Showing posts with label Nigerian Traditional Wedding Cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigerian Traditional Wedding Cake. Show all posts
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Hello Everyone, how’s your summer going, and now “Back-to-school”? It’s been very busy for me, pretty much trying to juggle so many stuff together! Just take it easy, the weather’s changing in a couple more weeks, so cooling off is on the way, yaaay!
These next entries will be dealing with all the technical jargons of cake decorating, servings and the cake cutting ceremony. Everything comes easy with ordering when you already know what you need! While there are different charts and opinions out there about servings, what you’ll find here is my tried and tested recommendations. I hope you find this useful!
Now, 1 cake pan iced and decorated is called a cake LAYER, most butter cream cakes are single layer cakes. The professional cake baking pan is usually 2 inches high. Single layer cakes are usually 2 inches high plus the added inch or two of the frosting.
Two or more cakes sandwiched with fruit or cream filling is 1 TIER. These days, the trend is to sandwich 3-4 layers to give the cake some height.
A cake tier is 4 inches or more plus the height of filling and cake covering. Wedding cakes and cakes for big birthdays usually have several tiers.
When ordering a cake, three things you might have to consider are: The flavors of cake you’ll like, size of cake you want (depending on your guest count) and the design you want on the cake.
FLAVORS are the condiments added to your cake to give it a unique taste. Most bakeries have a large variety of flavors to pick from. Some of these flavors are either fruity, alcoholic, nutty, with vegetables, drinks etc. There are strawberry cakes, orange cakes, rum cakes, champagne cakes, almond cakes, coconut cakes, zucchini cakes, carrot cakes, chocolate cakes, ice cream cakes etc.
Also, you might have to think up what SHAPE of cake you want. There are uncountable shapes of cakes now that cakes are made in 3D! The basic shapes are round, rectangle, square, oval and hexagon.


There are pans for most other items but the cake decorator can also cut out shapes using the basic shapes. These are called SCULPTED CAKES! If you wanted to make a shoe cake for instance, you might need to ask your decorator if they can sculpt a shoe.

CAKE PANS are made to size. The sizes are either even or odd numbered. I usually use the even sizes. I have cake pans 4”, 6”, 8”, 10’’, 12”, 14”, 16” and 18”. The square pans give you added SERVINGS because they are full size. Round and hexagon pans give you a little bit less servings. Think about it this way: round, oval, rectangle and hexagon shapes are actually square shape trimmed on the sides. Here are my own recommendations for number of servings per pan. These are generous slices and not considering single or double layers. The double layered cake will just be extra cake for your guests.
4” cakes will serve 6-8 people,
6” cakes will serve 12-15 people,
8” will serve 20-25 people,
10” will serve 35-40 people,
12” will serve 50-60 people,
14” will serve 100-120 people,
16” will serve 140-160 people,
18” will serve about 200 people.
Labels:
Cake Layers,
Flavors,
Modern Cakes,
Nigerian Traditional Wedding Cake,
Sculpted Cakes,
Shape,
Sizes,
Tiers,
Wedding Cakes,
www.ehicakes.com
Location:
North America
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Hello Everyone, in this entry I’ll be talking about
a class of cakes that I make so often and a lot of my friends don't really
understand what occasion they are made for: THE NIGERIAN TRADITIONAL
WEDDING!
We all know what part of the world Nigeria is and its
repute: good or WORST! I really hate to
dwell on the negativity that the world has come to associate with Nigerians. Like most peoples, there are some rotten eggs
and some "viable" ones, so we’ll only be
minding the business here: Nigerians are
a people of truly rich, diversified culture. Imagine
a space of just about 356+ thousand square miles with over 250 languages,
#thisiswhatyoucallrich! There are a
number of aspects of culture that run common with most of these small tribes,
like "giving in marriage". With Nigerians, the ultimate marriage ceremony is the church/mosque marriage but each
requires parental consent and the TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE is clearly the parental
consent these religious ceremonies need.
THE NIGERIAN TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE is a very rich medium to large sized ceremony
where the parents give away their daughter to her groom, fulfilling all
traditional rites. From the early days, it has added so much decorum and color, beyond just paying and receiving DOWRY (a certain cash or kind payment required by the Bride’s family for giving their daughter away in marriage). Hahaha! This makes me laugh cos
17 years ago, my parents requested just 116 Nigerian Naira from my husband for
my bride price: Mathematicians, help convert
to dollars: 116/150 x 1 US dollar. Hahahahaha!
It’s less than a dollar, people!
And I’m working overtime hours by now, still bearing children in my
40s. I hope my husband’s reading this
and understands what I mean when I say the dowry’s expired and I need a “second
marriage ceremony” in which the bride price will be determined and received by
me!
THE CEREMONY: The
Nigerian traditional marriage typically holds in the Bride’s home (living room) at any time of the day. Generally, the Bride’s family plays host. They fete the groom and his family in a ceremony filled with so much playful pomp and pageantry. Well ahead of the event day a family to family introduction would have taken place, where the groom’s family is given a list of items to purchase for the Traditional Marriage ceremony. THE LIST is below for your viewing.
On the day of the ceremony, the family of the groom announces their arrival with
drumming, singing and dancing and are met at the gates by the wives in the
bride’s family.
One fun thing about
this ceremony is that any group of family members is allowed to obtain cash
from the groom and his family. The groom
usually goes prepared and doles out cash like “no man’s business”. The ceremony starts with the groom's family
requesting to see the bride’s parents
and extended family. They present the groom to the bride's family all
prostrated on the floor with his friends and family. They then request for the
bride.
segungele
The bride’s family checks off their bride’s list of items. They receive the bride price (dowry) and prepare to
present the bride. Some cultures present
other girls, dressed and veiled like a bride. The groom is expected to pick his bride. The families say prayers for the new couple
and the real partying begins.
There
is usually Lots of foods, drinks and
dancing and finally the move. The bride’s belongings are packed
up in a car and moved to the groom’s house.
How feasible it is, is usually determined by the
new couple. (Did you notice Tosin's Shoes?, Tres Chic!)
THE CAKE: Sometimes very
detailed, usually a showpiece
of an aspect of the ceremony:
suitcases, a briefcase of cash, a basket of fruits, a building, jewelry cases, expensive cars, expensive lace or George wrappers, jewelry, beads. Tosin's cake was made to look like 4 folded
expensive George wrappers. The Cakes
were Butter and Red Velvet Flavors.
Below is my Traditional wedding 17 years ago showing me dressed in “Bini" traditional bridal beaded velvet and
very expensive coral beads.
Many thanks to the couple here, Mr. and Mrs. Addeh who gave their pictures for the blog, and to Tmaj Photography: I have carefully picked out the following links to help you view pictures of Nigerian traditional weddings, for ideas for planning yours. Some of these have more pictures on their Face book pages so you may need to start a Face book page to be able to view them. Please leave a comment to add to or make corrections to the ceremony and the list, the readers and I will appreciate that. Enjoy!
TMAJ PhotographyMany thanks to the couple here, Mr. and Mrs. Addeh who gave their pictures for the blog, and to Tmaj Photography: I have carefully picked out the following links to help you view pictures of Nigerian traditional weddings, for ideas for planning yours. Some of these have more pictures on their Face book pages so you may need to start a Face book page to be able to view them. Please leave a comment to add to or make corrections to the ceremony and the list, the readers and I will appreciate that. Enjoy!
segungele
Traditional Weddings (Edo)
Ihuoma's Nigerian-Traditional-wedding pins on Pintrest
Wedding Digest Naija
African Weddings Magazine
Nigerian Weddings
Bible/Religious Book
Ihuoma's Nigerian-Traditional-wedding pins on Pintrest
Wedding Digest Naija
African Weddings Magazine
Nigerian Weddings
The Nigerian Traditional Wedding Bride's List
Bible/Religious Book
Dowry: amount determined by tribal law and customs
Cash gifts for family members
tubers of XL Yams
Pieces XL smoked fish
Smoked wild catch meats
Pieces Kolanuts
Pieces Alligator Peppers
Pieces Bitter Kola
Basket of assorted fruits
1 jar honey in a crystal decanter
1 large crystal dish of sugar
1 large crystal dish of salt
Kegs or calabashes of Palm wine
Assorted drinks
1 live she-goat
Palm Oil
1 Umbrella
A Sewing Machine
1 Suit Case for the bride, filled with the following:
2 pairs of shoes
2 handbags or clutch purses to match
2 head ties
1 Gold Wrist watch
Traditional Wrappers: Lace, George, Hollandais Wax Prints, African Prints
Matching blouses for the wrappers
Jewelry, genuine Coral beads
Other clothes: Dresses, Skirts, Pants etc
Location:
United States
















