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• wedding cake
  wedding cake

  noun

  a white cake, traditionally in tiered layers, covered with white icing and decorated.
• wedding-cake
  wedding-cake

  adjective

  highly ornate or overly elaborate.

wedding cake

¹ American  

noun

• wedding cakes
  plural

1. a white cake, traditionally in tiered layers, covered with white icing and decorated.

2. (in England) a fruit cake, similar in appearance.

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wedding-cake ² American  

[wed-ing-keyk] / ˈwɛd ɪŋˌkeɪk /

adjective

1. highly ornate or overly elaborate.

   wedding-cake architecture.

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wedding cake British  

noun

1. a rich fruit cake, with one, two, or more tiers, covered with almond paste and decorated with royal icing, which is served at a wedding reception

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• wedding cakes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of wedding cake¹

First recorded in 1640–50

Origin of wedding-cake²

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wedding cake wedding-cake

Colleton’s 1820 Greek Revival courthouse is elegant like a wedding cake.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2026

A second wedding day was organised at his care facility a day after the real thing, featuring a two-tier wedding cake and bottles of champagne, as well as the bride's special guest.

From BBC ● May 18, 2026

This is not a wedding cake; it’s a celebration among friends.

From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2026

The early embrace of sunshine as an antiseptic, formalized in New York’s wedding cake towers that were required to step back gradually from the street, soon morphed into a generalized opposition to tall buildings.

From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2025

Unfortunately, he didn't see the wagon handle, so he tripped on it, slid on the wet concrete, fell in the puddle of melted ice and, unfortunately, toppled the wedding cake.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

No. The Catholic priest who conducted our marriage preparation mentioned that the purpose of the wedding-cake cutting was to inaugurate the domestic life of the new couple.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

Not just standard wedding-cake topper, 1990s romantic-comedy love, but inclusive love.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024

The southeastern German state now manages 45 palaces, including the wedding-cake piles of King Ludwig II, who essentially abandoned his royal duties to build some of Europe’s most ornate castles.

From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2020

Geologists sort the waterfalls into two types: wedding-cake falls, which descend in multiple tiers, and bridal-veil falls, that plunge over a ledge into a pool.

From The Guardian ● May 3, 2016

There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston’s wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. Woodhouse would never believe it.

From "Emma" by Jane Austen