New Orleans is obviously an American city. Still, every once in a while we find a cultural element that leaves us smiling about the many differences between the Crescent City and the wider nation in which it resides.
Take, for example, wedding cake.
Ask someone outside the region around New Orleans what “wedding cake flavor” is, and they’re likely to stare back at you as if you’re asking a trick question. To them, it’s likely that a wedding cake can be flavored anything one wants it to be: vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate; red velvet, butter pecan, or pistachio. The world is your proverbial oyster.
Around New Orleans, however? That’s another story.
Ask someone here what flavor a wedding cake is, and there’s a good chance they’re going to say, “The flavor of a wedding cake is wedding cake flavor, duh.”
Okay, but what exactly is wedding cake flavor?
For generations of southeastern Louisianians, wedding cake flavor has almost unanimously meant a delicate, white, almond-flavored sponge cake with almond buttercream, often in layers with a sweet crushed pineapple filling.
So why the divide? How did the New Orleans area unilaterally invent this specific taste for a matrimonial ceremony that is held across the globe.
It’s quite the story!
All about the almonds
Before we get to our wedding cake, we need to talk about the almond and, specifically, its growth in the southern Italian island of Sicily.
The almond tree was first brought to Sicily by Greek settlers who saw its early blossoms as a symbol of springtime, hope, and rebirth. When the Romans took over the island, almonds transitioned from purely symbolic to a staple at banquets.
But it was Arab rule between the 9th and 11th centuries, however, that truly transformed Sicilian almond farming. They introduced advanced irrigation techniques, as well as confectionery methods that led to early almond sweets such as marzipan.
Once the Arabs lost control of Sicily, subsequent rulers continued expanding the crop, making the island a global epicenter of almond production. Almond-based sweets have been popular ever since, with almond pastes and rich tortas becoming staples of local baking. The results have included the traditional Torta di Mandorle with citrus zest, almond ricotta cakes, and famous marzipan concoctions such as frutta martorana.
To this day, Sicily remains a major producer of almonds, and their desserts reflect that.
Inching closer to wedding customs, it is a common tradition in southern Italy -- Sicily included -- to give candy-coated almonds, called confetti, to guests as wedding favors. The bitterness of the almonds is meant to represent the bittersweet life of a married couple, while the sugar coating symbolizes the hope that their life together will be more sweet than bitter. Five almonds are often gifted to represent the five wedding wishes: health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and long life.
But what does all this talk about Sicily have to do with New Orleans?
Well, between 1884 and 1924, an estimated 290,000 to 300,000 Italian immigrants, the vast majority of whom were Sicilian, moved to New Orleans. This was second only to New York City and this mass migration made parts of the French Quarter so Sicilian that it was nicknamed, “Little Palermo,” after the Sicilian capital city.
These new immigrants brought their traditions with them, including this love for almonds and almond-based sweets.
It should be no surprise then that, during this period of migration, in 1893, an article in the New Orleans Item, was the first to mention almond as a flavor in local wedding cake.
Almond flavoring catches on
“Who was the inventor of the new wedding cakes?” wondered the New Orleans Item article before offering this description: “The latest specimen has a thin layer of sugar, only just enough to look pretty, and underneath are alternate layers of cake and almond paste, one as thick as the other. The consequence is that no one is defrauded of their lawful share of almond paste or ‘love,’ as it is usually called.”
Wedding cakes as Americans know them today likely originated in Victorian-era England, which stretched through the second half of the 19th century. The aforementioned 1893 article, then, titled “Wedding Cakes, New Style” fits that timeline perfectly. The “new style” referred to that almond infusion brought by those hundreds of thousands of Sicilians.
February 24, 1893 article from the New Orleans Item discusses a new almond-flavored wedding cake.
But the momentum continued to grow. In 1905, a Times-Picayune article advised brides on how exactly to mix almond paste and sugars for their wedding cake. Eleven years later, the New Orleans States published a “traditional” wedding cake recipe which utilized almond extract.
It’s clear that by the middle of the second decade of the 19th century, almond was a critical flavor within a New Orleans wedding cake. Beginning in 1921, that flavor took another giant leap forward. This was the year that the local Swiss Confectionary bakery first opened.
The bakery is still in operation today, but for decades after their launch, Swiss Confectionery was the place to get your wedding cake. And what flavor did they feature? Descendents of the bakery’s owner said they basically offered only one flavor of wedding cake: almond cake and buttercream, of course; but it also included layers of pineapple filling. That filling, many believe, is the final piece of what makes the New Orleans wedding cake so special.
Going bananas for pineapple
Move over almonds! Pineapple's journey to the Big Easy was an exciting one in its own right.
In the early 1800s, when New Orleans was growing as a newly American city, pineapples were uncommon. Early sailing ships took weeks to travel from the fruit’s origin in the Caribbean or South America, and the pineapples would rot before they arrived. When the odd pineapple did make it intact to the Crescent City, they were wildly expensive -- sometimes costing the modern equivalent of thousands of dollars!
But the next century-plus would bring the price down. This is due to the advent of the steam ship allowing for faster shipping, but also thanks to some early 20th century innovations by a now-familiar name in fruit. Namely, James Dole of the famous produce company that carries his name.
Pineapples by Dole Food Company
Dole pioneered industrial plantations in Hawaii that scaled up pineapple production. Additionally, he began canning pineapples and shipping them to the American mainland. As pineapples caught on, New Orleans was geographically positioned to benefit. The city was a major gateway for trade with the Caribbean and Central America, and became an entry point for tropical fruit such as pineapples, bananas, and citrus. The newly arrived fruit vendors from southern Italy (Sicily included) popularized and distributed these fruits throughout the French Quarter’s markets.
In the 1920s, Dole’s canned pineapple gained extraordinary popularity, becoming a massive culinary fad across the country. This was thanks to the Dole Company’s mass production and huge marketing campaigns. For example, a famous recipe contest they sponsored in 1925 helped cement the fruit in the American pantry.
Dole’s contest received 60,000 entries, of which 2,500 were cakes. The resulting publication, Hawaiian Pineapple As One Hundred Good Cooks Serve it, was a hit, introducing America and New Orleans to the pineapple upside down cake as well as many other recipes.
Pineapples were becoming huge, just as Swiss Confectionery was beginning to sell its almond-flavored wedding cake. The flavors proved to be a match made in heaven…or at least New Orleans!
A New New Orleans flavor comes of age
In the century since, this combination of almond sponge cake, almond buttercream, and -- sometimes -- pineapple filling has become a New Orleans culinary tradition simply called “wedding cake flavor.”
Bakeries like ours at Joe Gambino’s have been serving products featuring this grouping of ingredients since our earliest days, becoming a go-to spot for your wedding cake-flavored desserts. It’s not only wedding cakes. If you don’t have a wedding coming up, you can always order our almond petit fours or almond wedding cake king cake to get a taste of what makes this combo so special.
Gambino’s petit fours are a classic New Orleans treat with a classic New Orleans flavor. Sweet almond wedding cake is coated with a layer of poured icing.
A classic New Orleans treat, with a classic New Orleans flavor! Mini squares of our sweet almond wedding cake coated with a delicious layer of poured icing; these bite-sized treats are perfect for a party, or an indulgent treat for yourself!
Rather than becoming a fading tradition, the wedding cake flavor continues to evolve. After Hurricane Katrina, refugees from New Orleans brought the flavor with them and you can now find the tradition growing in other parts of the country.
Additionally, instead of pineapple, other fruits are sometimes used -- most commonly strawberry or lemon. And, as many New Orleanians have seen for themselves, the “wedding cake flavor” is no longer just for cakes. Most sno-ball stands, for example, offer the beloved combination in a refreshing syrup served over fluffy shaved ice.
Help us keep this uniquely New Orleans tradition alive. It is one of many flavors we offer for your next cake, whether it’s a wedding, a birthday, or any other occasion you are hoping to celebrate. Joe Gambino’s Bakery has you covered!