What does the wedding tradition of handing out pine cones to guests mean?
Wedding cones have reached our contemporaries since ancient times, when the groom and boyar or the bride and girlfriend invited people to the wedding not with the help of cards, but handed special sweet pastries to future guests. Each person who received such an invitation could not refuse the newlyweds and had to attend the wedding. There is another story: every guest who proclaimed a wedding toast in honor of the newlyweds in the old days received sweet wedding pastries as a gift, a kind of attribute.
Nowadays, sweet cones are directly related to the wedding loaf. The newlyweds traditionally give these small buns and a piece of loaf to the guests at the time of presenting gifts. It is believed that during this ritual the bride and groom convey a piece of their happiness and love to the guest, so those invited take such gifts very seriously. And for luck to smile, according to legend, a tasty pine cone must be eaten before the end of the wedding.
Wedding pine cones recipe
To bake cones for a wedding, you do not need to have a special pastry education, because in essence they are the same buns. To make them you will need the following ingredients:
The number of dough components can vary proportionally if necessary, for example, if there are a lot of guests at the holiday, then the norm indicated in the recipe will need to be doubled, or even tripled.
Products for preparing dough for wedding cones
So, if all the necessary products are ready, start cooking.
By the way, it’s very easy to learn how to prepare wedding cones using this video tutorial:
When and how is it customary to present pine cones at a wedding?
Often such a presentation ceremony is performed by the toastmaster at a wedding. But if the newlyweds themselves do this, then they hand the baked cone into the hands of each guest after he has presented his gift. However, there is a point that requires attention: the pine cone is sweet, and so that the guest’s hands do not remain sticky, it is better:
- Do not give buds without packaging. People get their hands and festive clothes dirty, and by the end of the fun the buns may simply dry out.
- Do not wrap the cones when presenting them. using a banal cellophane bag, since it does not look festive, but more like a sale.
If you want to do everything beautifully at your wedding - you have a chic decoration of the banquet hall, expensive wedding dresses, the most delicious dishes have been ordered - then every wedding bump should be packed beautifully. You can wrap it in transparent paper, tie it with a satin ribbon, or add a cute wedding accessory, for example, a small heart or angel.
Some give cones and bonbonnieres to all guests at once, turning off the lights in the hall, and decorate each bun with a candle and light it. All guests are asked to get up from their tables and gather in the center of the hall. The guests are delighted: the hall is filled with romance, the atmosphere is amazing: 40-80 candles are burning at the same time and a quiet romantic melody is playing. Don’t forget to offer each guest a beautiful baking bag after the candles are extinguished.
What do they do for a wedding instead of pine cones?
Giving pine cones as a gift to guests at a wedding is an original Slavic tradition . Those who celebrate in a different style, such as European or Hawaiian, may find the custom inappropriate. In this case, the question arises about replacing fluffy baked goods with something else.
Consider the following alternatives:
By the way, there is a similar tradition in the West. There, as a compliment, it is customary to present guests with bonbonnieres - small boxes of sweets.
Packaging option for a wedding bonbonniere (in which you can put anything)
Another option for a bonbonniere
Wedding bonbonnieres
How to bake a sugar cone - recipe with photo
The fashion for wedding sweet buns is spreading quickly, but not all housewives know how to bake and decorate a bun so that both adults and children at the wedding will like it. In order not to waste money on ordering baked goods from pastry shops, we offer a step-by-step recipe on how to bake a sugar bun. So, we need the ingredients:
- margarine – 300 g;
- milk – 600 ml;
- eggs – 4 pcs.;
- butter – 100 g;
- sugar – 150 g;
- saffron – 1 tsp;
- yeast – 100 g;
- flour – 3 kg;
- vanilla sugar – 1.5 sachets;
- salt – 1 tsp;
- baking powder – 1 sachet.
Cooking method:
- We make the dough: combine the yeast with salt, and then add warm milk, sugar, mix thoroughly. Cover the dough with a towel and place in a warm place for 30 minutes.
- Then slowly add flour to the mixture, grinding it with softened margarine so that the dough is not heavy. To the resulting mass add softened butter, beaten eggs, saffron, baking powder, stirring again.
- The amount of flour needs to be adjusted, because it has different gluten, and the dough should be soft and in no case rubbery.
- The above ingredients should yield 4300 g of finished dough. The weight of one bun is about 100 g. Portions are reduced or increased as necessary.
- To form the wedding bun, divide the dough into equal pieces, rolling them into long sausages.
- We roll it into a snail shape, and then use scissors to make notches along the length of the rope.
- Grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil, placing our buns at a large distance from each other. Place the baking sheet in a warm place so that the products rise.
- Before placing the baked goods in an oven preheated to 200 degrees, grease them with a mixture of sugar, milk, and yolk to provide the sweets with an appetizing crust.
- After 7 minutes of baking, reduce the oven temperature to 160 degrees, leaving the buns there until golden brown.
- Sprinkle the still hot sweets with powdered sugar.
When they give cones
Wedding cones are symbolically connected with the wedding loaf, being, as it were, part of it. Once upon a time, such a loaf was always baked by parents and presented to the newlyweds, being, as it were, their first bread together.
Thus, by sharing pieces of their first bread with the guests, the young people seemed to show their respect to the invited persons. Later, these pieces began to be baked in the form of individual buns.
Another tradition involves presenting wedding cones to guests after they present their gifts or while making toasts to the health of the newlyweds. Thus, the newlyweds symbolically thank the guest, sharing with him a piece of their joy, warmth and love.
In this context, we should not forget that the loaf has symbolized the sun in Rus' since ancient times. The guests, who were presented with a bun-cone, had to eat the presented treat right during the wedding feast.
According to legend, this brings good luck in personal affairs to those who have not yet tied the knot, and consent to the home to those who have already found their soulmate.
Since cones are still sweet pastries, you should take care of how to present them.
To prevent guests from getting their holiday clothes and hands dirty, it is best to pack the baked goods in advance. Transparent paper is perfect for this, complemented by some fashionable accessory - a satin ribbon, a heart, etc. The donation ceremony itself can also be arranged in a romantic setting. Today, not all people understand what the tradition of giving wedding pine cones means.
Therefore, it would be nice if the process of presenting baked goods to guests was played out by a toastmaster, who would tell guests about all the beliefs associated with this pastry.
How to make it yourself: recipes
Preparing cones is quite simple, so if the owners have free time, they can bake this sweet treat with their own hands. This way you can save on your wedding budget: buns you make yourself will cost much less than those ordered from a pastry shop. For baking you will need the following components:
First of all, mix the yeast, salt and sugar, pour it all with warm milk and mix thoroughly.
Leave the dough prepared in this way for half an hour, after which we add flour to it. To make the dough “lighter”, mix the flour with margarine while adding it. Next, add saffron, beaten eggs, a packet of baking powder to the dough and mix everything thoroughly again.
To get a wedding cone, we divide the dough into several identical parts, each of which we roll into a “sausage”. We roll each “sausage” in the shape of a snail. Then we take scissors and cut the snail in the form of identical notches.
Then we place the resulting pieces on a greased baking sheet and send them to the oven, preheated to 200°C. To make the cone buns even more appetizing, you can grease them on top with a mixture of melted butter, sugar, egg yolk and milk.
After 7–8 minutes, reduce the temperature in the oven to 160°C and continue baking until the cones are covered with a fragrant golden crust.
Wedding cones were an indispensable attribute of a wedding back in the 19th century; later this tradition was partially forgotten.
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in folk wedding traditions, including sweet cones. However, today on the festive table there is already a lot of all kinds of sweet dishes - from a wedding cake to various exotic candy bar dishes.
From this video you will learn how to make wedding cones yourself:
Therefore, buns at a wedding celebration may look somewhat anachronistic.
Bonbonnieres can be an excellent alternative to pine cones. These are miniature decorative boxes or bags containing some kind of sweet “compliment” - a mini-cake, a chocolate product, etc.
Source
When they give cones
Wedding cones are symbolically connected with the wedding loaf, being, as it were, part of it. Once upon a time, such a loaf was always baked by parents and presented to the newlyweds, being, as it were, their first bread together.
Thus, by sharing pieces of their first bread with the guests, the young people seemed to show their respect to the invited persons. Later, these pieces began to be baked in the form of individual buns.
Another tradition involves presenting wedding cones to guests after they present their gifts or while making toasts to the health of the newlyweds. Thus, the newlyweds symbolically thank the guest, sharing with him a piece of their joy, warmth and love.
In this context, we should not forget that the loaf has symbolized the sun in Rus' since ancient times. The guests, who were presented with a bun-cone, had to eat the presented treat right during the wedding feast.
According to legend, this brings good luck in personal affairs to those who have not yet tied the knot, and consent to the home to those who have already found their soulmate.
Since cones are still sweet pastries, you should take care of how to present them. To prevent guests from getting their holiday clothes and hands dirty, it is best to pack the baked goods in advance.
Transparent paper is perfect for this, complemented by some fashionable accessory - a satin ribbon, a heart, etc. The donation ceremony itself can also be arranged in a romantic setting. Today, not all people understand what the tradition of giving wedding pine cones means.
Therefore, it would be nice if the process of presenting baked goods to guests was played out by a toastmaster, who would tell guests about all the beliefs associated with this pastry.
