AisleDash

The tall tiered wedding cake is standard in modern North American weddings -- and a lot of other places, too. However, it's a relatively recent innovation. The first such cake was made in 1858 for the Princess Royal's (Vicky) wedding. The bottom layer was cake, and the rest decorative icing, each tier stacked directly on top of the one beneath.

Her mother, Queen Victoria, had a mammoth cake, a good nine feet in diameter, but, though it had a decorative element on top (bride, groom, and the symbolic Britannia), it was a sheet cake. An enormous one, but still a sheet cake. But, just as her mother was a wedding trend-setter, starting the tradition of the white bridal gown, so too was the daughter.

Ever since Princess Vicky's wedding, cakes have been vertical. So, though her mother would probably have disapproved heartily, we have Princess Vicky to thank for this cake on the right.