No doubt, cakes made of flour, sugar, eggs, and icing are not native to Africa as no ingredient in such cakes is reflective of a typical African culture. But Africans have found a way to add a touch of African cultural heritage to cakes by decorating them in ways that reflects their rich legacy. With this creativity and innovation with cakes, Africans and specifically, South Africans, now include beautifully designed cakes as one of the edible items in traditional weddings. These cakes are designed with the colors, patterns, shapes, and fabrics prints of the different South African tribes.
Getting a unique traditional wedding cake design pattern of various South African tribes can be a bit difficult, so, to save you the stress, we have selected 20 traditional wedding cakes from various tribes in South Africa. They depict the cultural heritage of each tribe and are also beautiful to the eyes.
Tswana Traditional Wedding Cakes
Tswana people of South Africa are known to have a rich cultural heritage that can be seen in all their cultural events – from their attire, to the food, and their type of music. The cultural creativity of the Tswana people can also be seen in the variety of Tswana traditional wedding cakes. Most Tswana traditional wedding cakes are usually decorated with unique Tswana colors, shapes, patterns, and fabrics. Here are some options you should consider.
1. Yellow And Blue Tswana Traditional Wedding Cake
The Tswana people of South Africa are known for their signature Tswana prints that are made of unique Tswana patterns and a Tswana traditional wedding cake without a touch of this print and pattern wouldn’t be complete. If you want your cake to not just carry the print but also beautiful and shouty Tswana colors, this cake is a perfect option.
2. White And Gold Cake
This Tswana traditional wedding cake is perfect for couples who want their cake to look modern, but still have a touch of tradition, as it has just a little touch of tradition. Although this cake looks like a white wedding cake, the pot on the upper tier and the bead around it still depict the Tswana culture.
3. White Cake With A Touch Of Tswana Prints
On a general note, you can never really go wrong with a white cake, because white cakes always look beautiful, on that same note, it is a perfect color to blend with any color or Tswana print. The round upper tier of this cake also gives it a perfect Tswana signature, as well as the way the blue Tswana prints are used to decorate the cake.
Zulu Traditional Wedding Cakes
At Zulu traditional weddings, it is typical to see leopard skin fabrics or materials on the bride and groom, and they also have signature wedding attires like the isidwaba and the isicwaya. However, through innovation and creativity, cake makers have been able to make Zulu traditional wedding cakes that match Zulu attire and culture. Here are some cake ideas you may like.
4. White Cake With Zulu Bead Design
This Zulu traditional wedding cake is a full definition of simple but beautiful. Despite being a white cake, it is carefully decorated with different colors of Zulu beads which makes it a modern-traditional cake.
The Zulu beads in the middle tier of this cake have been piped with royal icing and all tiers are decorated to match each other with carefully decorated Zulu beads. Although this cake is perfect for a traditional wedding. If you are someone who likes a touch of culture in everything you do, you can also use this cake for your white wedding.
5. Cake With isidwaba And isicwaya
If you are someone who wants to absolutely uphold the Zulu culture on their traditional wedding cake, then this is just a perfect option. The white part of the cake has been carefully decorated to look like the isicwaya a Zulu bride wears at her traditional wedding. The middle tier of the cake is also carefully shaped and decorated to look like inkehli, the hat Zulu married women wear to show that they are now taken.
It is also decorated with Zulu beads and colors. As beautiful and cultural as this cake is, it is noteworthy to add that you will need a skillful cake maker to pull something like that off for you on your Zulu traditional wedding day.
6. Cake With Feathers And Zulu Colors
This is another South Africa traditional wedding cake that depicts the Zulu culture in all aspects. The brown and white colors used in the decoration were chosen to match the animal skin both Zulu brides and grooms wear over their necks during their traditional wedding.
The cake is also decorated with colors and shapes that look like Zulu beads. To give it a final Zulu touch, it has dark brown and white feathers like those used by Zulu men during a traditional event. Just like most traditional wedding cakes, this one would also require some level of expertise from the baker.
7. Cake With inkehli And Feathers
This traditional wedding cake strikes a balance between the cultural and modern cake. The ruffles at the last tier show how skillful the baker is and can also be done to match the bride’s dress. For a bride who goes for this traditional wedding cake, wearing a modern Zulu traditional wedding attire will be just perfect, especially a ball gown or a mermaid gown or skirt.
The upper tier of the cake is also shaped and decorated to look like an Inkehli and the bead below brings out the beauty in a very unique way. The feathers also give it a signature Zulu look. If you want a Zulu cake that is beautiful, cultural, and sophisticated, this one is a great option.
8. White Cake With Zulu Beads, Patterns, And Pot
This is another white Zulu traditional cake that you can also use for your traditional wedding and practically any traditional event. The patterns and colors look modern, but they also depict the Zulu culture. To give it that signature Zulu cultural look, the upper tier is carved to look like a pot and is decorated with two colors of beads.
Xhosa Traditional Wedding Cakes
Xhosa culture is known to have this beautiful and sophisticated blend of white and black, used to create different patterns and looks very beautiful on traditional dresses like the maxi skirt and gown. This beautiful color blend can also be used to create very astonishing Xhosa traditional wedding cakes that absolutely depict Xhosa cultural heritage. Most Xhosa cakes are just black and white, but the beauty will remain a memory to any wedding guest. Here are some cake ideas you may like to consider.
9. White And Black Xhosa-themed Cake
This white and black Xhosa traditional wedding cake speaks volumes of the Xhosa culture. The colors, and the pattern with which they are mixed look similar to the way Xhosa brides blend white and black to make a maxi gown or Isishweshwe. The upper tier of the cake is shaped like the hair cap Xhosa women always wear. To give this cake a more Xhosa-inclined look, it has pictures of beautiful Xhosa women imprinted on it.
10. White Cake Decorated With Traditional Prints
This cake is simple, but so beautiful and also represents the Xhosa culture, although not as much as the first Xhosa traditional wedding cake on this list. The African print used to decorate the cake and the flowers add a lot of beauty and sophistication to this cake.
11. 5-Step Black And White Wedding Cake
The white and black color of this traditional wedding cake and the perfect blend of colors and patterns make it 100% ‘Xhosafied’. It also speaks loudly of the creativity of the baker.
To take creativity and skill a step further, the baker is also able to make it a 5-step cake. This makes the cake production and decoration process more stressful, but the baker (in this case) pulled through. This is certainly not a Xhosa traditional wedding cake you should make if your baker is not well skilled.
Sepedi Traditional Wedding Cakes
Aside from the beautiful Sepedi traditional wedding dress, the cultural food and music, the type of cake a Sepedi couple use for their traditional wedding can also signify their interest in culture. Pedi people have unique colors which they are known for, and most of them are loud, but with the creativity of a good baker, they can be put together to create a beautiful Sepedi traditional wedding cake. Here are some cake ideas you may like to consider.
12. White Cake Designed With Sepedi Bead Colours
Like we already established, Sepedi colors are known to be bright and loud, and to make use of more than one at a time, you have to be skilled in blending colors. Using a white cake as the base on which other Sepedi colors can blend in as decoration is absolutely a great idea.
Using Sepedi colors to create what looks like the signature Sepedi bead as a decoration of the cake is also creative.
13. Pot-Like Sepedi Traditional Wedding Cake
In Africa, a clay pot has a lot of significance with regard to African culture. With all the civilization that has taken place over the centuries, one thing that still remains as a symbol of pre-civilization African culture is the clay pot. As a Sepedi groom and bride, having a traditional wedding cake that looks like a pot shows how much of the African cultural heritage you love. To give the cake a signature Sepedi look, you can decorate it with Sepedi colors to make it beautiful.
14. White Cake With Pink Veil
This particular Sepedi traditional wedding cake is not your regular white cake decorated Sepedi colors. This is because it speaks more about Sepedi tradition than other cakes that have been mentioned. The cake is carefully beautified with a pink veil, similar to the type of veil Sepedi brides wear over their necks. The lower part of the veil and the cake are also tainted with Sepedi colors to give it a perfect finish.
Sotho Traditional Wedding Cakes
Just like Sepedi or Tswana people, the Sotho tribe also has unique fabrics and patterns, but theirs looks a bit complicated and requires a very skillful baker to blend the colors and come up with a beautiful Sotho traditional wedding cake. In order to play safe, a baker can simply have a white or blue cake, decorated with Sotho fabric. This way, you don’t have to worry about blending so many colors. Here are some beautiful Sotho traditional wedding cake ideas:
15. Sotho Cake Decorated As Different Prints
This Sotho traditional wedding cake may not look so beautiful to the eyes, but the fact that it says so much about Sotho culture makes it a great South Africa traditional wedding cake for the Sotho people.
The cake is carefully decorated to look like different Sotho prints and all prints are wrapped together to show that despite the fact that the prints are not the same, they are still of the same tribe.
16. 3-Step Blue Cake Decorated With Sotho Prints
With the beautiful Sotho traditional prints available, there was certainly no need for the baker to add any more decoration to the cake. Different matching patterns of Sotho prints already make it a Sotho traditional wedding cake.
17. Round Sotho Traditional Wedding Cake
This traditional wedding cake does not only speak so much about the Sotho colors and patterns, but it also speaks volumes about African cultural heritage as a result of the pot used. The golden beads and feathers used in decorating the cake also bring out the beauty of the Sotho prints used in decorating the cake.
Venda Traditional Wedding Cakes
Just like other tribes in South Africa, Venda people also have a rich cultural heritage and unique colors for which the tribe is best known for. Seeing that Venda people are associated with really beautiful colors like blue and red, a baker can be very flexible with the colors to use for a Venda traditional wedding cake. Using the Venda prints on cakes also adds a lot of beauty. Here are some Venda traditional cakes you may like:
18. White And Red Cake
Just like Sepedi people, the Venda people also have loud signature colors like red and yellow, which makes a white color base just perfect. To add more touch of the Venda culture to the cake, it has beautiful red, white, and black patterns on it.
19. White Cake Decorated With Flowers
This Venda traditional wedding cake is simple, as the white base color covers the majority of the cake. However, the Venda pattern decoration at various strategic parts of the cake makes it stand out.
20. 4-Step White Cake Designed With Venda Prints
This cake looks like the regular multi-step white cake until you get to know that the Venda prints used in decorating the cake are actually edible and not real-life fabrics. The cake is simple but beautiful in all aspects.
Tsonga Traditional Wedding Cakes
Tsonga people are known to have a rich cultural and colorful heritage and as a result, most Tsonga traditional wedding cakes are usually very colorful and decorated with very beautiful flowers. A baker who knows how to blend colors will come out with something beautiful when baking and decorating a Tsonga traditional wedding cake. Some Tsonga cake inspiration ideas you may want to consider include:
21. Printed Lower Tier And Flowery Upper Tier
This Tsonga traditional wedding cake will be a great idea if the lady’s traditional wedding attire is a ball gown with the upper part of the gown made of the signature Tsonga flowery traditional prints. Decorating this cake may not be an easy process, as such you want to entrust it into the hands of a good baker.
22. Round Cake With Traditional Pot On Top
What makes a cake unique to any particular tribe is usually the decoration and this particular Tsonga traditional wedding cake speaks volumes of the Tsonga rich and colorful cultural heritage. The decoration on the lower tier is designed with flowers that are unique to Tsonga prints. The pot on top adds more details.
23. The 3-Step Tsonga Cake
This cake is simple but very detailed. The three different layers are decorated with three unique Tsonga colors and the baker has done a great job with blending each color. The flower across all three layers adds more details and gives it a more Tsonga look.
