>I find it interesting that English wedding cakes are fruit cakes.

The problem is that the traditonal British Wedding Cake is in three layers with columns holding up the layers, http://www.weddingguide.co.uk as anything other than a fruit cake isn't strong enough. They generally are made with the really firm Royal icing that breaks your teeth if you try to bite into it. The top layer is meant to have the icing removed and kept, so that it can be re-iced for the Christening (as many Christenings take place before the weddings these days it is dying out). All celebration cakes, special birthdays, christenings, Christmas, especially amongst the older generation are generally fruit cakes. We have the expression "nutty as a fruit cake" but it doesn't seem to be as big a joke as in the USA.

I was surprised that traditonal American wedding cakes are sponge cakes but I see that they generally are piled on top of each other without columns, so they don't need to be so strong http://www.weddingbasics.com/images/cakes/cake_2.jpg.

Funny, the more you look at wedding sites, the more attractive eloping to Gretna Green becomes.