationed in England when we got married.
I learned this cake at Le Cordon Bleu and I love it. If I ever get married this is the one I will use. And congrats on the wedding! I waited until Friday to watch this so I could remote celebrate for you! To many years of happiness.
Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and I'll be making a burnt Basques cheesecake plus a double batch of his favorite cookie, chocolate chip. Congratulations!
And here I thought groom's cakes were a trend that just started in recent years. And now I know why it's called royal icing too. Congrats on your wedding!
Congratulations man, so happy for you both. Much love from UK. When I got married we had a 3 tier Black octagonal cake decorated with silver spiderwebs and red fondant roses.
My Groom Cake was a foot wide glazed donut with perfect maple frosting from Ally's Donuts in North Kingstown, RI. It was awesome. The actual wedding cake was deeply chocolate with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry compote filling, with a white chocolate frosting. We slow danced to Elvis. Hope yours is as fun, congrats!
1st: Congratulations Max! 2nd: I honestly wouldn't be sad to have a really good fruit cake at a wedding. I absolute love spiced cakes full of candied peel.
In defence of Fruit Cakes in general and for Christmas and Weddings in particular: 1. If you don't like it you haven't tried mine and 2. Fruit Cakes, I believe because of the sugar and alcohol content, will keep in the fridge to the point that you can save a slice for your first anniversary or birth of first child and crumble &/or eat it then, which I think is a sweet tradition. No pun intended.
It's also important what you serve it with: tea (preferably black tea), coffee or milk. Nothing carbonated or super sweet: that really would taste bad.
@@grabble7605 haha, well I guess you just don't like romance (jk) Historically though, I think that's why they were ubiquitous. Things that keep well win in a world without refrigeration
Congratulations Max! The fact that you were planning a wedding and still made time to post these high quality videos every week without fail is impressive and appreciated
Re: the paper tied outside the cake tin: when I make a huge, long-baking cake for Christmas that's similar to this cake (recipe from BBC Good Food), I tie two layers of newspaper outside the tin. It apparently stops the outer part of the cake cooking too soon and, I assume, drying out or burning. (Then my cake rests for several weeks and gets fed with booze every couple of weeks till Xmas).
I'M LITERALLY SITTING ON THE COUCH WITH MY PARTNER CRYING WITH HAPPINESS FOR YOU BOTH AAAAAAAAA 😭😭😭😭 I've been subscribed since the beginning and your videos got me through an incredibly tough time in my life. I can't be more grateful for you and José. I recently moved to OC and was low key excited to live close to one of my internet heros! Thank you for everything Max, and I hope you guys enjoy your special day!!
there s a scientist in france working on full synthetic ambergris, hes being funded by perfume companies who want to use it in their perfumes like they did before whaling became frowned upon. if your lucky, you might be able to use it in baking soon.
I'm surprised it is illegal altogether... not hunting whales is one thing, but so many wash up on shore as it is. You'd think it could be harvested then.
@@Amcsae I don't know anything about the subject but my gut feeling is that people don't harvest parts of washed-up whale carcases for the same reason we don't rely on road kill as a source of food.
@@ReggieArford The ambergris is best when cured from floating in salt water for a long time and cured by the sun. I believe it's only from Sperm whales? It's also quite rare as very few produce it. It's a waxy substance made by the intestines to protect the whale when they ate something sharp like a beak from a bird. You can tell it's ambergris if you heat a needle and poke it. If it goes in, it's very likely ambergris. You can become rich if you find a nice chunk washed up on the shore. I researched this awhile ago when I purchased some perfume. Mine was made by a synthetic version (ambroxen).
Congratulations! I mean, you've been married all the while, but I'm thrilled you finally get to have the big party. May your journey through life with Jose continue to be more wonderful every day.
When my husband and I were about to cut out cake we were told not to during photos. Later when served,I noticed there was no icing on the slice. I told my mom. Turns out our cake was to be use at another wedding that day. Mom was having none of that for what she paid for it (1970 $400 +) We ended up getting our money back and cake with icing plus the whole top tier to take home.
Congratulations to both you & Jose on finally getting married. Hope the day is gorgeous & all goes well. Some of us don't have Instagram so would it be possible for you to put a few photos on your Tasting History? Just remember to get to the church on time!
Traditionally here in England, they'd have the 3rd and smallest tier as the a fruitcake which is kept for the christeninng of their first child. I'm talking at least 1980's if not later.
Mine was just the iced fruit cake, a adaption of the Be-Ro Christmas fruit cake, ('95), in the early 2000's several of my cousins got married (very expensive half decade!!) all of them had sponge cakes with the top layer being a fruit cake. I'm sure that's still the tradition in a lot of areas of the UK.
@@Elowuz The tradition can't be older than the era of refrigeration/freezing. Even if the couple conceived on the night of their wedding, after 9 months at room temperature even the densest of fruit cakes would start to molder.
@@manicmuffin It’s preserved by the brandy, and was also wrapped well. It’s amazing how long sugar icing can last too, if it’s kept dry. When we were sorting out my grandma’s house after she died we found icing from my parents’ wedding cake, which was 14 years earlier.
Congrats! Can’t believe it’s coming up! And I love how the g-max Alcreamie, who looks ridiculous in the games, actually looks perfectly normal in the context of wedding cakes. XD
That sounds like an incredible cake recipe and I'm not much of a cake guy in general. Best of luck in married life! I'm sure it's been even better than you imagined so far!
It's so nice that in the midst of all the "ehhh" stuff still going on, that an occasion based on love and fun is happening. Really happy for you both. Peace.
It's still very much in line with a traditional British wedding cake recipe and royal icing is still fairly commonly used, less so than fondant as it's a bit of a pig to work with in comparison. The sugarcraft can get a touch insane though. I remember helping my mother with that growing up (she made wedding cakes professionally). The flowers were made individually, roses down to each petal, then if they were made using white icing we individually coloured them. Even if they were dyed they'd get a dusting so that the colour wasn't uniform.
In another life I made wedding cakes, I used to use folded newspaper, dampened, tied round the tin with string. I made the paper a good few layers thick. It prevents the outside of the cake cooking before the inside, as that stops the cake from doming. It works with all cakes, sponge and fruit. Preppy kitchen has a few videos about cake strips, which are the modern version of the paper. Congratulations on your forthcoming nuptials, I wish you and Jose many happy years together.
A lot of people still make a groom's cake for the wedding, but not this specific kind. Basically it's usually a smaller cake that's a different flavor. For instance having the main wedding cake a vanilla cake and the groom's cake chocolate.
We did that for my small backyard wedding 21 years ago. Both were homemade but it was nice for our friends and family to have a choice between chocolate and vanilla.
We are planning on something similar due to allergies and dietary restrictions, as well as budget. We decided to have a display with various types of cake, and to ask guests beforehand their favourites so that we can get the correct amount^^
What I've noticed about all of these old celebratory cake recipes (specifically from England or people of English decent) is that they are all very similar. Currants, almonds, candied peel, brandy, the same spice combinations. The one I am partial to is the victorian Christmas cake from English heritage. And congratulations on your wedding!
Thank you all for your support and well wishes! We'll be gone for a couple weeks, but worry not, videos will still be posted :) I'll share wedding and vacation updates on Instagram @tastinghistorywithmaxmiller & Twitter: Tastinghistory1, and Jose's IG @worldagainstjose, so give us a follow 🌴🍹
Congrats! That's awesome :D!
We might just be asleep 🥱
Enjoy yourselves!
The spice videos must flow!
Congratulations! May your lives be happy, healthy and prosperous!
This is a fruit cake, traditional for English weddings. However they need to be made 2 months in advance to be soaked in brandy week by week. My mother's cake in 1959 was 5 layers and my grandmother made it. 144 eggs and she brought it on the plane from Canada to Boston in 5 boxes, had to buy a seat just for the cake boxes. It fed 250 guests.
What a wonderful story! And yes, we have these cakes for weddings and Christmas :)
Yes, as soon as I saw the candied fruit peel, I was like eurgh! fruitcake!
Amazing!
As an English guy with a big family, that has been to too many weddings, I can confirm that fruitcake has to be the most sill choice for a wedding cake. After eating a full wedding meal of finger food, starters, then mains, then a dessert, to then watch the cake cutting and be given a wedge of fruitcake… it’s far too heavy.
Wow!! I love that!! It sounds like my family!! My Aunt makes all the cakes in the family including wedding cakes 🎂😋😍☺😊💕
Max: * Finally is getting married *
Everyone: Cheers, I'll drink to that.
Very happy for you and Jose. Congrats.
*cue Frank Sinatra Get Me to the Church*
Cue Get Me to the Church on Time from My Fair Lady
Max's husband-to-be: "Just promise me we can have a cake from this century."
Max: 😏
😂😂😂
"almost"
My thought exactly. 😂
At least its in the same millenium-
Well, this century is only 21 years old so last century cakes would not be that weird.
Congrats to you and Jose!
And as my grandmother, god rest her, would say: if your fruitcake is dry, you have not added enough brandy. :D
That is the most British granny thing I've heard
My grandfather makes some every year, and he would absolutely agree! I don't even want to ask him how much alcohol is in there once it's finished
@@themaddiemads You could probably get a DUI from a sniff of the cake! LOL
@@leeannjohnson1808 😅😅😅
Agreed! and if you worry about making it too wet, you can try using brandy-soaked cheescloth wraps to gradually seep the booze in over time.
If Max’s wedding is coronation themed, he could cook his own Dillegrout, and gift themselves a manor as a dowry.
I wish I had so many extra manors that I could just give myself one
Dried fruits, brandy, nuts, mace, nutmeg...this is just 18th century showing off.
Congratulations and hope you have a fantastic day on Friday!
Right? This is flaunting your wealth off, especially in the original quantities!
@@bigmoniesponge
Caviar tastes nice, but not _that_ special. It’s decorative, though.
@@bigmoniesponge
It’s a good example of something that tends to cost more than it tastes. If you want the aesthetics of caviar, use molecular gastronomy to make it with whatever flavour you want, and it’ll generally be a _lot_ cheaper.
"Fruits, spices, and sugar? _My_ wedding cake was made of tobacco, tea, and ivory."
@@Anonarchist don't give them ideas, I can just see a Cuban Cigar cake getting popular...
you two better have the best wedding ever, if not I will actually cry man.
The pastor and the photographer almost got into a fight at my wedding. So, make sure the staff gets along as well.
@@worldssmallestfan Sorry you had some trouble at your wedding, but the image of a clergyman beating up a photographer is hilarious to me.
@@joonapukarinen1153 im sorry for laughing 💀
@@worldssmallestfan excuse me, but what happened? I need context. (also hope the rest of your wedding went well
@@joonapukarinen1153 Right? Honestly I kinda wish that had happened at mine lol I would have loved to see the tiny lady who was our pastor just haul off and suplex someone lmao
The icing is not there for "looks". It is there to seal the cake and preserve it. Very often, with a multiple-tier cake, the top was kept to be eaten at the Christening of the firstborn child.
It's also because the cake is usually soaked in brandy months in advance and needs to be sealed to preserve the cake.
If it’s not soaked in brandy more than me at my daily reunions then I doubt it will stay fresh that long and even then that’s highly suspect imo.
Whoa, I didn’t know that there’s a deeper reason behind it. Thanks for sharing 😊
My grandparents kept theirs for thier 50th wedding anniversary
If your wedding is going to be anything like this cake, it's going to be sweet
Much congratulations to you and José, what a year it's been for you!
Congratulations mate, hope you have a ripper!
Thank you! I plan on it.
what does that mean? sounds ominous
@@helpfuldrawing9510 not sure but sounds British
@@adastial2104 to the untrained ear. I would say that "ripper" is more Australian. I think we would say "have a good one"
@@martinmaynard141 yeah on a second thought it's definitely aussie
Congratulations man!!
Thank you!
That moment when two of your favorite youtubers meet in the wild.
Finally, crime and food gathered together.
*men
Now this is a great meeting of the masters.
“I feel bad for whoever has to clean my kitchen. It’s me”
I mean it could be the other groom, you made the cake after all haha
"You made that for you, not us. I am NOT cleaning."
@@Levacque that is so accurate I suspect you were there lmao
*Max:* I'm getting married!
*Me:* Good for you!
*Also Max:* And I'm making a cake that is 254 years old.
*Me:* Of course you are.
As one does, we wouldnt expect anything less from Max
Jose is a lucky man. You're smart, funny, talented and pretty darn cute.
Congratulations on the wedding.
Congratulations! My grandmother who, when asked how long she and Papaw had been married, once famously replied, “I can’t remember any more, but we’re on about our 10th bottle of Tabasco sauce.” I’m sure your own union will be equally enduring - and spicy.
Your grandmother sounds awesomely snarky.😉
As an Australian, I don’t think our musk sticks actually contain musk anymore. They’re way too cheap for that. The flavour is actually just rosewater
"Half a pint of brandy" made me chuckle. Let's be honest, it's not really going in the cake, it's going in the cook.
More like the cook poors out a full pint and after taking about half of it they go: "that's about right", and put the rest of it on the cake lol
My mom made this cake at Christmas. Half of the pint of brandy went in the batter and the other half was poured over the cake after it was baked. It was then wrapped up in wax paper and stored for Christmas.
Ala Julia Childs. Max should do an episode on her. She was part of cooking history as well as a secret agent!
@@PrinnieSophia Was she the one who coined the phrase 'I always cook with wine; sometimes I even put it in the food'?
@@hjalfi yup right up Max’s alley LOL
Congratulations on your wedding! So thrilled for you.
Side note: When teaching me how to cook, my granny taught me that the ingredients "dried fruit" doesn't really mean to add the fruit in dried. The are supposed to be soaked in water overnight barely covered or added to water, barely covered, and placed on a med/low heat for a hour (keep a watch on it to make sure the water doesn't get low). Then added to the recipe.
This is one of the "just known" so was rarely added to recipes. Kinda like salt isn't added to old recipes.
I used to work in a fruitcake foundry and this is correct. We soaked the raisins in water before adding them to the batter. Otherwise they were too dry, they would suck all the moisture out of the batter and your fruitcake would come out hard as a brick.
@@mrdanforth3744 I am really enjoying the image of a "fruitcake foundry". Like a bunch of burly steelworkers, pouring molten iron/fruitcake into drop forges, steamwhistles blowing, sparks and slag flying everywhere...
A baker friend taught me that trick.
Oatmeal raisin cookies with soft raisins are amazing!
My grandma would never soak the fruit in water overnite. Jamaicans soak it in primarily rum, though other spirits can be used, for a night, to a week, to months ahead.
@@oliviaw4571 am Irish sub whiskey for rum and it’s the same.
"I have followed Max and tasting history for almost a year now. I can stay without a doubt that I've come to enjoy Max's humor and style. on a personal note I was going through a pretty tough time and I knew that every Tuesday I would find a moment of peace with tasting history. I've come to think of Max Miller as that person that would swoop in and take me away from my troubles for a little while. it's very easy to imagine that's how Jose and Max think of each other. I can't think of two people that respect honor and love each other more than Max and Jose. I know they shall be there for each other in tough times, in times of scarcity and times of plentifulness. I know they shall be there to rescue each other.
TO THE HAPPY COUPLE! MAY THEIR MARRIAGE BE A PROSPEROUS ONE.
CHEERS!
I got married 30 yrs ago and my cake weighed 54 kilos . It was divine and sublime . A dear family friend made it. Traditional fruit cake three tiers stacked on top of each other and hand made spring flowers . Honestly that was my favourite part of the whole wedding . The top tier was supposed to be kept in the freezer for my unborn sons christening . My father ate it . So our friend made one for my son only weighing 7 kilos lol
That cake probably weighed more than the baby!
Stack cake I heard from my Grandma was the wedding cake for Rural Appalachia. Each guest(family) would make/bring a thin cake (like a pancake) and donate to build the wedding cake. Applebutter was spread between the layers.
Not gonna lie, that sounds delicious.
Home cooked food is always going to be my choice over catered. Maybe that makes it a bit of a shotgun wedding but who gaf, I'd rather eat something simple and delicious than opulent and so-so.
Now we have to make our own stack cakes all alone.
It sounds like stuff my family used to do back in the day.
That's a wonderful and interesting tradition! Great to revive, maybe for birthday cakes, if your friends happen to be good home bakers. A layer for each decade of life!
When my parents were still married, my mum had the top tier of their wedding cake displayed in our china cabinet. apparently it was styrofoam covered in some sort of faux icing. It makes sense honestly, to have the top tier or two be decorative. what tickles me is the entirely fake extravagant wedding cakes that have one single slice of real cake incorporated in for photographing the married couple cutting the cake.then they usually roll out a sheet cake that's much easier to slice up for 200 people
My wedding cake actually had an edible MIDDLE tier, which meant that the wide bottom section was styrofoam covered with plastic. The wedding planner told us to cut the bottom layer. Hilarity ensued for a few seconds as we both realized that we were scraping plastic, then looked at each other, then sort of agreed by newlywed telepathy to start poking the middle layer, found out it was actually cake, and cut into it. The wedding guests were presented with the REAL bottom tier which had actually been prepared separately for eating. Later on the hotel crew brought the middle tier cake to our room to eat. It was okay.
‘I feel sorry for whoever has to clean the kitchen, oh me’ is such a mood
I can totally relate. I am a really messy cook, and I have to clean up after myself, or live with a kitchen that looks like a bomb just went off inside of it. Guess what I choose. (Yeah. Something in between obviously.)
Yeah, it is. After every shoot, I just stare sadly at my sink.
People still absolutely rent fake cakes for the wedding reception, often with a little slice of real cake hidden in it for the cake cutting photo.
When I rented a place for my wedding party, they ofered me a cardboard cake. I declined, it had dust on it for God's sake! No fake things at my wedding, no sir.
@@m1985dr Which is kind of weird cause you could make a basic wedding cake in an hour or 2 for pretty cheap.
@@DogMason For a modern cake, most 3 or more tiered wedding cakes take 2 or 3 days, from bater, baking, icing and decoration and delivery. You can get a 2 hour cake from the grocery store, but it will be pre made and shipped in frozen, iced in store and you would have to deliver and set it up.
@@sandyclaws5247 I just can't reasonably see how it would take that long without making complex decorations. Every cake I have ever made takes only a couple hours at most even if its for around 30 people. The longest cake I have ever done is a danish wedding cake, a kransekage. (Note: they can get really big) It is a tough days work but still it takes a day. The complex shaping of the cake is what makes it tough. I think this might just be an effect of the wedding industry over charging and exaggerating costs. I could see myself doing an iced and decorated 3-4 tier cake in about 4-5 hours. Maybe modern wedding cakes have some secret thing that I wouldn't know as a frequent home baker.
@@DogMason it all needs time to set, trying to de pan a warm cake can make it fall apart, and it has to be cool to ice, then there's usually a couple of layers of icing before it can be decorated and each one has to cool or harden slightly.
Depending on the amount of oven space and pans the baker may have to make the same 3 layers several times and washing the pan between layers. It's just something that can't be rushed. A room temperature cake will absolutely fall apart in transportation from bakery to venue.
This recipe calls for “sweet almonds,” because bitter almonds were also common in the 18th century. But any almonds you find for sale now will almost certainly be “sweet” almonds, unless otherwise specified.
Have you ever found a bitter one in your bag of sweet almonds? It's pretty shocking, once I had a bag with multiple bitter almonds.
I remember when Nile Red sniffed a bunch of bitter almonds to compare them to the smell of cyanide (also by sniffing).
@Jacob Sullenger yes! I'm amazed they've ever been used to eat 😬
I hate bitter almonds, marzipan, and almond extract. But I go through bags and bags of sweet almonds.
I grew up next to a lady that made wedding cakes for a living. Since she did all the work in her house, she would bring over a bag full of the cake trimmings whenever she finished one.
I'd just like to say thank you.
I started watching your videos because my best friend was enamored with your content and your positivity, creativity, and pokemon kept my interest.
My best friend/roommate passed away from lymphoma in late March 2022 and I just saw this video pop up.
So again, thank you. From both of us.
And rest in peace, Kyriakos 'Ken' Alexopoulos 💗
That cake doesn't seem old fashioned, it is very "currant".
Lol
I'm using this the next time me and my family make fruit cakes.
I laugh at this 3 times a day lmao
Ahhhh 🤣you’re funny
It's raisin a smile.
I'm so happy for your wedding. If I could give 1 piece of advice: don't expect perfection. If you end up married to the right person at the end of the day, the wedding was a success. ♥️
Surprisingly comforting and I'm not even engaged 😂
Oof so many fail weddings, they realize they married the wrong person a little after 😔
We had so many wedding disasters! It was 55F and pouring for our wedding in the park. The shelter we had reserved had fireplaces at both ends, which helped, but the electricity was out; we had to rent a generator. The lady who was supposed to be making our cake thought it was *next* weekend, and a friend had to run to the nearest grocery store to have them ice a cake, write our names on it, and pipe on some scallops and a few flowers. With every new challenge, I kept saying to my mother, "Mom, I'm marrying the right guy; the rest is just a party." 26 years later, still happily married.
@The Stock Trader huh?
@@danacarpendersketoloworno2043 Weather was awful for my wedding and several guests couldn't make it (and we had a small guest list to begin with). I really didn't care for the way my hair and make-up were done (it was not at all what I asked for, but was rather done the way the people at my MIL's salon of choice thought it should be done, and she paid for it, so... whatever), there was an issue with the groom's suit that required a last minute rental to replace it, and we ended up with hardly any pictures (my sister took better photos than the actual photographer). What we ended up with was a really intimate reception where there was no rush and no need for a reception line, and it was nice and really suited us. It was nothing like the wedding I always thought I would have, but that's just a day, and the marriage is forever.
The concrete-like external icing also works as an airtight container, helping in preserving the cake at room temperature for a longer time. I usually discard royal icing and sugar paste as they are too sweet and do not taste wonderful to me, but they are very helpful from a structural and decorative point of view.
It also serves the purpose of protecting the cake from dust. We make a big Christmas cake that lasts well into January and sometimes February. Fruit cake keeps well but even under a cover the icing will slowly gather dust so we discard it. The best bit is the marzipan layer below it anyways.
I agree, sugar paste just don't taste well. i much prefer marzipan or real cream (not the butter cream that is often used instead).
I favour my home-made almond paste/marzipan, and a top layer of brandy buttercream - a bit like brandy sauce for a Christmas pudding but in buttercream form. The combination with a good moist well aged fruitcake is divine!
@@fionaclaphamhoward5876 it sounds amazing! I'll need to look for a brandy buttercream recipe.
@@fedra76it here is the recipe I use, from the iconic Edmonds Cookbook (I'm from New Zealand 😅)
BUTTER ICING FOR CHRISTMAS CAKE (will keep)
175gm (6oz) butter
500gm (1lb) icing sugar [confectioners sugar]
3 tablespoons wine or brandy
2 teaspoons essence of vanilla [vanilla extract]
Cream butter with sifted icing sugar; add brandy or wine and vanilla. Beat well.
There used to be a tradition in England, when wedding cakes were still fruit cakes, that one layer would be kept to be used the next year for the first child's christening cake. Fruit cakes keep very well when liberally laced with brandy or rum.
And my heartiest congratulations on your wedding. May you have many happy years together.
didn't Wills and Kate keep a tier or two for the christening of their little prince and princess ?
Honestly first hearing this it's like "oh god that's a long time" and then I remember oh yeah, birth control
"It's my wedding!"
*immediately slams like button through happy tears*
Same! 🥰🥰
You know what: Having this many bowls in a way might be quite practical since more than one person would be in the kitchen and prepare the cake. So, every housemaid or cook or whatever could be taking care of one of those steps with one bowl at the same time. Probably works much faster this way :)
Also: my best wishes for your upcoming wedding and all the happiness to you and your partner :)
That sounds like something fun to do with with your bridesmaids or groomsmen ❤️
@@NankitaBR That's actually a really great idea!
Oh just hearing you say "It's my wedding!!!" really is a happy sound! Really made my day! Can't wait to follow up on on your wedding!!! We wish you and Jose the BEST!!!!! 🥰🥰🥰
In Sri Lanka, "Wedding cake" is still mostly this fruit cake. (Though most of us turned to soft sponge cakes of flavours we like) people have gigantic cake "structures" made with mainly styrofoam and there is a tiiiny section the couple can cut into.
The guest are given separate individually wrapped cakes. Funny to see how our people still stick to Victorian trends 🤔
"Poor animal, she will be worn out before she is thirty."
What I wouldn't give for the ability to he this splendidly catty 😢
Huge congrats, Max, here's to you and Jose finally tying the knot (incidentally, my sister's also getting married on Sunday, so this weekend's gonna be really festive).
My parents’ wedding cake (1968) had a fruitcake as a top layer. They wrapped it well, froze it , and on their anniversary the baker took all the frosting off, refrosted it, and they ate it for dessert. They said it was quite good :) Congratulations you two, may you find endless joy in each other!
That’s very traditional here in England. The top tier is saved for the christening!
@@betsybabs And America (at least my family)
My parents was the same! Except they had the leftovers on my christening
These events were 3 years apart
I've heard of a similar tradition, but instead of the anniversary, you ate the fruitcake lair to celebrate the birth of the first child. Which pre-birth control was generally expected to occur about a yearish after the wedding (though I assume couples that had some difficulty concieving would probably go ahead and eat the cake before it went bad even if the first kid hadn't actually been born yet. If my parents had done that the traditional way, that cake would have been dust since they got married when they were 26, and had me - the eldest/youngest/only child - when they were 44.)
My parents saved a slice of their wedding until I was at least 20
The medieval stacked cakes sound sort of like a Overflødighedshorn, a Danish wedding cake. They look a bit like a stack of tiered cookies. My parents had one at their wedding.
It took me so long to write it just to find its a cornucopia 😭
Also its so cool that overflødighedshorn is like overflow horn
This is the same recipe my mother and her sister would make every Christmas as a Christmas cake. Using natural English currents they would sit for hours individually de-stemming each one. When I came to the States and started using ready processed currents my mother was horrified.
People still do that? I always think when I read these old instructions of “wash your currants, carefully pick through for debris then dry before the fire” - thank goodness I can just buy them in a pack! I was also thinking “you know you can just buy the almond icing pre made right?”
@@mahenonz my mum used to do that with the currants when she made Christmas cake. But she bought pre-made marzipan icing for the top! We’re Irish.
@@fmcm7715 Homemade marzipan has such a wonderful taste, holy mother of god is it irritating and finicky when you have to hand crush the almonds.
I used to be a student confectioner and vowed to never make marzipan again by hand!🤣
Congratulations, Max and José! You seem like such lovely and kind people, I'm legit feeling very happy for you sitting here a couple thousand miles away. 😂
Congratulations! This is the true power couple, Mosé. Almost sounds like a wine
Making Candied Citrus peel is fun, and you have the simple syrup for drinks. I put it in my coffee in place of sugar. Fun fact. The Iron Maiden didn't have any spikes in it, and was instead a sweat box.
@@SimuLord Lol
Making candied citrus is enough to put me into a depression for a week
Iron Maidens DID have spikes. I once saw a museum exhibit of medieval torture devices which included an iron maiden. Not only did the box have spikes poking inward, but the box had a variety of holes and fasteners in different places so the torturer could choose exactly where to position the spikes. Since condemned persons came in different shapes and sizes, it was necessary to adjust the spikes to allow for maximum alignment of the spikes over that particular person's sensitive parts.
@@fazdoll they were most likely added during the Victorian era to add to the viciousness of the look. You tell a gentle lady that she's looking at a heat box intended to be placed over a fire, and she may be interested. You add spikes to something, and tell her that it's intended to impale the victim slowly, and that courset gets to feeling a little binding, and next thing you know, that sweet lady is in your arms. Even then men were finding ways to touch women.
@@fazdoll the Rat cage was also fake. There is no documentation that a cage designed to hold rats against the victim, and chew their way through the victim to get away from a fire was ever actually used. The only tourter devices that are documented being used are the rack, the wheel, sleep deprivation, the log, and other devices that were used to cause fear and pain without a visible injury. The belief was a priest could not draw blood( internally didn't count). Sorry for the rant I did a bit of research on medieval torture for fun, and I proved my seventh grade history teacher wrong on so many things about tourter.
I got married 17 years ago, and darling Aussie step-grandmother made our wedding cake- a traditional fruit cake.
Very old fashioned and traditional in Australia and England.
Interestingly, in Chile (my country of birth and heritage), our cakes are sickeningly sweet sponges soaked in caramel, fruit, fruit juice, custard or jam & cream, topped in merengue icing.
I prefer my Chilean sugary cakes, but the heritage and history behind the traditional fruit cake is very striking.
I remember my mom mentioning that the top tier of wedding cakes being a fruitcake that would be set aside and eaten by the couple on their first anniversary for good fortune. I believe my older sister mentioned that her fruitcake tier had gone rancid by her first anniversary (she was married in the 1970's) and had to be tossed. Interesting enough, the marriage was rocky and eventually ended in divorce.
My family is English, and that is what we did as well. The top layer was fruitcake that we ate the next year, fairly freezer burnt but still edible. The main cake was a lovely red velvet that never left the reception.
The top tier being fruit cake is a modern tradition but you have to take special care of it. The modern equivalent is to put the top tier in the freezer.
We put out top tier in the freezer, and on our first anniversary I ate it, my husband was afraid to. It was tasty!
Yes, consistent refrigeration, the key to any successful marriage xD
My parents did save some of their wedding cake for their first anniversary and it tasted terrible.
Honestly, icing baked over a cake sounds way better than icing that just gets smeared on. I bet it’s an entirely different flavor.
The almond icing is essentially baked marzipan.
@@SimuLord Hot Damn! Finally a deep cut StrongBad reference about Marzipan. Trogdor Lives! On the actual baked marzipan, I bet it gives a lot of structure for more tiers or heavy decoration.
@@SimuLord I have not thought about Homestar Runner in a long time! Love it!!
Well, yeah...it's marzipan. It tastes like almonds. 😂
If you actually serve this at your wedding, John Townsend is going to show up with an armed party of frontier settlers and Iroquois and kidnap your cake.
xD
*assaults cake with even more nutmeg*
Nah, just sprinkle nutmeg in all the food and drinks! 🤣
"Christmas" flavor is most frequently achieved by the addition of cinnamon and ginger. Other common holiday-type spices like nutmeg, cloves, mace, and cardamom don't usually create this taste association unless combined with aforementioned two.
Yeah, I can see that! I associate cloves, but only for a very specific roasted apple recipe that was only ever a Christmas thing in our house.
Squee aside, this is actually pretty close to most of the wedding cakes I’ve experienced in the UK- the hard outer icing, a layer of marzipan and then a moist yet crumbly fruitcake is still very much our go-to over here.
Also in Ireland. In recent years, lighter sponge cakes have become popular, but the three tiered fruitcake with marzipan and royal icing with complex sugar work was the standard wedding cake until quite recently. Also, Max is eating it incorrectly. The slice he cut is far too big for one person. The cake is too solid to be eaten with a fork. The proper way to serve a wedding cake is to cut it into bite sized columns, each with marzipan and royal icing on top. The bottom (largest) tier is supposed to be shared at the wedding reception, and some is reserved for each guest to take home in a little decorated gift box. The cake Max made should serve up to 50 people. The middle layer is supposed to be cut on the first wedding anniversary, and the top layer is the christening cake for the first baby.
Here is Brazil some couples have two different cakes to offer to their guests (since the cake they use for photos is usually a fake cake). They are usually both sponge cakes, but usually one is chocolate and one is fruity, so that everyone can chose the kind of cake they like better.
I think this could be a good option for couples in the UK to keep the tradition but also shake it up a little bit if they want it.
I think these days it's not unusual to have a traditional fruit cake and a cake people actually like as well.
If I get married no way is there going to be a fruitcake.
@@mytimetravellingdog Personally I prefer fruitcake!
CONGRATULATIONS! I’m so happy for you both!
My mum in Scotland still makes fruit cakes like this for relatives weddings (her's is a lot darker and more moist and less crumbly....sorry). She covers them in marzipan and fondant icing. She also makes Dundee Cake (named after my hometown) which also has almond flour added. Instead of the marzipan and icing, the top is decorated with blanched almonds. I make a Dundee cake (iced or with the blanched almonds) every Thanksgiving season to help me feel closer to my family across the ocean. It's really expensive though! Like $70 of ingredients.
I always prefer using marzipan to fondant, if I can get away with it. What you've described sounds wonderful.
My cat loves when I watch this show? He nuzzles my phone, often out of my hand because he cuddles too hard.
Also, this episode was a pure delight, congratulations!
My cat does that when I'm talking to my parents!
This is awesome ❤️😎 love to da kitty
Lucy Worsley did a whole recreation of Queen Victoria's wedding. The segment on the wedding cake and breakfast are amazing. If you think that your recipe was excessive then you'll lose you shit over this.
I love Lucy's videos! She is such a fresh air in a usually stuffy field!
That was a great show.
Thanks - must check it out.
I love Lucy, her documentaries are always so fun and interesting.
Me to my partner: “What a coincidence, tasting history is a wedding cake this week and we’re getting married on Sunday!”
Me after opening the video: *shook*
But also, congrats!! Hope you have a great wedding and have a lot of fun this weekend!
Congratulations
Congratulations! May you and your partner enjoy a lifetime of love and joy in each other!
Congratulations to you, as well! Hope the wedding is amazing and the marriage even better.
I.AM.SO.HAPPY.FOR.YOU. You talk about your wedding with such a bright light in your eyes! Enjoy every moment of it.
Thank you, Simona!
As a lover of history AND food -- I think this channel strikes a perfect balance for me. Subscribed!
Other than the rose water, that's my Christmas cake recipe, but I use darker sugar.I soak the fruit for two days in the brandy and then let it mature before icing it for a good two months. (Feeding with extra brandy once a week, Prick it over with a cocktail stick to get the brandy in). I had someone who couldn't have almonds so we got a walnut marzipan, turned the first layer of icing a delicate shade of green in about 10 days.
I was thinking of Lucy Worsley's episode where they remade Queen Victoria's Wedding cake & it was mentioned because of the booze the cake could probably still be eaten today. Then she mentioned sometimes pieces come up for auction. Sometime, maybe Xmas/NewYears I want to make a small size cake.
Your Christmas cake sounds a lot like my grandmother's cake except that it would be brushed with lavish amounts of rum once a week. I often wish that I had a written copy of the recipe but it was all in her head.
wedding cakes here in Colombia are still usually fruit cakes. they are this heavy cake with prunes and raising all drowned in red wine and iced with white fondant. COngratulation on the Wedding! hope you 2 will be very happy.
Same in Jamaica. Our Christmas black fruit cake that is drowned in run and red wine basically becomes a wedding cake when you add icing
I remember the moment I became truly positive I wasn't making a mistake getting married. Listening to just my fiancee's side of the phone conversation with the caterers for our reception:
"What flavors of cake do you have available? ... ... Actually, white and yellow are colors." :D
Congratulations on the upcoming nuptials!
I like your wife.
@@robinthrush9672 Me too! We've celebrated our 31st anniversary last summer, and I'm still loving every minute!
Oh, and our wedding cake ended up being a carrot cake with buttercream frosting. Yum!
@@ScottChristianSimmons 😍 heartwarming thx for sharing
Happy anniversary--looks like a marvelous cake.
Congratulations max, may all go smoothly as your icing.
Side note: my great grandmother was a confectioner in Liverpool, and during the war when she made wedding cakes, she took a train journey to the country and picked flowers. Then she candied them, primroses were very popular and my mum remembers helping her in the back kitchen to make them and dry them on a big black Victorian stove
I was married in England in 1970. The cake was a dark fruitcake and you needed a jackhammer for the icing. The top was kept for the first anniversary or baby christening.
We kept the top from our cake as well and ate it on our first anniversary. Great tradition. 👍
@@kbc163 we saved ours for his mother who was in the States when we got married. My husband was in the military stationed in England when we got married.
Best Wishes to You and José, May your lives be like a French Baguette, long and filled with dough !
Hahah I love that!!
I learned this cake at Le Cordon Bleu and I love it. If I ever get married this is the one I will use. And congrats on the wedding! I waited until Friday to watch this so I could remote celebrate for you! To many years of happiness.
Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and I'll be making a burnt Basques cheesecake plus a double batch of his favorite cookie, chocolate chip. Congratulations!
What wonderful, whimsical wedding news! Wishing perfect weather for a perfect couple! Congratulations Max and Jose!
I love the alliteration. Are you a poet?
Your husband is a lucky man. Have a lovely wedding and hope your relationship is long and fruitful!
Congratulations! My daughter is also getting married today. I made her cake, but it was a 21st century variety 🙂
" Let them eat cake!" - Every Couple Getting Married
And here I thought groom's cakes were a trend that just started in recent years. And now I know why it's called royal icing too. Congrats on your wedding!
Congratulations man, so happy for you both.
Much love from UK.
When I got married we had a 3 tier Black octagonal cake decorated with silver spiderwebs and red fondant roses.
Ooooh perfect for October
My Groom Cake was a foot wide glazed donut with perfect maple frosting from Ally's Donuts in North Kingstown, RI. It was awesome. The actual wedding cake was deeply chocolate with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry compote filling, with a white chocolate frosting. We slow danced to Elvis. Hope yours is as fun, congrats!
Live in N.K. good sounding cake choices! ;)
Well done! I fully support cakes that are not traditional, but are smashingly delicious.
1st: Congratulations Max!
2nd: I honestly wouldn't be sad to have a really good fruit cake at a wedding. I absolute love spiced cakes full of candied peel.
In defence of Fruit Cakes in general and for Christmas and Weddings in particular: 1. If you don't like it you haven't tried mine and 2. Fruit Cakes, I believe because of the sugar and alcohol content, will keep in the fridge to the point that you can save a slice for your first anniversary or birth of first child and crumble &/or eat it then, which I think is a sweet tradition. No pun intended.
'Fruit cakes keep forever so you can make a gross, hated tradition of your various milestones.'
How is that a point in its defense though...
@@grabble7605 If you only put in ingredients you like you get a fruitcake that suits your taste. I only put in dried fruits not candied ones.
I very much prefer fruitcakes or Christmas cakes over most flavors. Only devil's choc cake tops this
It's also important what you serve it with: tea (preferably black tea), coffee or milk. Nothing carbonated or super sweet: that really would taste bad.
@@grabble7605 haha, well I guess you just don't like romance (jk)
Historically though, I think that's why they were ubiquitous. Things that keep well win in a world without refrigeration
Congratulations Max! The fact that you were planning a wedding and still made time to post these high quality videos every week without fail is impressive and appreciated
My husband, my daughter and myself simply adore you like a member of our own family - we're so happy for you! Congratulations to you and Jose!!
Re: the paper tied outside the cake tin: when I make a huge, long-baking cake for Christmas that's similar to this cake (recipe from BBC Good Food), I tie two layers of newspaper outside the tin. It apparently stops the outer part of the cake cooking too soon and, I assume, drying out or burning. (Then my cake rests for several weeks and gets fed with booze every couple of weeks till Xmas).
You can but strips of material, padded, to go around your cake so it cools evenly.
My sister has fancy fabric strips to put around the cake tin while it bakes. She says it helps the top stay flat for layered cakes.
Congratulations Max and José! I hope you have a wonderful wedding day, and of course a wonderful marriage!
I'M LITERALLY SITTING ON THE COUCH WITH MY PARTNER CRYING WITH HAPPINESS FOR YOU BOTH AAAAAAAAA
😭😭😭😭
I've been subscribed since the beginning and your videos got me through an incredibly tough time in my life. I can't be more grateful for you and José.
I recently moved to OC and was low key excited to live close to one of my internet heros!
Thank you for everything Max, and I hope you guys enjoy your special day!!
That looks good. My mom made my wife and me a traditional Norwegian wedding cake, so simple and so good
Congratulations to you and José! Hope you guys have the best time ever!
there s a scientist in france working on full synthetic ambergris, hes being funded by perfume companies who want to use it in their perfumes like they did before whaling became frowned upon. if your lucky, you might be able to use it in baking soon.
Whale puke in perfume is bad enough. But in /food/? You'll have more than /whale/, puke.
I'm surprised it is illegal altogether... not hunting whales is one thing, but so many wash up on shore as it is. You'd think it could be harvested then.
@@Amcsae Sure... but how do you tell washed-up whale barf from that obtained by killing a whale?
@@Amcsae I don't know anything about the subject but my gut feeling is that people don't harvest parts of washed-up whale carcases for the same reason we don't rely on road kill as a source of food.
@@ReggieArford The ambergris is best when cured from floating in salt water for a long time and cured by the sun. I believe it's only from Sperm whales? It's also quite rare as very few produce it. It's a waxy substance made by the intestines to protect the whale when they ate something sharp like a beak from a bird. You can tell it's ambergris if you heat a needle and poke it. If it goes in, it's very likely ambergris. You can become rich if you find a nice chunk washed up on the shore. I researched this awhile ago when I purchased some perfume. Mine was made by a synthetic version (ambroxen).
Congratulations! I mean, you've been married all the while, but I'm thrilled you finally get to have the big party. May your journey through life with Jose continue to be more wonderful every day.
When my husband and I were about to cut out cake we were told not to during photos. Later when served,I noticed there was no icing on the slice. I told my mom. Turns out our cake was to be use at another wedding that day. Mom was having none of that for what she paid for it (1970 $400 +) We ended up getting our money back and cake with icing plus the whole top tier to take home.
Who tf reuses cake?? Jeez, go mom, that's not acceptable
@@StonedtotheBones13I know right?! Who reuses cake?! As much as cakes cost you should be getting the whole cake and not pieces of it!
@@marywells1197 esp for a $400 cake. In today money, that's like 3k
@@StonedtotheBones13holy inflation Batman!
@@marywells1197 I just looked it up and honestly did not think that it would change that much in like 50 years. Also help the 70s are 50 years ago
Congratulations to both you & Jose on finally getting married. Hope the day is gorgeous & all goes well. Some of us don't have Instagram so would it be possible for you to put a few photos on your Tasting History? Just remember to get to the church on time!
Traditionally here in England, they'd have the 3rd and smallest tier as the a fruitcake which is kept for the christeninng of their first child. I'm talking at least 1980's if not later.
Thats not a very old tradition, lmaooo
@@facelessdrone I think they mean that tradition was carried out up until the 1980s at least not that it started in the 1980s lol
Mine was just the iced fruit cake, a adaption of the Be-Ro Christmas fruit cake, ('95), in the early 2000's several of my cousins got married (very expensive half decade!!) all of them had sponge cakes with the top layer being a fruit cake. I'm sure that's still the tradition in a lot of areas of the UK.
@@Elowuz The tradition can't be older than the era of refrigeration/freezing. Even if the couple conceived on the night of their wedding, after 9 months at room temperature even the densest of fruit cakes would start to molder.
@@manicmuffin It’s preserved by the brandy, and was also wrapped well. It’s amazing how long sugar icing can last too, if it’s kept dry. When we were sorting out my grandma’s house after she died we found icing from my parents’ wedding cake, which was 14 years earlier.
Congrats! Can’t believe it’s coming up! And I love how the g-max Alcreamie, who looks ridiculous in the games, actually looks perfectly normal in the context of wedding cakes. XD
That sounds like an incredible cake recipe and I'm not much of a cake guy in general. Best of luck in married life! I'm sure it's been even better than you imagined so far!
Congratulations Max, I hope your marriage is a long and happy one.
It's so nice that in the midst of all the "ehhh" stuff still going on, that an occasion based on love and fun is happening. Really happy for you both. Peace.
Congratulations Max and Jose! I hope your wedding is a thousand times more beautiful than you could ever imagine
Congrats on the wedding, i've been married nearly 20 years now and it is truly one of the best parts of life's journey
It's still very much in line with a traditional British wedding cake recipe and royal icing is still fairly commonly used, less so than fondant as it's a bit of a pig to work with in comparison. The sugarcraft can get a touch insane though. I remember helping my mother with that growing up (she made wedding cakes professionally). The flowers were made individually, roses down to each petal, then if they were made using white icing we individually coloured them. Even if they were dyed they'd get a dusting so that the colour wasn't uniform.
In another life I made wedding cakes, I used to use folded newspaper, dampened, tied round the tin with string. I made the paper a good few layers thick. It prevents the outside of the cake cooking before the inside, as that stops the cake from doming. It works with all cakes, sponge and fruit. Preppy kitchen has a few videos about cake strips, which are the modern version of the paper. Congratulations on your forthcoming nuptials, I wish you and Jose many happy years together.
This sounds like a more complicated water bath, I wonder what the benefit is to a cake strip instead of a bath. Guess I'll have to check test kitchen!
A lot of people still make a groom's cake for the wedding, but not this specific kind. Basically it's usually a smaller cake that's a different flavor. For instance having the main wedding cake a vanilla cake and the groom's cake chocolate.
We did that for my small backyard wedding 21 years ago. Both were homemade but it was nice for our friends and family to have a choice between chocolate and vanilla.
We are planning on something similar due to allergies and dietary restrictions, as well as budget. We decided to have a display with various types of cake, and to ask guests beforehand their favourites so that we can get the correct amount^^
Oh yeah I heard about that I've seen ppl go all out like star wars or lord of the rings lol
CONGRATULATIONS! May the baking gods bless you and may your doughs always rise to meet your high expectations
The only sad thing about this video is that I may only "like" it once. Best wishes, my men!
"Half a pint of brandy"
I think I will have that separately for my wedding.
You and José have brought so much joy to our home!! We are thrilled that your happy day is almost here! Congratulations to both of you!! 🧡🧡🧡
What I've noticed about all of these old celebratory cake recipes (specifically from England or people of English decent) is that they are all very similar. Currants, almonds, candied peel, brandy, the same spice combinations. The one I am partial to is the victorian Christmas cake from English heritage.
And congratulations on your wedding!