Last Call: Have You Eaten Year-Old Wedding Cake?

A friend of mine is celebrating her first wedding anniversary, and I asked how she's planning to celebrate, in lieu of attending a fancy dinner somewhere as they normally would have. She responded that there's still "plenty of cake left in the freezer" to pair with some champagne. Having not had a cake at my own wedding, I'd forgotten that the top tier of a wedding cake is traditionally frozen and eaten on the couple's first anniversary. Is this a custom you've taken part in?

My own parents said they attempted this little ritual themselves back in the day, but that the cake tasted "terrible" after its year of lingering in sub-zero temperatures. This could, of course, be a storage issue; cakes are made with several ingredients that require a bit of babying when you place them in the freezer to ensure minimal ice crystals and maximum flavor. Gwen Ihnat investigated this question in 2018 and determined that, while year-old wedding cake is probably safe to consume, that doesn't mean it's going to be as delicious as it was on your wedding day—or that it will last a year without being broken into if other treats are scarce.

If you've enjoyed some old cake in this fashion, we want to hear about it. Oh, and did you put classic little figurines on top of your cake, too? The best ones I ever saw were Mario and Peach, smooching on either side of a mystery block. If you can't indulge your little pop-culture obsessions at your own wedding, why throw one?